Quote:
Originally Posted by GarfieldJL
Problem with your argument is that they can use a person's own skin cells to rebuild organs and spinal cords. So if you can do these things without using embryonic stem cells why use embryonic stem cells when you can use something else without the moral issue.
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The problem with
this is that a person's own adult stem cells are
multipotent and not
pluripotent, meaning the latter can develop into
any kind of cell. In addition, the ability to "rebuild organs and spinal chords" is an example of the type of research that has essentially been obstructed to the point that lives that could be saved are not -what's needed are the more pluripotent embryonic stem cells over the multipotent adult stem cells.
Admittedly, stem cells harvested from the recipient have the distinct advantage of being less prone to rejection, however, they're also less likely to develop into the specific cells you need, making research more costly, difficult, and restricted.
Again, there are embryos that will be destroyed -dropped, literally, in the garbage, which can be used for good purposes. These are blastocysts of a few hundred cells at most with
no brain, no nervous system, and, thus,
no brainwaves. They're less intelligent than the bacteria growing in my intestine.