US Senate supports the stem cell bill

The human embryonic stem cell research bill has a lot of support in the US Senate, despite its opposition by President Bush. Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican and chief sponsor of a bill, said Wednesday that he had enough votes in the Senate to override a presidential veto of the measure. The measure approves the use of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, and goes against the President's 2001 executive order that banned funding of the controversial research. Link.

What is human embryonic stem-cell research? Stem cells are the first few cells that form after a fertilized egg divides. They are medically the most useful cells because as they grow and subdivide, they can turn into any type of cells, such as spinal cord cells or heart muscle cells. So, any kind of damaged human tissue can be replaced by tissue regenerated from stem cells, giving hope to the many who suffer from spinal cord injury, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, or many other conditions. Link.

Why is embryonic human stem-cell research so controversial? The controversy comes into play when scientists make a new cell line. When a new human stem cell line is made, a human egg is fertilized in order to generate the stem cells. The moral issue is whether or not harvesting stem cells from the fertilized human egg is morally the same as taking a life, because under the right conditions, the fertilized egg could grow into a whole human being. The President's supports federal funding of human embryonic stem-cell research only if no new stem cell lines are made. But here's the problem: in-vitro fertilization, a common procedure for couples with problems conceiving a child, produces thousands of unused fertilized eggs every year. The bill currently in Congress doesn't suggest that we should fertilize human eggs just to do medical research on them, it supports funding for research done on the embryos discarded from in-vitro fertilization.