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... it, or to find ways to diminish it. These commentators argue, therefore, that making use of artificially created embryos for research would not result in the destruction of a greater portion of those embryos than might have died in natural unassisted reproduction... Moreover, they suggest, the high rate of natural embryo loss should bring into question the views of those who believe that early stage human embryos merit equal treatment with human children and adults. If so many die in the natural course of things, how do we not treat natural procreation as a great fountain of tragedy and carnage? (President's n. p. ) The Council understands that miscarriages happen.
The superficial idea is that whenever an abortion occurs, the embryo should be harvested for use in curing living patients. However, the underlying message, which surfaces at the end, is that if nature kills one in four embryos, there is no reason that humans should not be able to do the same. There are even examples of those against abortion that understand the ethics of stem cells. Gorky Orive and her fellow scientists state steadfastly that destroying a human embryo is the destruction of life.
However, they argue the moral grounds that the benefit to using stem cells outweighs the inhumanities of destroying embryos. "The greatest good for the greatest number of people" is a basis for today's medical ethics. If the use of stem cells is immoral in the first place, but these are used to benefit the greater good, the question must be asked whether they should be used. Orive believes this is so. One potential benefit is that if future tests go as predicted, the use of stem cell line could be used to provide regenerative tissue therapy for a near-unlimited number of people. One line for each "stem cell type"-similar to the eight different blood types-could be established to form this source (Orive n. p. ).
While roughly a hundred individuals might never exist to create the base supply of stem cells, the number that could be saved is limitless. Regardless of what moral grounds one follows, a hundred to infinite unborn life termination to lives saved ratio is more than acceptable. Fewer individuals would die if a hundred or so entities were restricted from becoming human beings. According to this practice, these entities would never die in the first place. They would never live as an individual, but they would live on in the patients they healed, as well as living immortally in their undifferentiated state in the Petri dish. These organisms would still exist, simply in a cellular, asexual form.
President George W. Bush made an attempt that has only slightly worked. He has allowed a small amount of federal funding for stem cell lines produced before 9 April 2001 (Thompson n. p. ). This compromise temporarily reduced petitions for a short time. Scientists had stem cells to work with and learn from, and no more fetuses were being destroyed (Goldstein n.
p. ). Unfortunately, these cells were fed by mice feeder-cells. Scientists worked with these to learn as much as they possibly could. This kept their requests for funding for new stem cell lines to a minimum until recently. Today, scientists have learned all they could about these cells, and now require pure lines for study. The federal government has decided to withhold funding for any new stem cell lines, although it has no power to restrict the creation of these lines.
This lack of federal funding has severely limited the scientific world's ability to procure new cell lines. In effect, the federal government is working to destroy the medical world's most promising ability to save lives. Stem cells are needed to save existing lives in the world, and the federal government, regardless of its beliefs has no right to prevent this from happening. The President's Council on Bioethics recently released a report they composed while monitoring stem cell research. The Council addresses and explains in detail both sides of the argument. However, it makes no definite assertion on which way the country should go on the issue.
While there are a few parts that strongly defend stem cells, the Council wishes the people to decide. One of the more open-ended descriptions is as follows: .".. the developing human organism might become deserving of protection as it becomes able to feel pain, or to exhibit neural activity, or rudimentary self-awareness, or some elements of the human form, or the capacity to function independently, or as it progressively exhibits more and more of these criteria. " With the word might inserted into the text, the Council asks each person to make his or her own conclusion. While in the embryo stage of the gestation period, it is nearly impossible to distinguish the human embryo from even that of a fish. Only size is different. Only in the fetus stage does the developing organism begin to show speciation into the final form.
If there is no difference between human and non-human embryos, there are essentially no human qualities to the developing organism. The only difference would be genetic material... a mere chemical in the first place. Therefore, while in the embryo stage, a stage where not one part of the criteria listed by the Council applies, the developing human is not quite human yet. If it is not human, then there is no reason why it cannot be used to save a life. With the heavy resistance in America against stem cells, the country runs the risk of losing its long-held claim to have the most superior medicine.
In Great Britain, the Ministry of Health has publicly-as well as monetarily-endorsed and allowed the study of all embryonic stem cell. With the rest of Europe following the lead of America and moving more toward restricting stem cells, Great Britain has a good chance of becoming the world's leader in medicine (Orive). America has led the way in modern medicine for several decades. The entire country stands to lose this superiority simply because the government allows a few protesters to hold modern medicine back.
Should stem cells become a mainstream practice in Great Britain, then Americans that require stem cell therapy to live will be forced to travel for this. Not only is this a grave inconvenience, it is expensive, and it would be strengthening the British economy instead of America's. In an attempt to avoid the heat from those fighting the embryonic stem cell, scientists have looked for other sources of stem cells. After years of research, they discovered the adult stem cell.
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Research essay sample on Embryonic Stem Cell Stem Cell Lines
