Embryonic Stem Cells

Embryonic cells should be allowed to be used because of the medical benefits they provide. They can be used to cure diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, traumatic spinal cord injury, Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy, heart disease, and even vision and hearing loss (nih.gov 2009). There is no problem using them for medical purposes and it is not immoral to use them for this reason. Embryonic cells have the potential to save lives. Therefore, the usage of embryonic cells outweighs the ethical issues.

Although many people argue that the usage of embryonic stem cells is immoral, they are thought to have much greater developmental potential than adult stem cells (nih.gov 2009). While stem cells are not taken from an embryo and are considered by many as ethical, embryonic stem cells can become all cell types of the body because they are pluripotent (nih.gov 2009). This means having the ability to transform into various cell types of the body; they have far more potential.

To get an idea exactly what embryonic cells are, it is necessary to understand fully how they’re retrieved and composed of. Embryonic stem cells come from eggs that have been fertilized by in vitro, which is an artificial environment outside the living organism such as a test tube. When fertilization is successful, the sperm head carrying the nucleus enters the egg. The egg dives first into two cells, then into four. With more divisions, a multicellular ball of cells known as a blastocyst is formed. Inside the blastocyst is a hollow ball which includes the embryonic stem cells which can be retrieved with a pipette, a small glass tube used to transport a measured volume of liquid, and transferred to a dish. Under certain conditions, the embryonic...

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