In order to understand the moral issues on stem cell research, I must first define and clarify what a stem cell is, what it can be used for, how they are obtained, and why using adult stem cells isn't nearly as promising. Only after this will you be able to come to your own conclusion on whether or not stem cell research is ethical.
             Stem cells are cells that have the ability to divide in culture and develop into specialized cells. Stem cells are pluripotent, which means they are capable of developing into almost any type of tissue but cannot develop into a fully living organism because they are not totipotent. A totipotent cell is one that has the potential to become a living organism, it has this potential because it has all the necessary genes and DNA structures, and it is also what is formed after an egg has been fertilized. When stem cells are cultured and introduced to certain organisms they can develop into more categorized cells. For example, if you were to introduce a blood cell to a pluripotent stem cell, the stem cell would develop into a blood stem cell and would now be considered a multipotent blood stem cell. It would be considered multipotent because it could no longer be able to develop into any other cell but one in the blood cell group.
             Stem cells are acquired from two sources, a human embryo and the fetal tissue from a terminated pregnancy. This is where the controversial part comes in. in the first process mentioned, a human egg taken from a consenting woman goes through in-vitro fertilization with the sperm of a consenting male adult, then a blastocyst is formed. Then the inner cell mass is isolated and cultured to produce a pluripotent stem cell line. In the second form of acquiring mentioned, tissue is taken off a terminated fetus from the area which would have developed into the testes or the ovaries. The reason why tissue is taken from that location is when a fetus is developing in the uterus, the area the...