Life Giving Cells

Life Giving Cells

Life Giving Cells
Stem cells.   They are the most basic cells in the body.   When an embryo begins to develop, stem cells in its body are blank.   They may become a hair cell, a heart cell, or maybe even a brain cell.   The stem cells can be removed from the embryos and used to find cures and save lives.   The debate about stem cell research is whether it is ethical to use embryos in scientific research.   There are some who would like to ban embryonic stem cell research altogether.   Banning stem cell research, however, would prohibit future medical advancements and result in the loss of countless lives.
Many who oppose stem cell research, claim that it is unethical and immoral to create life, then destroy it for the sake of science.   Pro-life supporters, who believe that the embryo is a human person, feel that manipulating and killing a human embryo accounts to nothing short of murder.   They feel that during cloning, embryos are treated as a commodity and not as a living human being.   To them, harvesting embryos in hopes of   “potentially” saving lives is illogical.   They don’t believe the “possible” end justifies the means and that it is merely man’s attempt at “playing God,” through the unnatural process of asexual reproduction.   They also believe that there is no need to use stem cells from an embryo when adult stem cells can be used instead.
Although stem cell research will involve the creation and destruction of embryos, the resulting benefits will far outweigh the cost in both quality of life and future lives saved.  
The most prominent and perhaps the most acceptable reason given for embryonic stem cell research is its potential use in preventative medicine.   A few cells from an embryo could be genetically analyzed to detect harmful mutation or predisposition towards disorder, at which point action could be taken to prevent it.   In 1993, the gene that causes Huntington's Disease was located, and scientists are currently trying to determine its...