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Embryo futures and stem cell research: the management of informed uncertainty

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 16:09 authored by Kathryn Ehrich, Clare Williams, Bobbie FarsidesBobbie Farsides, Rosamund Scott
In the social worlds of assisted conception and stem cell science, uncertainties proliferate and particular framings of the future may be highly strategic. In this article we explore meanings and articulations of the future using data from our study of ethical and social issues implicated by the donation of embryos to human embryonic stem cell research in three linked assisted conception units and stem cell laboratories in the UK. Framings of the future in this field inform the professional management of uncertainty and we explore some of the tensions this involves in practice. The bifurcation of choices for donating embryos into accepting informed uncertainty or not donating at all was identified through the research process of interviews and ethics discussion groups. Professional staff accounts in this study contained moral orientations that valued ideas such as engendering patient trust by offering full information, the sense of collective ownership of the National Heath Service and publicly funded science and ideas for how donors might be able to give restricted consent as a third option.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Sociology of Health and Illness

ISSN

0141-9889

Publisher

Blackwell Publishing

Issue

1

Volume

34

Page range

114-129

Department affiliated with

  • Clinical and Experimental Medicine Publications

Notes

Article in press.

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2011-08-26

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