ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the defending procedural ethics, and shows that it is part of the wider picture of political liberalism built upon a social contract. It suggests a conception of justice which prescribes an authoritarian government that tends towards neutrality between competing doctrines, and thereby emphasis is placed on free political participation and the protection of fundamental civil and political rights. The chapter argues that the policy decisions regarding scientific evidence and stem cell (SC) research made in the United Kingdom were justified on the grounds of the evaluative procedures employed. It focuses on the contentious destruction and cloning of human embryos for the purpose of deriving SC and looks at the interpretive use of scientific data that is used to justify polemic argument for and against embryo research. The moral conflict has therefore turned to questions of scientific scepticism, and a focus on the possibility for discriminatory critical evaluation.
