Embryonic Stem Cell Transplants Essay

The future of embryonic stem cell transplants In 1991, Martin Evans of Cardiff University, UK, then at the University of Cambridge, is first to identify mouse embryonic stem cells. Seven years later, James Thomson and his colleagues reported methods for deriving and maintaining human embryonic stem (ES) cells from the inner cell mass of human blastocysts (structures formed in the early development of mammals).Soon, scientists developed embryonic stem cell transplants, hoping to repair damaged tissues and, eventually, whole organs with ES cells.

A stem cell transplant is a procedure that replaces unhealthy cells with healthy ones. Stem cell transplant therapies offer cures for diseases for which current treatments are either non-existent or limited. Human embryonic stem cells are unspecialized cells found in the early human embryo that have the ability both to continue dividing indefinitely and

Few question the medical promise of embryonic stem cells. However, sprouting from the heart of this relatively new frontier in medicine, were many questions which led to discussion. And, naturally, people took sides, and some of these inquiries rose to become full scale arguments. What is to be the source of all the embryonic stem cells? How many lives must be snuffed out before a single patient can be helped? Is this just yet another way we humans play God? Many point out that fertility clinic freezers worldwide are bulging with thousands of unwanted embryos slated for disposal. If parents agree to donate them, supporters say, it would be unethical not to do so in the quest to cure people of disease. However, some people see embryos as helpless, vulnerable members of society, and they argue that scientists can achieve the same results using adult stem cells--immature cells found in bone marrow and other organs in adult human beings, as well as in umbilical cords normally discarded at