This essay discusses the ethical aspects of using human embryos to obtain stem cells which can be used to treat various diseases and even save lives. I will mostly focus on the moral status of the embryo and whether or not it should be considered a human, I am going to focus on the following points of view/ideas: “The embryo has a full moral status from fertilization onwards”, “The embryo has an increasing status as it develops” and “The embryo has no moral status at all”. I will also mention religion on this issue and discuss a bit what each religion thinks or supports in this issue. I will not be able to talk a lot about this issue from a religious and devoted point of view because I do not believe in any godly power. It would be wrong for …show more content…
There are two main sources of these stem cells. One is getting them from an embryo during the blastocyst phase. It is and embryo (human embryo) that has developed until day five or six. It presents a structure of 200 undifferentiated cells. Later on, during gestation, these cells will differentiate into all the different types of cells who will form the human body. The other main source of these stem cells are adult stem cells (they can be found in all of us), they can be found in various places such as brain, blood, blood vessels, muscles and skin and liver. These cells are cells to be used in case of emergency, they stay in the mentioned parts of the body for years without dividing, they are activated and start dividing in case of disease and injury to substitute for the lost cells in injury or disease. The stem cells can replace the diseased cells by healthy cells, they can be used to see how they develop into differentiated cells which can help doctors understand how some diseases develop. They can also be used to test “drugs” before they are used on people to evaluate whether the “drug is safe or