Editor's note: A student (who prefers to remain anonymous) composed the argument below for my WRIT 1311 course in 2016.
Human embryonic stem cell research
is a highly debated issue. It causes great moral and ethical dilemmas. Some
people feel that embryonic stem cell research can lead to many great
breakthroughs in science and medicine. Others believe that it deprives a human
being from having a life, and for this reason, should not be used in research. I
believe that taking human embryonic stem cells for research is unethical and
should be illegal. The embryo has the ability to develop into a human being. Cloning
is not a more ethical way of obtaining embryonic stem cells and should not be
used to obtain human embryonic stem cells. Lastly, obtaining adult stem cells
is more ethical because it does not involve destroying an embryo and it has
been used to treat many diseases.
In
an article written by lawyer Mattie S. Kollmann (2010), she explains what stem
cells are. She states that stem cells can be found in many places in the body.
They are found in bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, and embryos. Stem cells are unspecialized and after long
periods of being dormant, can restore themselves through the process of cell
division. They have the ability to develop into specialized cells for a
particular function such as becoming specific to organs and tissues. Stem cells
can also be used to repair body tissue and can treat diseases such as Type 1
Diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease (Kollmann, 2010, p.146).
Human
embryonic stem cell research should be illegal because it takes away the right
to life. Fritz Allhoff (2005), a professor at Western Michigan University,
points out that obtaining human embryonic stem cells involves the destruction
of the human embryo, which can cause great moral dilemma. He notes that stem
cells come from the blastocyst. A
blastocyst has two layers of cells, the trophoblastocyst on the outside and
embryonic stem cells on the inside. The
outside layer is removed and then the stem cells are then extracted. This
results in destroying the embryo (Allhoff, 2005, p. 29). I feel that destroying
the embryo is unethical. It prevents it from developing into a human
being. Every human being should have the
right to live and destroying embryonic human stem cells prevent this from
happening.
Cloning
of embryonic stem cells is not a more ethical alternative to obtaining stem
cells. Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University have used cloning to
create human embryonic stem cells. These
researchers used the skin cells of a baby who suffered from a genetic disease.
The cells were combined with human eggs to create an embryo and then the stem
cells were retrieved from the embryo. This technique was the same one used when
creating Dolly the sheep. In the case
with Dolly the sheep, though, the embryo was planted inside a mother sheep.
Concerning the baby, the embryo was not planted inside a mother and the
researchers who created this embryo did not plan on implanting their embryos
into a human. They also noted that their technique could not produce a baby
that was able to sustain life (Pallock,
2013). In this case it is not moral and is still destroying an embryo. It prevents the human embryo from having a
life. In the article Cloning is used to
Create Embryonic Stem Cells, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston,
reports that even for therapeutic purposes, human cloning is unethical because
it “treats human beings as products, manufactured to order to suit other
people’s wishes” (as cited in Pallock, 2013). Human beings should not be used as
products to fulfill the desires of other people.
A more ethical alternative to obtaining human
embryonic stem cells is obtaining adult stem cells. Using adult stem cells does
not pose moral and ethical issues like embryonic stem cells. Adult stem cells
can be found in bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, and various other parts of
the body. Methods for obtaining adult
stem cells do not involve destroying an embryo and, therefore, do not deny the
right to life. The Indianapolis Business
Journal (2010) has noted that adult stem cell transplants have become
lifesaving to people suffering from leukemia, lymphoma, and other cancers (“Adult
Stem Cell Research,” p. 22). In another article, Alex R. Szeles (2010), a
business executive, who was given two years to live after being diagnosed with
cancer, also states “Adult stem cell transplants have miraculously extended my
life and the lives of countless others around the globe” (p. 14). As seen with
Szeles and numerous other people, adult stem cells have been used to save lives
and do not involve the destruction of an embryo.
People
who are for embryonic stem cell research may argue that the embryo does not
possess the qualities of a conscious human being and, therefore, does not have
the right to life. They say that the embryo is just a bundle of cells. People
who have this view do not consider that the embryo is a developing human being.
In an article written by Kristina Hug (2006), an assistant researcher in
medical ethics at Lund University, she argues
Human embryos
differ from other human beings not in what they are, but in their stage of
development. A human embryo is a human being in the embryonic stage, just as an
infant or an adolescent is a human being in the infant or adolescent stage of its
life. (p. 108)
The National Institute of Health
(2015) also reports that during the embryonic period of fetal development, the
embryo’s major organs such as the brain, spinal cord, and heart start to
develop. The embryo grows at a rapid pace and some external features begin to
develop (Fetal Development). All of this contributes to the development of a
living human being and human embryos should not be considered anything less
than a living human being able to sustain life.
In
conclusion human embryonic stem cell research should be illegal. It is not ethical and causes lots of moral
dilemma. Every person has the right to live and continuing to do human
embryonic stem cell research denies the human embryo of his or her right. Using
adult stem cells has been shown to help cure various diseases and cancers. It
should get more attention because it does not come with the ethical issues of
human embryonic stem cell research.
References
Adult stem cell research surges
ahead. (2010). Indianapolis Business Journal, 31(24), 20
Allhoff, F. (2005,
November/December). Stem cells and the Blastocyst Transfer Method: some
concerns regarding autonomy. American Journal of Bioethics, 5(6),
28-30. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16282110
Hug, K.
(2006). Therapeutic perspectives of human embryonic stem cell research versus
the moral status of a human embryo: Does one have to be compromised for the
other. Mecdicana (Kaunas, Lithuania),
42(2), 107-14. Retrieved from http://www.eurostemcell.org/files/Hug_Medicina%20(Kaunas)%202006%3B%2042(2).pdf
Kollmann,
M. S. (2010). Taking the moral high road: Why embryonic stem cell research
should be strictly regulated. Faulkner
Law Review, 2(1), 145-192.
Retrieved from http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/faulklr2&div=9&id=&page=
National
Institute of Health. (2015). Medical encyclopedia. Fetal development. Retrieved
from https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002398.htm
Pollack, A. (2013, May
15). Cloning is used to create embryonic stem cells. The New York Times.
Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/16/science/scientists-use-cloning-to-create-embryonic-stem-cells.html?_r=0
Szeles, A. R. (2010). Adult stem
cell research is good business. Central Penn Business Journal, 26(25),
14.
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