Stem Cell Research

Although it is a breakthrough in finding new treatments and cures for diseases, stem cell research has created a lot of controversy in our world.

On Thursday, January 17, 2008, scientists in California produced embryos that are clones of two men. What was amazing about this was that the embryos were made with ordinary skin cells. The cloning process is done by inserting DNA into a human egg. Then when the egg gets to be about five days old, they extract the stem cells from it. The scientists took skin cells from Dr. Samuel Wood, who is a co-author of the new paper and chief executive of Stemagen Corp. in La Jolla, California, and another volunteer. The scientists produced three embryos with DNA that matched the men’s. It was confirmed that they were human clones by further testing of the DNA.
(http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/01/17/cloned.embryos.ap/index.html#cnnSTCText)
There are many people who oppose this however. They say that we do not have the right to create humans for the sole purpose of destroying them in order to help others. Richard Doerflinger, spokesman for U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that as a scientific advancement, the new study and findings will be “very limited.” Due to these protests and objections, scientists have taken on a new method to achieve stem cells. This new process directly turns skin cells into stem cells but it has a greater possibility of cancer for the person receiving the tissues.
<http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080117/ap_on_sc/cloned_embryos;_ylt=AtO5tJD6Bkwfhx_nG1x1MogPLBIF>