A different medical potential has been identified between embryonic and adult stem cells after intensive embryonic stem cell research. The number of limitations in terms of curative therapeutic applications is higher in the case of adult stem cells that cannot develop into a too large number of tissues. Moreover, the rarity, the collection difficulty and the challenge of growing them in cultures make the biggest impediments for adult stem cells. Therefore, the highest emphasis falls on embryonic stem cell research, and this is where most medical hopes lie. The transplant rejection nevertheless remains the most serious problem to be overcome in clinical trials.
During the Bush administration, all American embryonic stem cell research was banned. The end of this bare period came in March 2009 when the new American president lifted the ban and allowed the research processes to be reinitialized. Scientists are unsure about what to expect from embryonic stem cell research in terms of future promises because the full potential or the eventual risks are not known. Apparently, almost all diseases will receive a cure, if we are to trust a very optimistic point of view. If a person immobilized in a wheel chair that use power wheelchair lifts or even used wheelchair lifts because of spinal cord injury can walk again, then, hopes can be high for a number of other diseases.
Embryonic stem cell research still causes lots of heated international controversies and debates. It is the moral side of research and the way it disposes of human embryos that lots of people questions. The biological material usually results from in-vitro fertilization clinics, where the remaining embryos are donated for scientific purposes. The pro-life movement that opposes embryonic stem cell research brings lots of arguments against the use of such material for scientific purposes. There is life involved, and scientists are playing God with it, ending or allowing it to continue as it suits their observational purposes.
For the moment, embryonic stem cell research lacks in many respects. Progress is being made in the attempt to discover new remedies for irrecoverable diseases, yet, the path is very sinuous. How moral are scientific studies? Do we have the right to interfere in the works of Nature? Is the presumable efficiency of the results worth paying the price? It remains to be seen whether sacrifices are worth making along the way and whether the very debatable and debated embryonic stem cell research will ever become unanimously recognized and accepted.
