This essay is about the PROS and CONS of Stem Cell Research.

Essay by CoriUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, June 2004

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INTRODUCTION

Is it ethical to favor the killing of unborn babies in order to extract their stem cells for medical research?

The word ethics is a theory or system of moral values; the discipline dealing with what is good or bad and with moral duty and obligation. We find that the moral and ethical standings are tested when scientist and theologist go head to head in the debate over "stem cell research".

In November 1998, two independent teams U.S scientists reported that they had succeeded in isolating and culturing stem cells obtained from human embryos and fetuses. Because many diseases result from the death or dysfunction of a single cell type, scientists believe that the introduction of healthy cells of this type into a patient may restore lost or compromised function. The research of stem cells is a new study proving the a stem cell (a primitive type of cell) can be coaxed into developing into most 220 types of cells found in the human body.

However, ethics comes into play when we are faced with the legitimate question regarding either side of the positive and negative opinion, the problem truly lies in the actually source of the stem cells.

PRO

Those who are considered pro-choice regard that human personhood to occur much later in the pregnancy. Thus, killing a recently fertilized embryo is not murder of a human person.

In April of 2000, Senators Arlen Spector and Tom Harkin introduced the Stem Cell Research Act of 2000. This would allow federal researchers to extract stem cells from embryos. They believe this research to be ethical and definitely beneficial. In fertility clinics, women are given a choice of what to do with unused fertilized embryos; they can be discarded, donated to research or frozen for future use. Under the specific...