Few medical or scientific issues have stirred up more controversy in recent years than the idea of using cells and tissue from human embryos in medical research. Few medical or scientific issues have stirred up more controversy in recent years than the idea of using cells and tissue from human embryos in medical research. What gives this kind of research such endless potential, advocates argue, is the unique ability of stem cells to develop into all the different tissue types making up the various organs of the body. But research using human embryos has also drawn fire.
Some people consider it tantamount to creating human life with the intention of killing it.
Others fear this medical research will inevitably lead to the actual cloning of human beings. Think, for a moment, about actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, or former President Ronald Reagan, who has Alzheimer's disease. Both of these conditions are associated with damage to cells that don't repair themselves, and both have no known cure or even a treatment that's effective in the long term. One where discarded human embryos are used, like so many spare parts, to devise medical treatments using their stem cells. Or where embryos are created for the sole purpose of being destroyed in order to develop stem cells that match a certain person's genetic makeup.