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Monitoring Stem Cell Research 
Thus the ontological status of the embryo is not the 
only thing in question. The ontological status of the 
graft recipient must be negotiated, when the graft 
involves genetically-engineered stem cells from 
another species. And the ontological status of the 
illnesses to which biomedical technology responds is 
equally challenged, in an endless regression, as the 
division between veterinary and human medicine, or 
between zoonoses (diseases humans can catch from 
animals) and what has recently been dubbed 
humanooses . is called into question. This 
increasingly permeable, increasingly constructed 
barrier between human and animal presents us with 
another form of life to negotiate, whose boundary lies 
not between silicon and carbon, but rather between 
steps in the evolutionary ladder or the branching 
development tree of phylogenetic lifeforms. Stem cell 
technologies thus challenge both the temporal and 
spatial boundaries of human life, both our biography 
and our biological niche, giving a much broader 
meaning to the questioning of embryonic 
personhood . (Waldby and Squier, forthcoming) 
Regrettably, with some notable exceptions, the ethical debate 
about stem cell research has not taken up in a sustained way what it 
would mean to pursue stem cell therapies that might significantly 
undermine the notion of a natural human life or erode the boundary 
between human and non-human species. When the issue is framed 
in terms of the status of the embryo, the question tends to be 
whether the research should be conducted at all. By contrast, when 
the issue is framed in terms of adult stem cell work, the question is 
not whether, but how and with what consequences. Yet, that is a 
question we have not systematically answered. Given the potential 
for good embedded in the prospects of adult stem cell research, it is 
not surprising that there appears to be widespread and largely 
uncritical acceptance of adult stem cell research. But, if the promise 
of stem research is as revolutionary as is often claimed, we are going 
to need a much more expansive discussion of stem cell research both 
embryonic and adult than we have had heretofore. Obviously, I 
carmot explore this more expansive horizon in any detail in this 
report, but let me in closing suggest one direction we need to 
explore. 
PRE -PUBLICATION VERSION 
