INTRODUCTIONIs 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 ...view middle of the document...
" Is it more ethical for a woman to donate unused embryos that will never become human beings, or to let them be tossed away as so much garbage when they could help save thousands of lives?".Stem cell treatment has already begun in some parts of the world. Cells have been taken from umbilical cords and become healthy red cells used to cure sickle-cell anemia. OPPOSEHowever, in retrospect, there is a strong religious lobby opposing embryonic stem cell research. The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics argues the case like this " The destruction of human embryonic life is unnecessary for medical progress, as alternative methods of obtaining human stem cells and of repairing and regenerating human tissue exist and continue to be developed." It is these people that feel that a few-day old embryo is a human person, and by extracting its stem cells kills the embryo, an act that they consider to be murder. Basically, any procedure that injures or kills an embryo is assault or murder of a human. It does not matter whether the stem cell extraction is done by an employee of a private company and sold to the government. Either way, a human person has been murdered in order to supply cells. As long as embryos are destroyed as part of the research enterprise, researchers using embryonic stem cells ( and those who fund them) will be complicit in the de...
