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Ethical and Policy Developments 
search undermines not only medical progress, but the moral 
progress of the community as a whole. While instrumentaliza- 
tion and moral coarsening are real worries, these critics argue, 
long-term fears of a "slippery slope" do not justify renouncing 
the potential of today’s research. Future difficulties, they say, 
can be faced if and when they arrive in earnest. 
Other observers have raised concerns related to the ethical 
and policy debate itself, rather than to the specifics of one 
technique or another, or of one funding policy or another. 
Some, for instance, have argued that what is needed in the 
human embryonic stem cell research debate is not only an ex- 
change of views about the substantive issues (though that is 
surely crucial) but also some sense of the appropriate democ- 
ratic process for deliberation and for establishing appropriate 
public policy on such a profoimdly contentious matter. The 
embryonic stem cell debate, it is argued, offers a valuable op- 
portunity to think through the ways in which the American 
polity debates the most contentious moral issues. Some even 
suggest that such matters should be removed from the politi- 
cal process altogether, and left in the hands of a regulatory 
body specifically charged with monitoring and decision- 
making authority. 
Other observers worry that the promise of embryonic stem 
cell research to bring swift or immediate cures to those who 
are now ailing has been oversold. They point out that, two 
decades ago, similar claims of rapid cures were made on be- 
half of fetal tissue transplantation research, but have not as yet 
been realized (though, of course, the danger of unfulfilled hope 
always looms over medical research). Such talk, some observ- 
ers have argued, tends to raise false hopes, and thus does a 
genuine disservice to the sick and disabled.^®^ Worse, some 
regard it as cruel and immoral to exploit the hopes and fears of 
the desperately ill and their families, especially when — as sev- 
eral scientists in the field have remarked — ^it is not very likely 
that stem cell based remedies will be available for most people 
now suffering from the potentially targeted diseases. This 
moral concern is tied directly to the longstanding bioethical 
principle of truth-telling, which obliges physicians to inform 
their patients honestly about their condition and prognosis 
and encourages researchers to be truthful in their assessments 
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