TY - JOUR
T1 - Are human embryos Kantian persons?
T2 - Kantian considerations in favor of embryonic stem cell research
AU - Manninen, Bertha
N1 - Funding Information:
I would like to first thank the members of the committee for the Scholarship, Research and Creative Activities Grant at Arizona State University for funding my research during the summer 2007 semester; the majority of the research for this paper was conducted during this time because of the liberties afforded to me by the grant. I also owe much gratitude to Dr. Allen Wood, who read over an earlier version of this paper and who also allowed me to read an early version of his new book Kantian Ethics for this paper. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine whose comments greatly improved the content and arguments in the paper. Many thanks also to the editors of the journal for all their help and support; I am particularly indebted to Dr. Michael Schwartz for all his help and patience. Finally, a personal debt of gratitude is owed to my husband, Tuomas Manninen, for reading over my paper and whose patience makes all my work possible.
PY - 2008/1/31
Y1 - 2008/1/31
N2 - One argument used by detractors of human embryonic stem cell research (hESCR) invokes Kant's formula of humanity, which proscribes treating persons solely as a means to an end, rather than as ends in themselves. According to Fuat S. Oduncu, for example, adhering to this imperative entails that human embryos should not be disaggregated to obtain pluripotent stem cells for hESCR. Given that human embryos are Kantian persons from the time of their conception, killing them to obtain their cells for research fails to treat them as ends in themselves. This argument assumes two points that are rather contentious given a Kantian framework. First, the argument assumes that when Kant maintains that humanity must be treated as an end in itself, he means to argue that all members of the species Homo sapiens must be treated as ends in themselves; that is, that Kant regards personhood as co-extensive with belonging to the species Homo sapiens. Second, the argument assumes that the event of conception is causally responsible for the genesis of a Kantian person and that, therefore, an embryo is a Kantian person from the time of its conception. In this paper, I will present challenges against these two assumptions by engaging in an exegetical study of some of Kant's works. First, I will illustrate that Kant did not use the term "humanity" to denote a biological species, but rather the capacity to set ends according to reason. Second, I will illustrate that it is difficult given a Kantian framework to denote conception (indeed any biological event) as causally responsible for the creation of a person. Kant ascribed to a dualistic view of human agency, and personhood, according to him, was derived from the supersensible capacity for reason. To argue that a Kantian person is generated due to the event of conception ignores Kant's insistence in various aspects of his work that it is not possible to understand the generation of a person qua a physical operation. Finally, I will end the paper by drawing from Allen Wood's work in Kantian philosophy in order to generate an argument in favor of hESCR.
AB - One argument used by detractors of human embryonic stem cell research (hESCR) invokes Kant's formula of humanity, which proscribes treating persons solely as a means to an end, rather than as ends in themselves. According to Fuat S. Oduncu, for example, adhering to this imperative entails that human embryos should not be disaggregated to obtain pluripotent stem cells for hESCR. Given that human embryos are Kantian persons from the time of their conception, killing them to obtain their cells for research fails to treat them as ends in themselves. This argument assumes two points that are rather contentious given a Kantian framework. First, the argument assumes that when Kant maintains that humanity must be treated as an end in itself, he means to argue that all members of the species Homo sapiens must be treated as ends in themselves; that is, that Kant regards personhood as co-extensive with belonging to the species Homo sapiens. Second, the argument assumes that the event of conception is causally responsible for the genesis of a Kantian person and that, therefore, an embryo is a Kantian person from the time of its conception. In this paper, I will present challenges against these two assumptions by engaging in an exegetical study of some of Kant's works. First, I will illustrate that Kant did not use the term "humanity" to denote a biological species, but rather the capacity to set ends according to reason. Second, I will illustrate that it is difficult given a Kantian framework to denote conception (indeed any biological event) as causally responsible for the creation of a person. Kant ascribed to a dualistic view of human agency, and personhood, according to him, was derived from the supersensible capacity for reason. To argue that a Kantian person is generated due to the event of conception ignores Kant's insistence in various aspects of his work that it is not possible to understand the generation of a person qua a physical operation. Finally, I will end the paper by drawing from Allen Wood's work in Kantian philosophy in order to generate an argument in favor of hESCR.
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U2 - 10.1186/1747-5341-3-4
DO - 10.1186/1747-5341-3-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 18237425
AN - SCOPUS:40649119716
SN - 1747-5341
VL - 3
JO - Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine
JF - Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine
IS - 1
M1 - 4
ER -