Preview

Embryonic Research Debate

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
400 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Embryonic Research Debate
“Human embryonic stem cell (HESC) research offers much hope for alleviating the human suffering brought on by the ravages of disease and injury.” according to plato.stanford.edu, so the question shouldn’t be why should it be legal, but why shouldn’t it?
My mother went to see a brain specialist to try to get an understanding of why she has chronic migraines, and originally they thought she might have multiple sclerosis, a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system. Luckily we discovered that she doesn’t have it, however, throughout that horrid ordeal, I did some research on it. I found out that MS is an extremely horrid disease to have, it causes pain, numbness, spasticity, and loss of bodily control such as the ability to properly walk, swallow, and maintain bladder control. However throughout learning all of that horrifying information, I found a ray of hope, I discovered that through embryonic research, they were able to find a way to treat it and maybe someday, through further study, find a cure.
…show more content…
By using human embryos for studies, it will ease human suffering monumentally.
Many people believe that using human embryos is immoral and should never be condoned. To them, the fertilization of the egg is the beginning of life and no amount of human suffering makes it worth it.
Embryonic research is not unscrupulous in any way. The embryo does not develop the ability to feel until long after it has attached to the uterus, which takes about a week.
My

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The view that life begins at conception plays a huge part in the moral debate that surrounds the use of embryonic cells for research. Researchers often obtain spare embryos that have been donated by couples having fertility treatment. The fertilized egg (viewed as a living or potential person) is incubated for a short period of time. The stem cells are then extracted and the embryo is disregarded (viewed as ending the life or potential life).…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The real controversy in stem cell research lays in the termination (abortion) of the embryo, which is an entirely independent debate altogether. The embryonic stem cells extracted for research are being derived from embryos that are being aborted regardless (Johansen). Therefore, there is a macrocosmic debate more powerful than the one about stem cell research itself. By harvesting these stem cells from babies predestined to abortion, at least a contribution is being made to society – one that can benefit a multitude of people, perhaps suffering from a multitude of conditions. Even if one wants to debate the ethics of stem cell research, the researchers are being ethically unethical, with regard to the abortions guaranteed to take place.…

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sandel says, “For couples undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF), it is possible to choose the sex of the child before the fertilized egg is implanted in the womb” (127). In vitro fertilization allows the fertilized egg to be tested to see what sex the baby is. If the egg turns out to be a different sex than what the woman wants, the option to abort it arises. Those who believe that an embryo is a person, reject embryo screening for the same reasons they reject abortion. If an eight-cell embryo growing in a petri dish it is morally equivalent to a fully developed human being, then discarding it is no better than aborting a fetus, and both practices are equivalent to infanticide.…

    • 960 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    It's time for the big day to see your newborn sibling. It has so many shared characteristics between dad and mom. However, what if some of these characteristics like eye color, face type, nose type, could be decided before the pregnancy. What if instead of guessing, you could make your baby, well now you can.…

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why Is Gattaca Unethical

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Primarily, one can argue that simply “flushing the other embryos down the drain” is the waste of potential human life. Discarding unwanted embryos is the direct result from embryo selection: when a woman’s eggs…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Imagine your life at the age of 32. It is as perfect as you could have ever imagined it. You are married with three beautiful children; two girls and a boy. Your oldest daughter is complaining of stumbling and clumsiness, so you take her to the doctor. You are devastated to learn that she, along with your other two children, have a neurological disorder called Batten Disease. This is a rare but always fatal disease. You are now going to have to go through what no parent ever wants to go through. You will have to watch your children wilt away like flowers. They will go blind, lose all motor skills, suffer from dementia and die a horrific, prolonged death. You will have to bury not only one, but all three of your children. This is a story of the Pinder family, whose children I went to school with. The oldest two children, both girls, are now deceased, and the youngest, a boy, is progressively getting worse. Unfortunately there is no cure for this disease on the market yet. The FDA has recently approved a clinical trial to use brain stem cells of fetal tissue to treat this disease; however the funding for stem cell research is either non-existent, or tied up in the court systems due to ethical and moral issues (Stem-Cell Funding’s). Even with the release of the funds for embryonic stem cell research, it would be too late to treat the last Pinder child. After seeing this family go through the loss of two children, and waiting in emotional turmoil for the death of their last child, I am for the study and research of embryonic stem cells. I hope that it could one day save families from the pain the Pinder’s are currently in.…

    • 2288 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The embryonic cloning debate touches down ethical issues that are each debatable. One is the debate whether it is healthy and or ethical to obtain eggs from a woman for stem cells. It calls for hormone treatment and surgery. With all surgeries, there is always a risk, but with this one it’s an ethical debate if it is right or not. Another reason why is that people are afraid that we will fall down a slippery slope into human cloning or human organ harvesting.…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Embryonic stem cells can potentially cause tumors due to the rapid growth when injected into adults. Another big issue with the research of the embryonic stem cells is that in the far future, this could lead to the knowledge on human cloning. Seeing as embryonic stem cells come from the embryos, adult stem cells biggest advantage is that the body’s own stem cells can be used, effectively removing the problems of immune rejection or abnormalities. Many people who are religious would argue that harvesting the embryo is against belief. This is a main controversy because these people believe that the four-five day old embryo has a soul and is evidently murdered when harvested. They believe that the research on these cells violates the sanctuary of life. Their argument is that the embryo in the situation is a potential human being and see the fertilized egg as starting a…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Life is defined as the existence of an individual human being or animal. There is a plethora of controversy about when life truly starts. Does it start right when the sperm meets the egg? Does it start when the fetus develops enough to feel? Most have their own opinion on this topic, but if “killing” an embryo can save lives it might be worth it. General stem cell research has been going on for many years, but due to cut funding, advancements have been inhibited. It was cut because embryonic stem cells research is considered unethical, but embryonic stem cells open a whole new realm of possibilities. The debate of using these stem cells has been argued for a long period of time. Certain stem cell research may be considered unethical, but the…

    • 2096 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    To obtain embryonic stem cells, some researchers fertilize an egg and sperm cell in a laboratory; after having grown for a few days, they destroy the embryo to extract the stem cells from the center of the embryo. Essentially, this creates a potential human being and destroys it. Creating human life only to destroy it is morally wrong because “just as an infant is a human being in the infant stage,” “a human embryo is a human in the embryonic stage.” (Amandito) This is not just a collection of human cells, but a stage in a person's life, which every human was once at. “If an embryo will later become a human being, then it should be given the respect of a human being.” (Amandito) Moreover, some researchers take embryonic stem cells from aborted fetuses and use their dead bodies to extract stem cells. Though this is still a human embryo, it is much more complex than a fertilized embryo. “An early embryo that has still not yet been implanted into the uterus does not have the psychological, emotional, or physical properties [of a grown human]” (Embryonic Stem) However, with aborted fetuses, they all have these properties. The average week for an abortion is 12 weeks. At 12 weeks, the fetus can breathe, has a heartbeat, and has measurable brain waves. Furthermore, the human fetus has fingers, toes, a nose, and all its appendages, resembling an adult human.…

    • 1586 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Embryonic stem cells are stem cells that come from inner mass cells of a human embryo that are undifferentiated. They are a new and innovative way to help people of society, and with all innovative ideas comes controversy. Some people believe that embryonic stem cells should not be researched or toyed with, while others are all for it. Embryonic stem cell research is a positive thing that can enhance the world in several ways. It can boost the economy, save the lives of many people, and not offend any religions or people with religious beliefs at the same time.…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In my point of view I am strongly against using embryonic stem cells for research because it…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Stem Cell Debate

    • 4026 Words
    • 17 Pages

    Few recent scientific issues have stimulated so much media attention, public debate and government involvement as that of stem cell research. Stem cells offer people hope by promising to greatly extend the number and range of patients who could benefit from transplants, and to provide novel therapies to treat debilitating diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson's, Huntington's, heart disease and stroke, as well as accidental damage such as spinal cord injury. So why would anyone object to research in this area? The problem is simply that a particular type of stem cell, which potentially could provide many cell types for a wide range of therapeutic uses, is obtained from the very early embryo. To make matters even more contentious, the same cloning technology that gave Dolly the sheep could in theory be used to tailor stem cells to the patient. Some people worry that we are taking research too far down paths that make them feel uncomfortable, others think it is downright immoral and against their deep-held, often religious, beliefs. But what are the scientific issues and why do many of us feel equally passionate that the research should be allowed?…

    • 4026 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    From a scientist’s point of view, embryonic stem cells have a huge potential to revolutionize the field of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering as they hold the ability to produce all cell lineages including the germ line. This would provide the gateway for the treatment of a wide range of diseases where the body is incapable of repairing itself. However, some people especially religious communities hold strong objections regarding the use of human embryos in scientific research (De Wert, 2003) (Orive, 2003). The main point being that since “new life begins at the point of conception”, the embryo should hold full human rights (Daley, G.Q. et al., 2007). Nevertheless, there are different legislations in place in different countries regarding the use of human embryonic stem cells. In UK, embryonic stem cell research can only be carried out with authority from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The main thesis of the Chapter is the ethical, moral, and political concerns regarding experimentation on human embryos. In the chapter, Philosopher Bonnie Steinbeck argues that embryos have a moral value, but do not possess a moral status. In her argument, moral value is when good reasons can be used to justify a being’s existence rather than objectifying it, and moral status is a being’s ability to have its own interests. For example, the ability for a being to feel pain. One would assume that a being would chose to not endure undue pain and seek to avoid it. Since embryos are not yet sentient, they cannot feel pain. In the late 1900’s Congress refused to authorize legislation for embryonic experimentation, even when the Ethics Advisory Board…

    • 719 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics