Does the use of stem cells pose more danger to society than it has potential benefits?

In biology class we have been looking at Stem cells and The Human genome project. This ties in with the exploration of ethics as an Area of Knowledge in TOK. Which refers to the branch of knowledge which deals with moral principles. 

Stem cells can be used to replace damaged or diseased cells with healthy, functioning ones. Uses of stem cells are likely to change the world we live during the next fifty years and a discussion of the ethical issues of therapeutic uses of stem cells is important. Some examples of treatments using stem cells are for Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer's disease, type 1 diabetes, Stargardt's disease and spinal cord damage. 

The ethical problem is where the stem cells are obtained for. Stem cells can be derived from one of three sources: Embryos (may be specially created by therapeutic cloning), umbilical cord blood or placenta of a new-born baby, and bone marrow

Embryonic stem cell research poses a moral dilemma. It forces us to choose between two moral principles:

• The duty to prevent or alleviate suffering

• The duty to respect the value of human life

.

Obtaining stem cells from embryos is the most unethical as it is like ‘killing’ a baby. But is it really considered to be alive if it is still an embryo? Although I think it is cruel to grow an embryo just for stem cells, I think the positives out-weigh the negatives. The stem cells obtained from the embryo is the best as it can be used therapeutically, while other options like harvesting it from the umbilical cord can be expensive. This is an example of utilitarian/consequential ethical system, it is more logical and looks at the ‘best to make the most people happy.’ I also think I am quite a logical person, so I generally prefer to look at consequential ethical systems. 

A question to express my thoughts; "Does the use of stem cells pose more danger to society than it has potential benefits?"

This is looking at the consequence of harvesting stem cells from embryo. In my opinion stem cells are the future, and until we find a way of synthetically producing stem cells, our best bet has to be using stem cells obtained from embryos, as they are undifferentiated and can be used for a variety of uses like skin grafting. Some scientists have also said “If someone is going to have an abortion, isn’t it better that we use it for something useful?"

 

 http://britanymerida.weebly.com/ethical.html 

Sources:

http://www.eurostemcell.org/factsheet/embyronic-stem-cell-research-ethical-dilemma

http://www.actionbioscience.org/genomics/carroll_ciaffa.html