Futuristic cures for diseases and injuries as seen in low budget sci-fi movies are closer to the present than it seems. Spinal injuries, heart diseases, cancer, and diabetes are just a few out of the plethora of medical issues that can possibly be treated by the proper use of stem cells. These unique cells have the ability to renew themselves and change into just about any type of cell in the human body, allowing them to be harnessed to repair damaged tissue. If analyzed jointly with the human genome project data, the medical advances would be enormous. With these kinds of prospects in sight, why would anybody disagree with proceeding with research?.
It turns out there are many types of stem cells. Mainly, there are adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells. Adult stem cells are found in all humans after birth, but are very rare and difficult to identify. Adult stem cells also can only change into a few specific types of cells depending on where the stem cell originated in the body, and they can only renew themselves for a short period of time. "The primary roles of adult stem cells in a living organism are to maintain and repair the tissue in which they are found. (Stem)" Pluripotent embryonic stem cells are found in unborn embryos in the blastocyst stage (Reaves). Being pluripotent means having the ability to change into just about any type of cell in the body. Because of their unique abilities and amazing potential for medical advances, studies of embryonic stem cells should have the government's full funding without limitations. Right now, President Bush limited the study of embryonic stem cells to cells that have already been extracted from embryo's, preventing future embryos from being used (Bush).
Most people opposing government funding base their argument on the destruction of a human being. If that were abided by and scientists did not extract from embryonic cells, the research would be limited to adult stem cells, which have extreme restrictions on their lifespan and possible cell transformation.
