Life on the Line essays

Life on the Line essays For thousands of years, and generations upon generations, humans have faced decisions of life and death. Many times these decisions are based upon religion, superstition, and politics. Now we come to a junction in the social evolution of man, where we have the ability to take giant steps forward in the development of medicine and we stumble with our resolve to help everyone, based on ideologies of religion, ethics and politics. I would like to ask why, the full funding of stem cell research by the U.S. government should not proceed. In order to achieve the great breakthroughs in curing many diseases burdening all societies throughout the world, shouldnt we continue experimentation? Should we expect financial help from the federal government? In a report by B.A. Robinson, a stem cell is a primitive type of cell that can be coaxed into developing into most of the 220 types of cells found in the human body (e.g. blood cells, heart cells, brain cells, etc). Some researchers regard them as offering the greatest potential for the alleviation of human suffering since the development of antibiotics. Over 100 million Americans suffer from diseases that may eventually be treated more effectively with stem cells or even cured. These include heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. Research using stem cells has been authorized in Britain, but was halted in the U.S. by President George W. Bush. Bush decided on 2001-AUG-9 to allow research to start again in government labs, but restricted research to use only existing lines of stem cells. Research continues in U.S. private labs and in both government and private labs in the UK, Japan, France, Australia, and other countries. In an article for Newsweek by Sharon Begley, there appears to be three main sources for stem cells. "Spare embryos" embryos leftover after a couple's in-vitro fertilization procedure is completed ...