Why are people against stem cell research?

Question

it saves lives......

Answer 1

Because they believe that microscopic balls of 24 cells destined for destruction anyway have more rights than real live people with cancer. Hooray for religion: inducing suffering for 2000 years.

Answer 2

I'm not religious, I am neither a believe nor a non-believe I'm simply middle ground. So I won't give you all this pro-life c**p. I believe that illness and disease is natures way of controlling populations. The human population is getting way out of hand. If there really is a God, wouldn't he rid the world of disease? Maybe we weren't meant to cure every person with a lethal disease. I know it sounds cruel, but thats the way it has always been until technology took over.

(I do think the whole stem cell topic is quite interesting though)

Answer 3

The opposition isn't to stem cell research, but to one of the sources from which stem cells are derived.

Answer 4

This is a very strong debate. The main argument is were the stem cells come from, embryonic stem cells. These types of stem cells are a lot better than other types of stem cells. But just recently, scientists have made a group of non-embryonic stem cells which have the same pluoripotency as a regular stem cell. But now people have problems with the cloning aspect of this science. In my opinion, people just do not understand the applications of this type of science. One day this science can cure Alzheimer's disease, neural degenerative diseases, and other diseases like cancer (maybe).People today care more about the rights of these 8 celled balls. Well, last spring, a group of scientists in California grew cells up to this stage and destroyed it. They were working on cloning experiments. You can see that this is a very touchy subject. If the public just knew more information on this science, then maybe their ideas won't be against this science.

People can also say that stem cell research can be taken too far with cloning, but any study of science can be taken too far. I believe that all this boils down to knowledge of the subject.

good luck.

Answer 5

Like Jgoulden said, it has more to do with the source of the stem cells than the cells themselves.  In arguments, I've often heard stem cell researchers painted as "baby killers" or "baby stealers."  It's a picture designed to cause an instinctive reaction of revulsion... and it works.  It worked so well, that it's an image that, for some people, is intertwined with the idea of stem cell research.

The truth is, though, there are some pretty big flaws with that sort of reasoning.  The first is that obtaining stem cells through abortions is incredibly inefficient.  Not only would the embryo be nearly microscopic sphere of cells (taking the "baby" out of "baby killer"), but the doctor would need to find it among the material removed during an abortion.  Also, even if stem cells were obtained from aborted embryos, the cause-and-effect relationship is reversed.  Embryos aren't bought, so there would be no extra incentive for pregnant women to get abortions beyond the normal reasons... it would simply derive an extra benefit from the procedure.

Most stem cells are obtained from embryos created for in vitro fertilization.  IVF is a tricky procedure with a high failure rate, so doctors fertilize many embryos at once.  As a result, they often have extra left over when the mother becomes pregnant.  The excess embryos are frozen for storage, but they don't have an unlimited shelf life (and the IVF clinics don't have unlimited storage space).  Many of these embryos are either slated for destruction anyways or have been stored for so long that they couldn't be grown into a healthy human.  It's these balls of cells that are used to generate stem cells cultures.  Balls of cells without organs, without brains, without any sort of mind or consciousness.

The opposition to stem cell research is often guilty of rank hypocrisy.  The arguments that I've heard usually center around the "life" of the embryo... yet they tend to be the same people that are against various social services (i.e. welfare) and support our various wars.  In other words, they shout, cry, and protest about the *potential* of an embryo, yet once the embryo grows into a child and is born, and the potential becomes real, they cut it loose (i.e. don't support the parents) and later send it off to war.  I'm not saying that all stem cell opponents are like that, it's just from my personal experience.