Those embryos are usually donated in special clinics or extract the cells from an aborted fetus. Scientists" preferred way to obtain cells is by extraction from a 'blastocyst', which is an embryo that has developed for about 5 days ("How Embryonic Stem Cell Lines are made" 2, 3). They are very important for scientists because of their ability to grow into any other cells made by human. Nevertheless, to obtain this stage, scientists had to bypass a long road.
In November 1995, the first embryonic stem cells from non-human primate were reported. It held out the possibility they may one day derived from human. Actually, three years later they were successful. In March 1999, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) dispatched the first batch of cells to be used for research by a "non-UW-Madison user" ("Embryonic Stem Cell Information" 2). After six months, the WARF established a non-profit institute, the WiCell Research Institute, to distribute stem cells for research and to conduct basis stem cell science. However, in 2001, due to the political arguments, the WARF needed to implement a resolution supporting research using human embryonic stem cells. They also got a patent number in that year. On August 9th in 2001, president George Bush proclaimed a policy that would permit scientists to use federal funds to study stem lines derived prior to the president's announcement ("Remarks by the President on Stem Cell Research" 1). This policy is very significant and we"ll discuss it later on this paper. From this time on, many countries such as Israel, Britain, Germany and of course the United States have collected their own successful experiments. .
The benefits and the risks.
According Wisconsin-Madison researchers, one of the benefits of human embryonic stem cell technology bring to our society is in the area of "drug discovery" ("Embryonic Stem Cell Information" 2). With the growing purely of the populations of specific cell types, scientists can prove that each of the cells may cause related medical symptoms.
