Donation of supernumerary oocytes for the derivation of nuclear transfer stem cells, in return for the promise of future therapeutic benefits: ethical and moral obligations of medical professionals to the patient.

摘要

Recent advances in human therapeutic cloning made by Hwang et al. have opened up new avenues of therapy for various human diseases. However, a major bottleneck in the further advancement of this technology is the severe shortage of human donor oocytes for somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) research. Supernumerary oocytes from patients undergoing clinically assisted reproduction represent a promising pool of donated material for SCNT research, but very often patients are reluctant to donate because these oocytes can potentially be used to improve their chances of conception. A possible strategy to persuade donation from patients may be to promise them future therapeutic benefit, through the creation of patient-specific embryonic stem cell lines from their donated oocytes and somatic cells (i.e. cumulus-granulosa)