Stem Cell Technologies 1998-2008: Controversies And Silences

摘要

In May 2001, the Prime Minister of the German Land of North Rhine-Westphalia, Wolfgang Clement, created a lot of political heat. A brief overseas excursion led to an outcry of representatives from almost every political party and a media frenzy that left the Prime Minister and his family in need of police protection. What had Clement done? Had he smuggled drugs, embezzled money, or had an illicit affair? Clement's 'crime' had been of a very different sort altogether. Together with a scientific team he had travelled to Israel to explore a potential collaboration between the University of Bonn and the University of Haifa in human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research. It was an academic fieldtrip that was to have dramatic and long-lasting political consequences for both the PM and, as some might argue, for Germany as a whole.