Opposing Embryonic Stem Cell Research Stem cell research has a lot to offer in the way of treatments, or even cures to some devastating diseases that humans face. However, research using human embryonic stem cells that can only be obtained by killing a human embryo can not be condoned or paid for by the United States Government. Federal funding needs to focus on the adult stem cell research that has already been proven successful and can be obtained without destroying a human life. Ethics and morals need to be considered when the destruction of one human life is acceptable so that another human may live. The first thing to differentiate is that it is ethical to experiment on human tissue, but those experiments on human beings are …show more content…

Griffith University researcher Professor Alan Mackay-Sim said "The big advantage over embryonic stem cells is their potential for autologous therapies in which a patient's own cells are removed from the nose, grown and multiplied in a dish and transplanted back into the same patient which overcomes the issue of immune rejection or related immune-suppressing drug therapies" (qtd. in "Potential Seen"). When stem cells are taken from another human, even in embryonic stem cells, there is likelihood that the body will reject the stem cell. This concept is no different than having an organ transplant, where sometimes that body will reject the "foreign" organ. Stem cells taken from the patient would have the same DNA and the body would accept the stem cells. This is useful in many cancer therapies, where cells in some parts of the body can become cancerous and cell rejection could be dangerous. In reality, adult stem cells may prove to be superior because they are less likely to be rejected by the body.
With debates rising over whether or not embryonic stem cell research is acceptable, the federal government was forced to step in. In August 2001, President Bush allowed federal funds to be used in research on existing stem cell lines. President Bush states in his address:
As a result of private research, more than 60 genetically diverse stem cell lines already exist. They were created from embryos that have already been destroyed, and they have the ability to