Five Framings - One Entity? The Political Ethics of Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Following their initial derivation in 1998, human embryonic stem cells have been
presented in five dominant framings. The original framings as a breakthrough in basic
research and a medical hope were both intended and orchestrated to anticipate
and overrule the old bioethical concerns. The third framing nonetheless questioned
the legitimacy of the bare laboratory research from day one. Two subsequent framings
presented adult stem cells as Nature’s own solution and cloning as Mankind’s technofix
solution, i.e. as alternative points of passages to the ethical concerns, but they did
not succeed to regain the agenda and the public discourse. The five framing are thus
elements of a still unclosed encounter over-determined by (bio)politics. Finally the
framing of “facts” of nature, technological “artefacts” and social “construct” is discussed
in the light of recent interpretations of stem cells as “state” rather than as “entity”, thus
indicating that no single entity is to be found behind the five framings.

Key words: bioethics, biotechnology, stem cells