Related to Saturday’s post on the use of discarded foreskins, consider:
… Dr Indira Hinduja once again became the first Indian scientist to use human feeder layer as medium to develop three human embryonic stem cell lines.
…“We conduct our research strictly adhering to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Guidelines and the embryos are taken for research with the full consent of both the husband and wife and are documented legally,” she said.
“We also take the necessary consent of the parents as well as the surgeons concerned for the human feeder as they are taken from foreskin when the circumcision is done in children between new born and up to five years”, Hinduja said.
I can think of considerations that would make this less troublesome, but they’re unlikely, so I will ignore them here. Guidelines are good, though, and acknowledging the use of the discarded foreskin through a consent form is commendable. However, whose consent is missing from this equation?