The Pros And Cons Of Stem Cell Therapy

Ethical Implications of Stem Cell Therapy Stem cell therapy has been proven to be a very useful tool for the treatment and possibly prevention of many life-altering ailments. The usefulness of stem cells can not be argued as they have been proven to be effective in treating a wide variety of diseases. What can be debated are a few ethical issues surrounding the use of stem cells and how they are harvested. Some of these issues include funding and debates over how the cells are harvested. The financial costs of stem cell therapy have been shown to be very high. Whether it be in clinical trials or the out of pocket expense for the patient, stem cell therapy is costly. California has already committed almost 300 million dollars each year toward research for stem cell therapies (Gruen 2006). Also, the costs to the consumer for actual treatment have been quite expensive. Many single treatments have been shown to be at least ten thousand dollars out of pocket for the patient. These are so expensive as a result of the time and

It is not uncommon for an embryo to simply not develop and become a fetus. Many times the embryo will simply never develop. If a study could be done testing the success rate of stem cell therapies using embryonic stem cells against the percentage of embryos that actually come to be born it might help some to determine. Whichever side has the higher percentage of success in that particular type of case should be the deciding factor for if embryonic stem cells should be used. People argue that it is murder to destroy the embryo to obtain stem cells, but to condemn someone with a terminal illness to death even though there may be a stem cell therapy that could save them should also be considered murder. Whatever course of action gives the highest chance of life should be the option that is