Ethical Assessment of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research According to Turkish Muslim Scholars: First Critical Analysis and Some Reflections Ahmet Karakaya 1 & Ilhan Ilkilic 1 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 Abstract Background Turkey, with a Muslim population of officially over 99 %, is one of the few secular states in the Muslim world. Although state institutions are not based on Islamic juridical and ethical norms, the latter play a significant role in defining people’ s attitudes towards controversial issues in the modern world, especially when backed by opinions of Muslim scholars living in Turkey. Accordingly, opinions of Muslim scholars undoubtedly have an important effect on bioethical decisions made by institutions and individuals. Objective(s) To explore the ethical positions of Muslim scholars living in Turkey and their arguments used in the ethical assessment of embryonic stem cell research; to discuss the biological-moral tensions arising in medical research on human embryos. Design Qualitative study. Setting Muslim scholars located in different parts of Turkey. Methods Qualitative method, involving the collection of opinions of various scholars, by means of 15 individual semi-structured interviews, evaluated using thematic qualita- tive analysis. Results Positions regarding embryonic stem cell research dif- fer among Muslim scholars in Turkey. On the other hand, even where positions are similar, they are often supported by dif- ferent arguments. Conclusion Despite the heterogeneity of the arguments pre- sented, the dominant position considers embryonic stem cell research as morally acceptable. Keywords Human embryonic stem cell research . Islam . TurkishMuslim scholars . Ethics . Moral status of the embryo . Ensoulment Introduction Considering that the Muslim population in Turkey officially includes over 99 % of the citizens, it is unsurprising that civ- ilizational values and religious convictions play a decisive role in formulating ethical positions [1]. Since there is no central- ized religious authority in Turkey, unlike in many Christian countries, individual Muslim scholars have an important im- pact on people’ s attitudes toward controversial bioethical is- sues. This is especially true for a subject matter such as human embryonic stem cells, which promise a wide array of possi- bilities concerning human health, while the related research poses grave moral questions. This paper presents a compre- hensive investigation into this area, the first of its kind, reveal- ing a wide spectrum of ethical opinions on embryonic stem cell research held by Muslim scholars living in Turkey who we knew to have studied this issue. Before delving into the opinions of these scholars, it is important to outline the current legal regulations on stem cells in Turkey briefly. Embryonic stem cell research is not regulated by law in Turkey. In 2005, the Turkish Ministry of Health published a circular, which is still valid for scientific practice, to define the legal framework of embryonic stem cell research in Turkey [2]. In this circular, the Ministry of Health stated that various studies had been conducted on the use of stem cells in medi- cine both in Turkey and elsewhere in the world. Even though the results of these studies were holding great promises re- garding the use of stem cells for the treatment of many dis- eases, they also led to different debates depending on the sources of the stem cells used. The Ministry of Health is * Ilhan Ilkilic ilhan.ilkilic@istanbul.edu.tr 1 Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Department of History of Medicine and Ethics, Istanbul University, Hulusi Behçet Kütüphanesi Kat. 2, 34093 Istanbul, Capa, Turkey Stem Cell Rev and Rep DOI 10.1007/s12015-016-9658-4