Arguments Against Embryonic Stem Cell Research

1) Embryos are lives

An embryo contains the potential to form a human, therefore it should be valued as highly as a human life

Similar arguments are commonly voiced by the pro-life movement to condemn abortion. This opinion is often related to religious doctrine that proports that human life and/or soul start at conception.

Based upon this value system, the subsequent argument against embryonic stem cell research is also ultilitarian, i.e. the value of an embryo outweighs the potential benefits to medicine.

As an extension of this, it is argued that the tendency by some supporters of embryonic stem cell researchers to dismiss the ethical significance of embryo destruction may act to devalue human life.

Moreover, it has been argued that "the line at which an embryo becomes a human life remains as arbitrary as ever" .

2) Exploring alternative therapeutic options

Embryonic stem cells should be abandoned in favour of alternatives, such as those involving adult stem cells

Adult stem cell and cord blood stem cell research would be able to make greater advances if less money and resources were into channeled embryonic stem cell research.

It is claimed by pro-life supporters that the use of adult stem cells from sources such as umbilical cord blood has consistently produced more promising results than the use of embryonic stem cells. Such claims are disputed by supporters of embryonic stem cell research.

Adult stem cells have already produced therapies, while embryonic stem cells have not. However, it should be acknowledged that scientists have studied adult stem cells for decades, but first isolated human embryonic stem cells only in 1998.

3) Scientific flaws in embryonic stem cell research

Another concern with embryonic stem cell research is the tendency of stem cells from embryos to create tumors.

4) Overstatement of research potential

Scientists have long promised spectacular results from embryonic stem cell research, and this has not yet occurred

This argument is hotly debated on both sides. Those critical of embryonic stem cell research point to a current lack of practical treatments, while supporters argue that advances will come with more time and that breakthroughs cannot be predicted.

Conspicuously, some criticism has even come from researchers themselves. For example, in November 2004, Princeton University president and geneticist Shirley Tilghman said, "Some of the public pronouncements in the field of stem-cell research come close to overpromising at best and delusional fantasizing at worst."

Similarly, fertility expert and current president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Lord Winston has warned of a public backlash against stem cell research if it fails to deliver on some of the "hype" surrounding potential treatments.

Stem cells without embryonic destruction

Notably, a fundamental impediment to the widespread acceptance of embryonic stem cell research is the destruction of the embryo. Consequently, some stem cell researchers are working to develop techniques of isolating stem cells that are as potent as embryonic stem cells, but do not require the destruction of a human embryo.

Some believe that human somatic cells can be coaxed to "de-differentiate" and revert to an embryonic state. Researchers at Harvard University, led by Kevin Eggan, have attempted to transfer the nucleus of a somatic cell into an existing embryonic stem cell, thus creating a new stem cell line.

Another study published in August 2006 also indicates that differentiated cells can be reprogrammed to an embryonic-like state by introducing four specific factors.

Researchers at Advanced Cell Technology, led by Robert Lanza, reported the successful derivation of a stem cell line using a process similar to preimplantation genetic diagnosis, in which a single blastomere is extracted from a blastocyst.

It should be noted that this process has not yet demonstrated the ability of donor blastocysts to survive to term as well after blastomere harvesting. Nevertheless, the Lanza technique may in future allow for the creation of stem cells without embryonic destruction.

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The content of this page is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Stem Cell Controversy".