Human embryonic stem cell research, justice, and the problem of unequal biological access

In 2003, Ruth Faden and eighteen other colleagues argued that a "problem of unequal biological access" is likely to arise in access to therapies resulting from human embryonic stem cell research. They showed that unless deliberate steps are taken in the United States to ensure that the human embryonic stem cell lines available to researchers mirrors the genetic diversity of the general population, white Americans will likely receive the benefits of these therapies to the relative exclusion of minority ethnic groups. Over the past five years the problem of unequal biological access has not received much attention from politicians, bioethicists and even many researchers in the United States, in spite of the widely held belief in the country that there is an obligation to prevent and correct ethnic disparities in access to medical care. The purpose of this paper is to increase awareness of the problem of unequal biological access and of the need to do more than is currently being done to ensure that ethnic disparities in access to human embryonic stem cell-based therapies do not arise. Specifically, this paper explains why the problem of unequal biological access will likely arise in the United States in such a way that white Americans will disproportionately receive most of the benefits of the therapies resulting from human embryonic stem cell research. It also argues for why there is an obligation to prevent these ethnic disparities in access from happening and outlines four steps that need to be taken towards meeting this obligation.