Stem Cell Research: Obstacles On The Way

Though many researchers have put their heart and soul to work on stem cell research, they have to face very large obstacles like the ethical and religion issues.

In South Korea, when Hwang Woo Suk, a scientist reported creating human embryonic stem cells through cloning, he did not apologize for offending religious taboos. He justified cloning by citing his Buddhist belief in recycling life through reincarnation.

Cynthia Fox, the author of “Cell of Cells,” a book about the global race among stem-cell researchers said, “Biotechnology has been considered as playing God.”

Cloning human embryos for research has been legally supported in England and several other countries, but it is banned in more than a dozen others, including France and Germany.

Of course, many critics of biotechnology do not explicitly use religious beliefs to justify their opposition. Countries like the United States, are supposed to be guided by secular constitutions, not sectarian creeds. So opponents of genetically modified foods focus on the possible dangers to ecosystems and human health, and committees of scientists try to resolve the debate by conducting risk analyses.

The prospect of cloning children is much more distant, even when researchers are becoming optimistic about obtaining stem cells without using embryos. For now, scientists throughout the world say they do not even want to contemplate reproductive cloning because of the risks to the child. And public-opinion polls do not show much support for it anywhere.

Even if human cloning becomes safe, there may never be much demand for it, because most people will prefer having children the old-fashioned way.

- Roopa S