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Ethical and Policy Developments 
age as potentially non-viable. Although those embryos are not 
yet dead and, if thawed, would still exhibit some cellular func- 
tion, some would be unlikely to survive even were transfer at- 
tempted. Since IVF procedures usually produce more embryos 
than can be transferred at one time, goes the argument, the 
clinicians choose for transfer those among the available em- 
bryos that look "the best" and seem most likely to survive and 
develop — so that those that are frozen are those deemed less 
likely to develop. Moreover, by applying similar judgment to 
the unimplanted embryos, we might identify those that would 
be least likely to survive even under the most favorable cir- 
cumstances. These embryos might then reasonably be re- 
garded as non-viable and therefore available for research since 
their use will not disrupt a potential life.^^® 
There has not been much direct reaction to this view in the 
ongoing ethical debates. Yet some observers have noted, in 
other contexts, that the techniques used to identify which IVF 
embryos are more or less likely to develop successfully — 
estimates based usually on visual assessment of the em- 
bryos — have never been proven effective or even tested to as- 
certain their validity. Moreover, some argue, the true viabil- 
ity of cloned human embryos or of cryogenically stored em- 
bryos could not be determined in advance without attempting 
to implant them.^"*® 
4. Creation of Non-Viable Embryo-Like Artifacts. 
Others, seeking to by-pass altogether the issue of viability, 
propose the possibility of creating a biological entity that can- 
not rightly be called a living organism, yet that has the generic 
organic powers necessary to produce embryonic stem cells. 
They suggest that somatic cell nuclear transfer, or a similar 
technique, could be used to create an entity that lacks, by de- 
sign, the qualities and capabilities essential to be designated 
a human life in process. By intentional alteration of the somatic 
cell nuclear components or the cytoplasm of the oocyte into 
which they are transferred, researchers may be able to con- 
struct an "artifact" that is biologically (and morally) more akin 
to cells in tissue culture, but could still provide a source of 
functional human embryonic stem cells. Proponents of this 
PRE-PUBLICATION VERSION 
