I wan tto find out waht peoples views on stem cell research are is it a good or bad thing?

Question

There has been much controversy in the press recently about the pros and cons of stem cell research. What is the controversy all about? "Stem" cells can be contrasted with "differentiated" cells. They offer much hope for medical advancement because of their ability to grow into almost any kind of cell. For instance, neural cells in the brain and spinal cord that have been damaged can be replaced by stem cells. In the treatment of cancer, cells destroyed by radiation or chemotherapy can be replaced with new healthy stem cells that adapt to the affected area, whether it be part of the brain, heart, liver, lungs, or wherever. Dead cells of almost any kind, no matter the type of injury or disease, can be replaced with new healthy cells thanks to the amazing flexibility of stem

Answer 1

I believe that it's an avenue worth exploring.  If it lives up to its full potential, it could be used to treat thousands of genetic conditions, vastly improving or even saving the lives of millions around the globe.

For instance, I know a girl who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which is a form of Muscular Dystrophy.  The condition is genetic.  She cannot walk, or even move very well.  She can hardly even hold her own head up... and her condition is worsening.  She's constantly catching pneumonia and other illnesses, ending up in the ICU several times a year.  It is unlikely that she was live past the age of 20.  She lives with constant back pain, difficulty breathing, dozens of close calls with death, and the worst part is... it's only going to get worse.  Stem cell research has the potential to give us the means to give her a normal life.

How can anyone tell her that it's wrong for us to do anything we can to help people like her?  How bloody self-righteous do you have to be to demand that these innocent people live in misery and die and early death just because your religion is afraid of scientific progression?  Seriously, what gives them the right to push their religious values onto the rest of us?  It really upsets me when people bash stem cell research.  It's an incredibly selfish, narrow-minded view, and it sickens me.  It's especially frustrating when these people use stem cell research to push their anti-abortion agenda.  They actually care more about these "potential lives", which are actually blastocysts that lack the ability to feel  or think -- they're not even embryos yet -- than they do about someone who is already alive and suffering?  Pfft.  It sickens me.

When was the last time you saw these anti-stem-cell protesters donating money to victims of genetic illnesses for new medical equipment, wheelchairs, treatment, etc.?  It's so god d**n hypocritical.

I could rant on this topic for hours.  You have no idea how angry these self-righteous, anti-stem-cell pricks make me.  It literally sickens me.  I'm usually tolerant of other people's opinions, but whenever I find out someone is against stem cell research, I instantly lose respect for them.

Answer 2

stem cell research is a FATASTIC thing...

the only possible, rational opposition would be against using fetal stem cells.. and that's only from controversy about abortion...

Answer 3

Stem cell research has the greatest potential for finding cures and treatments to the broadest range of diseases and conditions in history. They also have the ability to test millions of potential drugs and medicine, without the use of animals or humans to test them on.

The controversy is because starting an embryonic stem cell line requires the destruction of a human embryo and/or therapeutic cloning. Some people believe this is a slippery slope to reproductive cloning and the ‘pro-life’ movement has concerned themselves with the rights and status of the embryo as an early human life and state the destruction of the embryo constitutes murder. They also do not want aborted fetuses, which are unable to sustain life, used in this research and want them destroyed instead.