Embryonic Cells
Stem cells are cells are cells that can develop into many different types of cells in the body. They serve as a repair system for any cell throughout the body that has been damaged. These cells can divide without limit to replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still alive. When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential to either remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell.
Research on human embryonic stem cells has generated much interest and public debate. Human embryonic stem cells are a type of stem cells that can become more than two hundred cell types that make up the human body. With the right combination of cells a embryonic stem cell can develop into mature cells that can function as neurons, muscles, bone, blood or other needed cell types. Embryonic stem cells were first experimented on with mouse embryos in 1981 by Martin Evans, Matthew Kaufman and Gail R. Martin. Gail R. Martin is credited with coining the term Embryonic Stem Cell. In November 1998, a group led by James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin Madison first developed a technique to isolate and grow the cells when derived from human blastocysts.
The study of Human Embryonic stem cells have changed the worlds view of reality because now that a cell can be replaced and repaired, diseases, body parts, and blood cells that are needed for life can be replaced so one does not die. The world has many different views about stem cell research. Those who value human life from the point of birth are against embryonic stem cell research because the removal of stem cells from this type of an embryo requires its destruction in a living embryo. This means that a human life has to be killed. Many people believe this to be the same as murder. Supporters of embryonic stem cell research claim new human lives will not be created for the sole purpose of experimentation....
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