As potentially groundbreaking as this research is, there are many who oppose it. The argument most often put forward is that embryos are people, and it is always morally wrong to kill people. But stem cells, and the embryos they come from, are not people. An “embryo” in this context is a group of about 100 cells, too small to see with the naked eye. It is not conscious. It has no capacity to feel pain. It does not think. It does not reason. It has no

Another argument against stem cell research is that human embryos, while not people as such, are potential people, and it is thus still unethical to destroy them for the stem cells they provide. This argument, too, lacks reason. The embryos used in stem cell research are not potential people, any more than they are actual people. A fertilized egg in the womb of a pregnant woman is a potential person. A fertilized egg in an IVF clinic, about to be left to thaw out and be destroyed, is not. It will never develop into a human being. An embryo does not simply develop into a human baby on its own—it needs a healthy womb, adequate nourishment, and a fair amount of luck. The embryo in the IVF clinic has the potential to be two things, and a person is not one of them. It can be a discarded group of dead human cell tissue, or it can be a cure for Cancer. Or Parkinson’s disease. Alzheimer’s. Diabetes. Spinal cord injury. Muscular Dystrophy. Down Syndrome. AIDS. Just about any fatal or debilitating disease one can think of. Imagine a future where being diagnosed with Heart Disease simply meant having an injection. This is the potential of Stem Cell research. Even if, again simply for the sake of argument, each one of these embryos could be considered a potential person, the fact remains that they are still not people, and stem cell research is simply too important to be hindered in any way for the sake of the as-yet non-existent human beings that may or may not come into existence as a result of these tiny clusters of human cell tissue.

Some topics in this essay:
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