Stem Cells

Stem cells have been researched for years now and one thing that is for certain is that it hasn't slowed down. Something else that hasn't slowed down with the involvement of stem cells and its research is the controversy and the ethical issues that surround it.

Some of the excitement and interest that stem cell research garners is from their ability or at least their potential to cure human disease. On the opposite side of the coin it also garners negative interest because of the way they are used. You'd have to remove the cell mass of a human embryo and put it into a dish in order to utilize it. With that being said a plethora of questions now rise with it such as "Does human life begin at fertilization or in the womb?". "Does an embryo have any human rights?". "Is a human embryo the equivalent of a human child?" and so on and so forth. Similar to the topic of abortion it asks the question of what do we define as a human child and do we have the right to carry on with doing what we wish with it?

One of the biggest supporters of stem cell research was Christopher Reeve whom we may not know by name, but we all will recognize him as the original Superman in the 1970's. He injured himself horse back riding and became paralyzed from the neck down. His dream was to be able to walk again and he tried his best to obtain that the dream by starting his own foundation to raise as much money as possible. Reeve died in 2004, but his foundation still continues to thrive today in hopes to keep making money for advances in the world of science to give other people the hope to walk again.

In 2009 President Obama lifted the ban on stem cell research that was in place by the previous president George W. Bush and was quoted as saying "Medical miracles do not happen simply by accident". This all really plays into how you as a person feel about the measures that should be taken. Should we take a life that may or may not even be considered as a human being and use it to POTENTIALLY give someone a better quality of life, or should we all just live and let live? Its all a matter of perspective.