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In the beginning there is the stem cell; it is the origin of an organism's life. It is a single cell that can give rise to progeny that differentiate into any of the specialized cells of embryonic or adult tissues.
STEWART SELL, Stem Cells Handbook
Researchers and biotech executives foresee the day when the effects of many catastrophic diseases can be reversed. The damaged brains of Alzheimer's disease patients may be restored. Severed spinal cords may be rejoined. Damaged organs may be rebuilt. Stem cells provide hope that this dream will become a reality.
GEORGE WOLFF, The Biotech Investor's Bible
Ethical judgments about the use of embryonic stem cells in research and therapies flow from the status accorded to the embryo. Those who feel that an embryo is a human being, or should be treated as one because it has the potential to become a person, contend that it is unethical to do anything to an embryo that could not be done to a person. At the opposite end of the spectrum, some people have expressed the view that the embryo is nothing more than a ball of cells that can be treated in a manner similar to tissues used in transplantation.
STEVE USDIN, introduction to Human Embryonic Stem Cells
While we must devote enormous energy to conquering disease, it is equally important that we pay attention to the moral concerns raised by the new frontier of human embryo stem cell research. Even the most noble ends do not justify any means.
GEORGE W. BUSH, speech, Aug. 9, 2001
I think we can do ethically guided embryonic stem cell research. We have 100,000 to 200,000 embryos that are frozen in nitrogen today from fertility clinics. These weren't taken from abortion or something like that. They're from a fertility clinic, and they're either going to be destroyed or left frozen. And I believe if we have the option, which scientists tell us we do, of curing Parkinson's, curing diabetes, curing, you know, some kind of a ... you know, paraplegic or quadriplegic or, you know, a spinal cord injury -- anything -- that's the nature of the human spirit. I think it is respecting life to reach for that cure.
JOHN KERRY, presidential debate, Oct. 8, 2004
The best that can be said about embryonic stem cell research is that it is scientific exploration into the potential benefits of killing human beings.
TOM DELAY, Washington Post, May 25, 2005
Nuclear transfer technology, which allows you to create stem cells that are genetically identical to a particular patient, may be ... necessary in order to get the full value out of embryonic stem cells. This is the matter of taking the nucleus from a skin cell, putting it in a hollowed-out egg cell in a dish and growing it to the point where you can take stem cells out of it. It never enters a womb. Sperm and egg never meet. There's no pregnancy and yet the opponents of this research continue to cast this in terms of these are little tiny lives. In fact, these are specks smaller than a grain of sand in which we can derive stem cells that could have vast scientific and medical benefit.
DANIEL PERRY, PBS Online NewsHour, Oct. 11, 2004
I am pro-life. I believe human life begins at conception. I also believe that embryonic stem cell research should be encouraged and supported.
BILL FRIST, speech, Jul. 29, 2005
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