The Science: Embryonic stem cell research has a great deal of potential. The estimate of lives it can save is over 100 million people, all suffering from diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, leukemia, or conditions such as being paralyzed. The potential of these stem cells is being restricted by laws against their use in research. While they have not been tested in vivoyet, it is widely believed that they can solve many problems that other types of stem cells cannot do. It is also much easier to use embryonic stem cells than any other kind, as adult stem cells are much harder to acquire and induce to be pluripotent. Time is being wasted deliberating the effectualness of adult stem cells while perfectly usable embryonic stem cells that would never be able to grow into human beings are being thrown out daily.
The Ethics: Embryonic stem cells most often used in research are the leftovers in fertility clinics, the extra when a couple successfully has a child and there are more embryos left. When these are not used, they are most often thrown out and go to waste. The living who are suffering from many different types of conditions that could be cured or at the very least alleviated with the knowledge that stem cell research could give us need more help than the ideals that are protected every time an embryo- a three-day-old clump of 100 cells, without a brain or a heart, and very little specifically human about it- not lucky enough to be used in fertility treatments is thrown out rather than experimented on.
Anti-Research:
The Science: Adult stem cells are a better choice to use for research and therapy. They can replace embryonic stem cells very easily because they can be retrieved from the person who needs them, thereby reducing the risk of rejection inherent in embryonic cells that do not come from the person who needs them, and they also do not have the ability of embryonic stem cells to divide indefinitely, so tumors that are created when that happens, referred to as teratomas, are not thought to happen in patients whose treatment involves adult stem cells. Also, embryonic stem cells aren’t the only ones that are pluripotent. Induced pluripotent stem cells- adult stem cells that have been modified to become pluripotent- are a viable possibility and have been shown to yield positive results, with very close to if not exactly the same capabilities as embryonic pluripotent stem cells.
The Ethics: A human is a human no matter its age, at three days past conception or a fully grown adult. An embryo of 100 cells is still an embryo, with the potential to grow into a human being, and to take away that potential is tantamount to murder. As a human being, the embryo has rights, too, and those rights cannot be ignored- it is wrong to experiment on that embryo, just as it is wrong to experiment on a fully grown human being without consent. Also, when a use such as curing cancer or other diseases is found, the demand will go up, as opposed to the fact that they are just needed for research at the moment. Fertility clinics will not be able to handle that demand just from leftovers- and new, even less humane ways of creating embryos for medicinal purposes will be created.
