Is there no alternative to taking cells from human embryos?
Stem cells can also be derived from cells taken from an adult. Scientists using this method seek to persuade the cell to “forget” its current status and go back to the original stem cell state it was in during its time in the embryo. Groups opposed to stem cell work on embryos say the use of embryos is immoral and unnecessary, because the procedure destroys the embryo and because an alternative is available. Scientists working on embryos say that stem cell research is in its infancy and not enough is known about the potential of either adult or embryonic stem cells to abandon one approach in favour of the other. They say the embryos they use are left over at the end of IVF treatment and would have had to have been destroyed in any case. UK legislation requires that unimplanted frozen embryos created for IVF be destroyed after five years. At the point at which the embryos are destroyed, a few days’ development has taken place since fertilisation and they are a microscopic clump of cells
