Stephen E. Levick is on the science advisory board and the speaker's bureau of the Genetics Policy Institute. He has a private practice in psychiatry in Philadelphia, where he is also clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.Trained clinically at Case Western Reserve and at Yale, Dr. Levick also did a research fellowship at NYU Medical Center. He has published articles on lateral asymmetries of brain function, and on psychotherapy. In recent years, Dr. Levick has focused his attention on cloning and stem cells, authoring Clone Being: Exploring the Psychological and Social Dimensions (Rowman and Littlefield, 2004), the only book published to date on the subject from the psychological perspective. His letters regarding the ethics of embryonic stem cells have appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, The New York Times, Wired, and The Nation.

Presentation 1: If I were you: the psychology of human clones and cloning

If human cloning for reproduction becomes possible and relatively safe medically, would it be ethical? Answering that question requires us to try to anticipate cloning's psychological, social, and societal consequences. Most discussions of these non-medical dimensions of cloning begin and end with identical twins -- clones of one another by embryo splitting. But, there are major deficiencies with twins as an analogue of cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer. The book, Clone Being: Exploring the Psychological and Social Dimensions (Rowman and Littlefield, 2004) thoroughly examines identical twins as a model, and also explores other situations germane to the psychological and social dimensions of cloning. Altogether, eight models are built from research, theory and clinical experience with the following: 1) identical twins, 2) assisted reproductive technologies, 3) stepchildren, 4) adoption, 5) parent-child resemblance, 6) children of famous parents, 7) the "replacement child," and 8) namesakes. Though no one model can stand alone, coming from different directions, the diverse models converge to suggest that a human clone would be at increased risk of psychological harm. To understand why some would like to reproductively clone humans, we must identify and try to understand the spectrum of possible motives for it -- both conscious and unconscious. To the extent that cloning to derive embryonic stem cells for therapeutic purposes partially satisfies these motives, it would also be an ethically acceptable alternative to reproductive cloning.

Presentation 2: Empathically Imagining the Blastocyst: Implications for the Ethics of Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Embryonic stem cell research (ECSR) is anathema to religious dogma that asserts that the embryo is a person, with a self or soul, from the time of conception. This is because the process of extracting those cells from the blastocyst stage destroys the embryo. And yet, some who might have opposed ESCR on such grounds have amended their views as an empathic response to those who might benefit medically from it. How may we understand the empathic imaginings of the blastocyst, a tiny ball of cells bearing no resemblance to the human form? To those favoring ESCR, the stem cells within the blastocyst represent hope for better treatments and even cures for specific suffering individuals. An afflicted celebrity occupies both the public and private empathic imagination, and also represents individuals with whom we are intimately acquainted as victims of the same disorder. Those opposed to ECSR are also not focused empathically on the blastocyst, per se, but on the fetus they imagine it would become, if implanted - a vulnerable, helpless, but perfect unborn individual. The blastocyst exists in competing social and highly individual psychological realities. What it means to each of us individually and collectively is a function of the associations and mental images we project onto it. Cognizance of one's own and others empathic imaginings of the blastocyst is necessary to defuse certain dangerous ideas regarding ECSR.