There are 10,000 known diseases in the world, but there are treatments for only 500 of them (McCarthy). While new diseases keep getting discovered, the number of cures isn’t growing proportionally. However, embryonic stem cell research could potentially change these trends and alter the face of medicine completely. Stem cell research provides hope in finding treatments and cures to diseases thousands battle worldwide, regardless of the extensive ethical concerns about social justice associated with it. Chronic diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Disease rates from such conditions are accelerating globally, advancing across every region and pervading all socioeconomic classes. Diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis and diabetes still …show more content…
Embryonic stem cells, which are produced very early in human development, have the potential to develop into any kind of cell found in the human body; much current research focuses on how to precisely control or induce such differentiation (“Stem Cells”). Scientists were originally interested in stem cells because they provided a way to study totipotency and the plasticity of cells during embryonic development. But it is clear now that “these cells can be used to treat, and possibly cure, a wide variety of diseases” (Panno 88). Rather than administering a pill or an injection, which tends to manage symptoms rather than offer a cure, stem cells work to repair or restore the damaged tissue. Instead of depending on viral vectors, stem cell therapy attempts to treat a disease by introducing whole human cells into the body, which is hoped to restore the patient’s health (Aldridge). Conditions that might be treated this way include Parkinson’s disease, muscular dystrophy, diabetes, heart disease, vision and hearing loss, spinal injury, and even