	Many people wonder why we should use stem cell research, with many people still spilt on the issue. The reason why people are divided is because of the use of embryonic stem cells and whether they can be considered a human being or not. Given the information of this paper that is to follow, the embryos are not what we can consider a person. Also, the advantages of this research are unlimited in what can be done to cure many debilitating diseases, which gives great reason to develop stem cell research. This paper will attempt to show the benefits of stem cell research and why it should be developed.
In the article Stem Cells by State University of New York, it explains that a stem cell is a primitive type of cell that can be produced into all of the two hundred and ten types of cells that are found in the human body. Stem cells can split continually to create more cells. When this happens, the new cells can become any type of specialized cells, for example muscle cells, brain cells, or red blood cells. The stem cells used in research have not been through the process of becoming specialized into the different types of cells in the human body, and so they are really just a bunch of cells that, (as it has been said to me by one of professors) “haven’t decided what they want to be when they grow up.” The three resources which stem cells can be acquired from are adult cells, cord cells, and embryonic cells. Adult cells are abundant in the human body, but to get them causes great damage to the area where they are found. Cord cells come from the umbilical cord and are obtained after birth. The cord cells are saved in cell banks and can be used by the child or other family members to possibly cure any illness they have in the future, with future research. Embryonic stem cells come from embryos that are fertilized at in vitro, or outside the body, by fertilization clinics and can be produced into all of the different types of cells in the body.
	Now that we know what stem cells are, the case of whether stem cell research should be used to treat diseases can be made. Many people disapprove of embryonic stem cell research because they believe that using human embryos is like destroying the life of a person. The embryos that are used are only a few days old, and only have about one hundred cells or less, according to the National Research Council as cited by Sonia Ryang in her article Does It Have to be hESC? (hESC stands for human Embryonic Stem Cells). Compare that to the trillions of cells in the human body, and it doesn’t seem like much of anything. Although genetically “human” at a molecular level (the cells have human DNA) these embryos are far from becoming anything remotely like a person, and they are in a very early stage of development, even for an embryo. Due to the cells not being specialized yet, there is nothing even remotely like a person being formed at this stage.
