Overview of the Moral Status of iPS Cells

The production of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells in 2006 by Takahashi and Yamanaka was a major breakthrough in stem cell research. IPS cells technology holds great promise for cell therapy, disease modelling, and drug testing, but it poses ethical questions concerning the moral status of somatic cells, which can re-gain pluripotency (iPS cells). This article provides an overview of the arguments that substantiate the debate on the moral assessment of iPS cells: potentiality argument; relational properties/standard view; and genetic basis for moral status.