Embryonic Stem Cells

Stem cell research is probably the best hope of curing disease like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, spinal cord injuries, heart disease, and cancer. We agree that stem research will be beneficial to man kind but disagree with embryonic stem cell research. There are clearly more ways to find cures with stem cell research other than sacrificing life. President Bush had said "the more people are finding out about embryonic stem cell research the less certain they are about the right ethical and moral conclusions". We have come up with 8 contentions on why using adult stem cells other than embryonic stem cells is safer, as effective, and doesn't cross the line of killing others to benefit the rest of us.

Contentions:

1. Human life must be terminated in order to obtain embryonic stem cells. According to J.C. Willke, a medical doctor, and many doctors like him, human life begins at the union of sperm and ovum. The newly fertilized egg begins as a single celled human body, but quickly divides until it is made up of hundreds of cells by the end of just one week. Now termed a blastocyst, this living embryo is cut open and the stem cells are extracted thus killing potential human life. These human embryos can not speak for themselves, and are at the mercy of unproven science. They are not given the chance become a living, breathing human being. Embryonic researchers are no longer experimenting with human tissue; they are experimenting with human life, at the expense of an innocent embryo. Are President George W Bush is agents this idea of sacrificing life to save life. I have a quote here from Ronal Reagan when he was still in office in 1983. We cannot diminish the value of one category of human life, The Unborn without diminishing the value of all human life.

2. Adult stem cells are just as good as embryonic stem cells. Researchers believe that embryonic stem cell research will be the best way to find cures, because embryonic stem cell can change into any tissue type in the human body and they divide quickly into other cells because they are so young. According to scientist Catherine Verfaillie from the University of Minnesota Medical School, says that bone marrow stem cells can produce all tissue types. In some cases the subjects immune system destroys the embryonic stem cells thinking that it's a virus because it's a foren object in there body. If you use your own adult stem cells your immune system would never reject them.

3. Embryonic stem cells have not cured anyone yet. In South Korea last year in November a, 37 year old woman named Hwang Mi Soon was finally able to walk after 19 years of being bedridden. They took stem cells from the blood of an umbilical cord and gave it to Hwang to cure her spinal cord injuries. The success of adult stem cell research raises questions on whether it's necessary to try to still support embryonic stem cell research. If only Christopher Reeve was still alive he could have had this treatment done for him too. If you don't know embryonic stem cells have not cured or helped anyone even after more than two decades of research. So while adult stem cell research has made great progress and will continue to have, what is the point of pushing and supporting embryonic stem cell research which is unethical and has zero cures?

4. Embryonic stem cells can sometimes overgrow and turn into cancer or tumors. Embryonic stem cells have the potential for dividing very quickly because they are at a very early stage of life. Sometimes the rapid growth of these cells become uncontrollable for researchers to handle and can develop into cancer or a lethal tumor in the subjects body. Using adult stem cells would never have this problem because they are always a controlled growth.

Conclusion:

Everyone here in this room was once a simple embryo. From the first cell stage you were everything you are now, you were already determined whether you were a boy or a girl, how tall you would be, what race you are, and the color of your hair and eyes. At about a week and a half the embryo begins to have a heartbeat, and three weeks after that brain waves can be measured. You were all there at the beginning and to sacrifice an embryo for its stem cells is nothing short of murder.

5. How far will embryonic research go? Women become purposely pregnant in order to sell their embryos for stem cell research. Since scientists keep promoting how wonderful embryonic stem cells will be able to cure a long list of diseases, people may one day want to clone themselves in embryonic form. This unborn human life would be sacrificed if ever there was a need by its living twin.