Ethical Aspects of Tissue Engineering: A Review

• Published in: Tissue engineering. Part B, Reviews Vol. 14; no. 4; pp. 367 - 375
• Main Authors: de Vries, Rob B.M., Oerlemans, Anke, Trommelmans, Leen, Dierickx, Kris, Gordijn, Bert
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Mary Ann Liebert, Inc 01.12.2008
• Subjects: Altruism; Analysis; Animals; Bioethics; Clinical Trials as Topic - standards; Cloning, Organism - standards; Embryonic Stem Cells - cytology; Embryonic Stem Cells - physiology; Ethical aspects; Ethics, Medical; Health aspects; Humans; Informed Consent; Periodicals as Topic; Research - standards; Tissue and Organ Procurement; Tissue engineering; Tissue Engineering - methods; Tissue Engineering - standards; Transplantation, Heterologous - standards; United States
• ISSN: 1937-3368; 1937-3376
• DOI: 10.1089/ten.teb.2008.0199

Tissue engineering (TE) is a promising new field of medical technology. However, like other new technologies, it is not free of ethical challenges. Identifying these ethical questions at an early stage is not only part of science's responsibility toward society, but also in the interest of the field itself. In this review, we map which ethical issues related to TE have already been documented in the scientific literature. The issues that turn out to dominate the debate are the use of human embryonic stem cells and therapeutic cloning. Nevertheless, a variety of other ethical aspects are mentioned, which relate to different phases in the development of the field. In addition, we discuss a number of ethical issues that have not yet been raised in the literature.