Stem Cell Research
...ective on treating diseases. The study of human development also benefits greatly from stem cell research because the earliest stages of life are very difficult or impossible to study. Understanding the first stages of a zygotes development plays a role in detecting and possibly preventing birth defects, infertility and even the loss of a pregnancy. Also understanding how the human zygote grows naturally can help detect chemical and drug related embryonic illness and defects. Many diseases such as Parkinson’s and diabetes is caused by a failure or abnormality of one type of only a few cell types. If we replaced the faulty cells with healthy stem cells, the disease might vanish. At the same time, as one gets old, major organs start to become weak and sick and may even fail. Using stem cells, we could inject fresh, new and young cells in their place and the organ would have the ability to work normally again. The controversial side to this is why not use adult stem cells. Why does it always have to be embryonic stem cells. In adults, the cells have already found a place, and are not interchangeable between organs and different parts of the body. Only a few cell types such as the skin and cartilage cells have stem cells at all. And even then, skin cells can only become skin cells and cartilage cells can only become cartilage cells. The vital organs such as the heart, liver and lungs do not have stem cells, if a part of that organ is damaged, scar tissue grows in its place. Only the embryonic stem cells have the ability to grow into any cell, even the vital organ cells. Adult stem cells have other limitations as well. Embryonic stem cells have the ability to grow infinitely in a lab atmosphere whereas adult stem cells have a very hard time growing, and this extremely reduced ability reduces even more depending on the age of the original cells. This topic is a very controversial topic with many viewpoints. Many pro-life activists believe that stem cell research is morally wrong and is in fact killing a child. According to the Catholic church, “Stem-cell research in itself is not wrong, but creating and/or destroying human life in order to "mine" stem cells is”. The pope also said, "Human embryos obtained in vitro are human beings and are subjects with rights; their dignity and right to life must be respected from the first moment of their existence. It is immoral to produce human embryos destined to be exploited as disposable 'biological material’”. Many pro-life activists believe that stem cell research is almost the same as abortion in that they are killing human embryos for research purposes. Many scientists clone the embryos to do multiple tests on the same subject, which is also a very controversial issue. Although there are many people against stem cell research, there are also many people for it. On doctor, who justifies this research puts it a little harsh, but right to the point. He basically says that in our ...