ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a bio-object that has pushed and prodded the boundaries for the understanding of both the conception and continuation of life the human embryonic stem cell (hESC). Bio-objects are embodiments of knowledge-in-the-making that challenge existing taxonomies. The concept captures the idea of a material-epistemic vessel that navigates and transcends different boundaries and contexts, with ontic consequences like laboratory, banking, clinical or political arenas. Embryonic stem cells are extra potent they have a very wide developmental capacity. Pluripotency as a defining and demarcating trait of the hESC bio-object was thus originally articulated in a specific regulatory and political context. When the embryonic cells originated from mice only, their inherent developmental capacity remained ethically unproblematic and experimental practices followed a proof of principle logic. The mouse embryonic stem cell was however the template model those scientists used to extrapolate conjectures regarding hESCs and when speculating in regard to the cells developmental capacity.
