To be given a chance is one of the things we all want in life. The ability to have choices and opportunities is something we rarely think about. Now imagine not even being given the option or opportunity to live. This is precisely what stem cell research does to potentially thousands of human beings. Some argue that that is the price we must pay in order to save some of the few lives that could have a slight chance to survive with the research that is being done. Although there is a chance that a few lives might be saved or at least prolonged, it is not justified to end thousands of potential lives by using human embryos to conduct stem cell research.
Before starting the process of researching the stem cell, it must first be created and extracted. The first step in the process is the union of sperm and ovum which creates an embryo. This fertilized egg or embryo has now been created, and is frozen so that it may be used at a later time, and then put away. There are many of these embryos that are created from each couple, but there is only one embryo put inside of the uterus at a time. What happens now is that the couple waits to see if the embryo will develop into a fetus, and if it does not then another embryo is put in. Once the couple has achieved their goal they often choose to donate the extra embryos to a clinic. To obtain the stem cells, the researcher must now take those same embryos and cut them open, thereby killing it and ending its life. Some might say that there is a vast difference between these frozen fertilized eggs and a fetus, but the only difference is size, age (as a fetus would be a more developed embryo), location, and degree of development as one is older than the other because the fetus id already inside of the woman while the embryo might still be frozen.
The simple biological fact is that from day one, inside or outside of the uterus, it is a continuous period of living.