Embryonic Stem Cell Research: The Pandora’s Box of Science

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Recommended: Controversy over embryonic stem cell research

There has been controversy surrounding science ever since the first scientific journal was published in 1665. Most people have an opinion on hot-button scientific topics today, such as climate change and Darwinian evolution. Technology and science will forever be connected, and scientific technology has changed countless lives, evolving exponentially throughout the history of time. The average life expectancy has more than doubled from thirty three years old in the Upper Paleolithic Era to sixty seven years old today. This major increase can be credited to the development in medical technologies. One of the most controversial scientific technologies today is the developmental technology of embryonic stem cells. The research and development of embryonic stem cells is a slippery slope of science with unimaginable consequences. Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body during early life and growth. Embryonic stem cells are stem cells taken from the inner cell mass of the early stage embryo, known as a blastocyst. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4-5 days after fertilization. The reason that embryonic stem cells have gathered so much interest is because they can reveal incomprehensible details of early human development, as our bodies are made out of cells. The ability to tell us what goes wrong with cells is also exponential; they could tell us why birth defects occur, and how they can be reversed or prevented. Stem cells can teach us where stem cell division goes wrong, and why that leads to cancer. The most popular discovery in stem cell research is cell therapies, which studies how unspecialized stem cells can give become specialized cells, including heart muscle cel... ... middle of paper ... ... There will be no controversy with the concern over an embryo's rights, and adult stem cells are more available as everyone has them. That will eliminate the concern of women selling their eggs or unused embryos. And most importantly, adult stem cell research is a less dramatic scientific technology. It is unlikely that geneticists will be able to clone the adult stem cells to create another human being, or to give us the information needed to create “designer babies”, or a genetically superior race. Embryonic stem cell research has too many potential risks and ethical uncertainties to be developed today. Sources: "J Med Ethics- Stem Cells." Http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. US National Library of Medicine, 30 Dec. 2007. Web. 03 Dec. 2013. . Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. The Future of Happiness. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

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