[Ideological conflicts leading to regulation of investigation with embryonic stem cells]

Human stem cells, particularly embryonic, have huge therapeutic potential to many degenerative diseases, so they are the subject of intense research in many countries. Because obtaining human stem cells involves the use of zygotes obtained by in vitro fertilization, when they arrive in the blastocyst stage, ethical issues arise that some groups considered insurmountable; in Mexico to date it has not been possible to established a law or rule that regulates the issue. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ideological conflicts that have led to this situation, and about the light a judgment delivered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights may shed on a democratic and secular legislation.