Embryonic Stem Cell Research

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Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Helpful or Hazardous
Should stem cell research be banned? This is one of the most controversial questions posed in the last century. The heart of this controversy is whether or not it is morally ethical or legal to use stem cells in research and medicine, possibly to discover the cures and treatments for many diseases afflicting people today. Although stem cells are found in adult organisms as well as in fetuses and embryos, embryonic stem cells are the only types that are able to become any other type of cell. As organisms develop, stem cells become specialized types of cells and are harder to find and less potent in their ability to differentiate. For, this reason, it is often though that embryonic stem cells offer the most promise for medical breakthroughs. This is also another reason why the government should fund embryonic stem cell research along with the fact that embryonic stem cell research can benefit those suffering from serious diseases and help with other medical problems such as burns.
Stem cells themselves have actually been around for almost as long as life has been on earth. In essence, all life evolved from stem cells of some kind. Stem cell research has been around for almost as long as microscopes. It is only within the 1980s that more sophisticated developments have been allowed for the growing of cells in laboratories. Fetal nerve cells were one of the first stem cells that were used to treat Parkinson disease.
The National Institute of Health states that stem cells are generally very early stage cells that have the ability to turn into other specialized types of cells and at the same time replicate themselves (2).For example, a

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stem cell can turn into liver cells, skin cells, and nerve cells etc. There are two groups of stem cells that are important: embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. There are common terms that one may come across describing stem cells gr...