5th World Conference of Science Journalists

PRODUCER: Chee Chee Leung

CHAIR: Robin Marantz Henig

SPEAKERS: Geoff Carr, Mal Washer, Janet Salisbury, Peter Mountford

SESSION REPORT: Stem cell research: The debate rages

by Robert Frederick

From Plato’s Euthyphro to UNESCO’s Universal Ethics Project, ethicists have failed to define a universal ethic. Unsurprisingly, today’s discussion on the ethics of stem cells would have suffered that same fate. That’s because the controversy itself is not universal, as one Korean delegate stood to say.

But the task of the Stem cells and bioethics session was not to define a universal ethic for how to use stem cells, it was to describe the controversy surrounding their use. And that controversy in some countries — described by panelists as “Western” or “Christian-founded” countries — made for a lively discussion as moderated by U.S. freelancer Robin Marantz Henig.

U.K. businessman Peter Mountford of Stem Cell Sciences argued for open policies that allowed as many scientists as possible to pursue the nascent science because scientists are still “trying to understand what’s normal” among stem cells.

Medical doctor and Member of the Australian Parliament Mal Washer pushed back against Henig’s concern that swapping terms was important. He said that changing from “embryonic stem cell” to “blastocyst” this late in the discussion, for example, would cost him dearly in constituents’ trust, a democratic politician’s most important currency.

Janet Salisbury, doctor of cell biology and founder of Australia’s Biotext consulting firm, stressed that journalists should not assume ignorance of one’s audience or interviewees about the underlying science. “People do inform themselves very well,” she cautioned, even of highly technical matters.

And The Economist’s U.K. science editor Geoff Carr summarized advice for science journalists that all panelists agreed to: arguing the benefits of stem-cell research “is a surrogate for a different [ethical] argument.” Carr urged the audience of about one hundred delegates not to make that substitution, or allow others to do so, but focus on the ethical issues themselves.