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Stem Cell Plight

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Stem Cell Plight
The world of medicine will be revolutionized by stem cell research. This revolution could bring about utter disaster or life changing miracles; it all lies in the hands of humans. Stem cell research is believed to have potential that can give rise to medical breakthroughs by answering the daunting questions that illnesses and disease bring. Yet, with all of the static that stem cell research can create these predictions are just that, and stem cell research could possibly cause more harm than good. Therefore, in order to protect the fate of humans we must limit our research in this field, for we know nothing of its true nature. Every organ in the human body is composed of tissue, and every tissue is composed of compacted cells. These cells are specific to that organ, in that each individual cell shares a common chemical DNA that is only found in that organ. For example the cells in the heart share a different DNA sequence to those in the liver and vice-versa. When a cell shows this differentiation in chemical structure, that cell is specialized. When a human embryo is forming, its cells are specializing and are becoming organ specific cells. Before they do so they are called stem cells because these cells are “babies” and belong to no organ. These baby cells have the strange potential to turn into any specialized cell in the human body and this ability to differentiate is “what makes these mysterious bundles such powerful tools”(Giesick III 12). The practice of stem cell research is considered taboo in America because in order to study these baby cells, human embryos must be murdered. To conduct stem cell research, embryos are taken from in vitro fertilization clinics where the parents either are giving up on implantation or the embryo is destined to die anyway. Once the embryos are received the “stem cell line is created by extracting stem cells from the human blastula, which is a hollow ball of cells”(Denker 3). When the stem cell line is created the
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