Abstract
The paper focuses on analysis of the reflections of the debate about ethical permissibility of embryo-destructive stem cell research in international law. First, the term stem cells is explained and their features and various types are presented.
The author then identifies basic ethical questions related to the topic, i.e. the question of human personhood and ethical approaches to moral judging. After this introduction, the paper presents the norms applicable to the stem cell research embodied in several most important United Nations and Council of Europe documents, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, or the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine.
In these documents, the uses of particular ethical concepts and the answers to the questions asked by ethicists are analysed. Also the relevant European Court of Human Rights case-law is presented.
While the international organizations typically let their Member States make their own decisions in complex and controversial ethical dilemmas, it could be recommended that international law documents reflect the ethical discussion with more precision or depth.