Stem Cell Research BY: Katie Sevacko

What are human embryonic stem cells? Stem cells are cells that have potential to develop into many other types of cells in the body, after the Cell divides, it can either remain a stem cell or become a different type of cell, like a muscle cell or a brain cell. www.stemcells.nih.gov

Where do the Scientists get the cell? Stem cells are extracted from very young human embryos -- typically from surplus frozen embryos left over from in-vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures at fertility clinics. The parents face four choices at these fertility clinics, they can have them discarded, or donate the embryos to another infertile couple, they can also Donate the embryos for research or have the embryos preserved at very low temperatures; Most Couples have them discarded because they don’t like the idea of somebody else having their baby, however there are some couples that donate them for research. http://www.religioustolerance.org/res_stem.htm

Why is Stem Cell research such a problem? Many Pro-life organizations believe that . They feel that a few-days-old embryo is a human person. Extracting its stem cells kills the embryo – which is considered to be Murder. Many Pro-choice organizations believe that it is okay for stem cell research because it can help an already living Person, with their dieses such as diabetes, and some types of cancer. http://usliberals.about.com/od/stemcellresearch

The Presidents Stand http://usgovinfo.about.com/blwhrelease16.htm On January 26, 2001, President Bush spoke about the issue. "I believe there's some wonderful opportunities for adult stem cell research," he told reporters. "I believe we can find stem cells from fetuses that died a natural death. But I do not support research from aborted fetuses." The U.S. Congress has banned federal financing for research in which human embryos are harmed or destroyed. Opponents of embryonic stem cell research point out that the research ends up destroying the embryo, so therefore government grants shouldn't be used to support it. http://usgovinfo.about.com/blwhrelease16.htm

Are these frozen embryos human life? A researcher said he believes this five-day-old cluster of cells is not an embryo, not yet an individual, but a pre-embryo. stated that it has the potential for life, but it is not a life because it cannot develop on its own. Pro-life organizations are trying to prove this wrong because they believe that it is a life form the day it becomes conceived

If human embryos are going to be destroyed anyway, shouldn't they be used for a greater good? Many argue these embryos are byproducts of a process that helps create life, and we should allow couples to donate them to science so they can be used for good purpose instead of wasting their potential. Others will argue there's no such thing as excess life, and the fact that a living being is going to die does not justify experimenting on it or exploiting it as a natural resource.

Is taking the stem cell of an embryo really Murder? In order to get the stem cell out of an embryo, the embryo is preserved and fed with nutrients to get it bigger so that the scientist can see the stem cells inside. Many people argue over this issue that it is considered murder because of the simple fact that it is being kept alive for a few extra days before the cells are finally extracted.

Why not use Adult Stem cells? Adult stem cells are found in all tissues of the growing human being and, also have the potential to transform themselves into practically all other cell types. Although Adult stem cells are a lot more effective then the embryonic stem cells, they are harder to find and are more rare to find a cell still in the first stage. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-09/

Stem Cell research creates another problem… If we allow Stem cell Research to progress, Many Scientist will further their experiments and try Cloning humans, incase in the future a human needs a heart transplant for example, instead of being put on a waiting list, they can just use his second heart ((which was cloned, and is the exact copy of his original heart)) Many People, mostly republicans believe that Cloning is Morally and ethically wrong, and that it decreases the value of human Life, and that if cloning becomes successful then it will essentially tear the world apart, because of everybody's different beliefs. The bill, H.R. 2505-Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001 has made Cloning a Federal crime. http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa080101a.htm

Questions Do you feel that we should Continue with the research of stem cells from embryos? Do you believe that Taking the stem cells from an embryo is considered murder? Do you think that the government should be funding Stem cell research? Do you think that we should stop with steam cell research all together so that scientists would not be able to clone? If we don’t stop stem cell research do you believe that Scientist will try and eventually clone a human, or just human organs?

Solution I believe that we should stop embryonic stem cell research, because I do believe that it is considered an act of murder. However I believe that we should allow Adult stem cell research even though the cells are a lot harder to find, it doesn’t kill the patient, they just get bone marrow extracted.