Stem Cell Research Persuasive Essay

The medical field is constantly growing and growing, discovering new diseases and cures that bring us one step further to understanding the world around us. However, one medical discovery has been hailed as “miraculous” and “a long needed breakthrough.” This medical discovery is better known as stem cell research, more specifically, the study of stem cells for medical applications. Stem cells are a special category of cells that are able to differentiate into specialized cell types, but also retain the ability to renew themselves through cell division. However, most of the controversy surrounding stem cell research is based on where stem cells are derived from. Stem cells normally come from two main sources, three to five day old embryos called …show more content…
Most opponents of using embryos for stem cell research believe that stem cells are believed to have lives starting from conception. One article from fox news quotes Pope John Paul II about his views on stem cell research. “Experience is already showing how a tragic coarsening of consciences accompanies the assault on innocent human life in the womb, leading to accommodation and acquiescence in the face of other related evils, such as euthanasia, infanticide, and most recently, proposals for the creation for research purposes of human embryos, destined to destruction in the process. A free and virtuous society, which America aspires to be, must reject practices that devalue and violate human life at any stage from conception until natural death.” Although Pope John Paul II describes embryonic stem cell research as a practice that “…devalue[s] and violate[s] human life at any stage from conception until natural death,” a majority of the embryos used in stem cell research are produced “in vitro,” meaning that they are grown in a test tube or petri dish. From this, it can be said that the embryos used in stem cell research are not necessarily “alive,” since the embryos being used have no set definition to whether they are property or people. As the embryos lack certain physical properties …show more content…
One article on Pew Research Center titled “Stem Cell Research at the Crossroads of Religion and Politics” talks about how scientists believe that stem cells are able to provide cures for chronic and debilitating conditions, such as juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries and blindness. In short, the basic process behind this is that stem cells are transplanted from one source into a person and then those cells develop into a specific type of cell that your body needs in order to repair organs or other parts of the body. Stem cells derived from both embryos and adult stem cells are both viable to use for this process, however adult stem cells derived from the patient who has a disease or condition are less likely to be rejected as the newly formed cells have the same biological makeup as the host. Although these uses for stem cell research are quite miraculous, there are also many risks behind using stem cells. In the article, “Transplantation of Embryonic Dopamine Neurons for Severe Parkinson's Disease,” an experiment involving the insertion of fetal brain cells into the brains of Parkinson's disease patients was performed. The side effects of the experiment included uncontrollable movements: writhing, twisting, head jerking, arm-flailing, and constant chewing. The recent discovery of special