Cord Blood Cells Over Embryonic Stems Cells

Essay by ginaaamarieeeCollege, UndergraduateA+, February 2006

download word file, 3 pages 0.0

Many people have heard about embryonic stem-cell research in recent days, but something that not many people have heard about is cord-blood and adult stem-cell treatments. It is surprising that these miracle treatments are kept so hushed, while the demoralizing and ineffective treatment has been given so much hype lately.

Stem cells are extremely important in the medical research field today. They can be the answer to finding the cure to an overwhelming amount of conditions and diseases.

Stem cells are relatively undifferentiated cells that can develop into different/any kind of cell in the human body.

Scientists have been doing research for many years with embryonic stem cells. These are basically ''leftover'' human embryos that were originally supposed to be used for In Vitro fertilization, but are taken to do research to try to cure diseases. These embryos are not merely a clump of cells, which is a common misconception; they have the potential to become living, breathing human beings, but that right is stripped from them.

It is simply ignorant to consider this any less immoral than abortion. Not only is it disgusting that human life is being destroyed and devalued, but the good does not even outweigh the bad. Taxpayer's money is being wasted for this research and some are not even aware and others are against it. In almost ten years of studying with human embryonic stem cells, and even more years with animal embryonic stem cells, there have been hardly any success stories. As experimental failures grow, predictions of success have changed from a few years to a few decades. This is not in the least bit promising, and it is absolutely not worth anybody's tax dollars; this is especially true since more efficient, more humane alternatives are already available.

These innovative treatments use cord blood...