Stem cells (able to cure many diseases)

• medicine already uses adult stem cells to cure siease e.g. stem cells transferred from the bone marrow of a healthy person can replace faulty blood cells
• Embryonic stem cells could also be used to replace faulty cells in sick people - you could make insulin - producing cells for people with diabetes, nerve cells for people paralysed by spinal injusries
• in therapeutic cloning, an average could be made to have the same genetic inforamation as the patient. This means that the stem cells produced from it woould also contain the same genes and so wouldn't be rejected by the patient's body if used to replace faulty cells
• But there are risks of using stem cells in medicine e.g. stem cells grown in the las may become contaminated with a virus which could be passed on to the patient and make them sicker
• Some people are against stem cell research as they fell that human embryos could be potential life
• Stem cell research is banned in some countries (UK has to follow strict guidelines)