Thousands of unused embryos stored at fertility clinics are going to waste in fertility clinics when they might contribute to the cure for many ills. At least since the Nuremburg Code, ethical norms require that we do not inflict death or disability upon any unconsenting individual of our species merely to benefit others. Extracting fetal stem cells from an entity which has the capacity to become Ellen, or Paul, or Richard damages or destroys that living being, or in effect uses it as part of a biological factory producing liver cells, neurons, or an organ for transplant. Arguing that this recycling avoids waste echoes the utilitarian justification for some past gruesome medical experimentation on concentration camp victims, prison inmates, or minority groups. Make no mistake, if the excess embryos can be harvested for research which will eventually make corporations huge sums of money, embryos in excess will continue to be produced.
Research using human fetal stem cells is unavoidably necessary.
We have the capacity to find morally acceptable alternatives. Research on adult stem cells is promising, and may allow the production of cell lines, or tissues or organ transplants from consenting individuals whose donation will not be the means of their destruction. Other researchers believe that people may be able to grow their own liver transplants, for example, using bone marrow transplants from consenting donors. Compassion for the afflicted requires that we declare embryonic stem research moral and necessary. It is right to seek to relieve human suffering and disability, but embryonic stem cell research requires compassion for one subset of humanity, the afflicted we can recognize, at the expense of another subset of humanity, human beings at the earliest stages of development.