However these guidelines, as presently written, are ethically very questionable. Since the guidelines deal with the beginnings of individual human lives, and thus an issue of great importance, American society cannot tolerate ethical and scientific errors concerning this issue. It is crucial for people to understand that the only way to obtain embryonic stem cells is to literally tear apart growing human embryos. My understanding is that the bill, S-2015 is similar in intent to the Guidelines, but would remove the restriction about deriving the stem cells from embryos.
Good ethics hold that a good end can never justify evil means to attain it.
The fact that the embryos would die or be destroyed anyway does not justify the act of killing those whom we all know are the youngest members of our species. The more ethical thing to do is to prohibit the production of embryonic or fetal stem cells. These reasons are not totally accurate in view of what is presently known about adult stem cells. Following are some examples from the recent medical literature to illustrate this point. The Guidelines state that adult stem cells may have more limited potential than embryonic stem cells, and that stem cells for all cell and tissue types have not yet been found in the adult human.