My Working Day: Sorcha Uí Chonnachtaigh, researcher in bioethics at the Regenerative Medicine Institute (Remedi), NUI Galway, says it is very important to get everyone involved in the stem cell debate.
I'm in the final year of my PhD at Remedi, where I'm looking at the ethical considerations of stem cell research in the context of Ireland.
I have been looking at different historical, social and political events and how they inform the way we make our moral decisions. I also keep abreast of current events and international developments. I am involved with Remedi's ethical outreach programme for schools, which is aimed at the older student group, mostly the senior cycle.
My background is in philosophy and equality studies. I have a lot to learn in terms of the science, but working among scientists and engineers at Remedi is a benefit.
On a personal level, I meet a lot of people who are interested in embryonic stem cell research and know there are issues involved.
Cord blood has come up a lot recently because it was in the media. People will ask whether it's possible to get stem cells from cord blood and should we be banking. There's a whole host of issues that come up.
People have concerns about embryonic stem cells, but more and more people are thinking if it was their children who needed the benefits of the research how would they feel about it then. People tend to personalise the issues to get to grips with it.
For the schools' outreach work we have facilitated discussions and prepared teams to take part in a debating competition. Children in Ireland are becoming more aware of everything. They are so informed it's scary sometimes.
Their way of thinking is so sophisticated. It's really refreshing and they bring up very interesting things and they hold varied positions.
Nearly all of them would know somebody who has a terminal illness or one where quality of life is seriously compromised. Stem cell research has been touted as combating those conditions and they are very aware of that fact.
One of the things that is really important for bioethics is to contribute to debate, make sure that it's balanced and informed and that these issues aren't just decided by politicians or scientists. It's very important to get everybody involved.
On a given day I could be doing anything, from going to a conference or giving a talk to scientific researchers at Remedi about current developments or on the moral status of the embryo in IVF. Or I could be preparing an in-house survey on attitudes toward embryonic stem-cell research.
There are lots of practical things that I do and then there's the hard-graft philosophy where I have to sit down and think about it, and for that I might be at home or in the library. I also meet for updates with my supervisor, Dr Richard Hull of the centre of bioethical research and analysis.
I really enjoy the practical outlet of the ethical outreach activity. In a PhD your thesis is a long-term project, but the outreach brings very short-term rewards. It's very thought-provoking as well as being a bit of fun and a break from the reading and thinking.
The most challenging thing is that bioethics is still a new area of research in Ireland and it would be great if there were more bioethicists around. But the nice thing about it is that I am at the beginning of an emerging discipline and it's a privilege to be involved. To see it grow in the future will be great.
