Trosey Egbujor
Professor Tete
English 1301
October 31, 2014 Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Embryonic stem cell research dose it saves lives? Or killing new life?
Some say it is murder, others say it is not because the embryo is not a living human being until it reaches eight weeks of fertilization. Is it immoral to allow the further destruction of embryos to be used to save one life yet kill another?
Embryonic stem cell research is when scientists suck the entire stem cell from the embryo, terminating and using the stem cell it, to help fight disease like Bone- marrow disease, Parkinson’s and sickle-cell anemia although these disease have had great benefited from the stem cell research one can get the same results from blood found in the umbilical cord and placenta or even bone marrow. It’s immoral to use a living being when other means of research are available and has proven to be useful in the search for a cure in these diseases.
Embryonic stem cell research should not be legal because the embryo is a living human being. There is life in the embryo from the time sperm and egg meet. Life is sacred at all stages of development.
60th human stem cell has been made these sixth embryos which held great promise that could lead to breakthrough therapies and cures. Former president George Bush gave federal money to support research on those lines and funded research on adult stem cells, such as bone marrow, fetal blood cells taken from umbilical cords and other adult stem cells found in skin, muscle and the intestine, and then all would be well.
(Lui) stated “Human embryonic stem cell is often described as master cells able to develop into any other type of cell in the human body” (Lui 2). “Potential sources for human embryonic stem cell include embryo created via in vitro fertilization for either research or reproduction five to nine weeks old embryo or fetuses obtained through elective abortion and embryo created through cloning or somatic cell nuclear transfer” (2).“Stem cell which are derived from adult tissues such as umbilical cord blood or bone marrow are distinct from embryonic stem cell and do not naturally exhibit the same developmental characteristics or behaviors”(2).
In 2007, researchers in Japan and the United States published report that they had successfully induced human somatic cells to exhibit pluripotent characteristics. This advancement notwithstanding many stem cell researchers continue to argue that embryonic stem cell procurement is necessary in order to provide among others things the gold standard against which other means of pluripotent stem cell procurement are measured”( 2,3)“In January of 1999 the General Counselor of Health and Human Services concluded that the Dickey Amendment’s prohibitions against the use of (HHS) appropriated funds for human embryo research would not apply to research using stem cells because such cells are not a human embryo within the statutory definition so (HHS) concluded that (NIH) could not fund research that used stem cells derived from the embryo” (4). Researchers discovered that using cells found in bone marrow, and umbilical cords from the birth of a child proved to work just as well in providing cures for Parkinson’s and sickle-cell anemia disease would not destroying human embryos.
When George Bush was in office as President of the United States the government agreed to provide limited funding for research on the sixth stem cell line created prior to Bush taking office. In 2001 Bush believed that destroying embryos is immoral but since the lines had already been created before he took office he found no reason to curtail the research and using federal money for that would be alright.
However, using federal funds to create new human embryos was out of the question and the federal government position on funding embryonic stem cell research has now changed for the better in the protection of the human
