256 
Monitoring Stem Cell Research i 
Francis Fukuyama has argued that a new agency with a mandate to 
regulate biotechnology on broad grounds and in both the public and 
private sector may be needed (Fukuyama, 2002, 215). Vanessa Kuhn 
argues that "it is time to put in place legislation that will deter 
stakeholders from licensing their technology to one exclusive 
distributor and thus creating a monopoly market, which would set 
artificially-high prices and lead to less access for the sick especially 
for the uninsured, the poor, and the elderly" (Kuhn, 2002). To that 
end, Kuhn identifies four possibilities: 
• Development of a new kind of patent. 
• Set limits on exclusive licensing through compulsory 
licensing. 
• Lower the lifespan of hES cell patents 
• Set stricter guidelines for hES patent utility (2) 
I do not have the expertise to make policy recommendations, but 
let me stress two points. First, the policy issues with regard to 
commodifiying adult stem cell work will be as vexing as those 
confronting regulation of embryonic stem cells. Second, although 
these questions may at first appear to be strictly legal or largely 
political matters, they involve serious value judgments about the 
common good that are every bit as morally vital as questions about 
the status of the embryo. I thus agree with Gene Outka, that not to 
confront directly questions about how stem cell research will be 
organized, financed, and overseen is a kind of ethical failure (Outka, 
2002, 177). Obviously, for example, the institutional arrangements for 
conducting stem cell research have implications for the questions of 
justice we previously noted. The fact that so much stem cell 
research is being done by private corporations insures future conflict. 
On the one hand, corporations have fiduciary obligations to their 
shareholders and will therefore seek to control access to stem cell 
lines or therapies developed from those lines through patent 
protection and licensing agreements. On the other hand, such a 
system is likely to further widen the gap between the health care 
haves and have-nots (See Lebacqz 2001; McLean 2001). 
Moreover, as Karen Lebacqz notes, if justice is an important 
consideration in deliberations about stem cell work, then it ought to 
shape the research agenda. The example she gives to make this 
point is worth noting. Just as with organ transplants, tissue 
rejection may be a major problem for stem cell therapies. This is one 
reason that the prospect of combining stem cell work with somatic 
PRE -PUBLICATION VERSION 
