Stem Cells in Medicine: Ethical Considerations

Evaluation

Stem cells in medicine have the potential to really benefit patients. There are so many advantages, for example almost completely reducing the risk of rejection of transplanted organs if they arise from iPS cells produced from the patient's own cells.  However, it does not seem ethical to some people that embryonic stem cells should be used because these embryos have the right to life as much as anyone and it is not fair that they should have no control over this. On the other hand, it is much harder to use adult stem cells because they can't differentiate into as wide a variety of cells as embryonic stem cells - albeit now with iPS cells, they have so much more potential; so I think now we should only use iPS cells as this removes the majority of the ethical considerations. There is also the possibility of using unfertilised egg cells that have been artificially stimulated to divide because these are not yet a life and would not survive many days.  But at the end of the day, it is down to the personal beliefs and ethics of the patient as to whether they would agree to having stem cell therapy or not. There are strong arguments on both sides that need to be considered and respected.