• Question: hi, can taking stem cells from a child damage the baby in any way? and do you agree with creating an embryo then taking the stem cells and killing it at 14 days?

    Asked by katiealexander to Anzy, Aoife, Dave, Matt, Tomasz on 13 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: David Christensen

      David Christensen answered on 13 Nov 2013:

      I don’t think there is anyone taking stem cells from babies, so we do not have to worry about that.

      Embryonic stem cells are taken from embryos and I think that research on embryonic stem cells will be important in making treatments for a lot of different diseases, so I think the use of embryos for this is important. I think it is a personal question whether you think that an embryo that is 14 days old is alive or not and whether you think that destroying a 14 day old embryo is murder or not. I don’t personally think this is murder, so I have no problem with use of embryonic stem cells. I have a very good friend who does believe that use of embryonic stem cells is equivalent to murder, for religious reasons, and I respect his right to believe that even though I disagree.

    • Photo: Anzy Miller

      Anzy Miller answered on 13 Nov 2013:

      Hi katiealexander,

      Just to continue on from what David has written – embryonic stem cells are taken from embryos when they are just a ball of cells – only roughly 6 days after fertilisation for human cells (and 4.5 for mouse). As I said at this stage the embryo hasnt started to develop anything that is recognisable as a person, so it seems to be that at this stage it isnt properly alive. But if you do take these cells from embryos, the embryo doesnt develop, so you are stopping a person being born – and so there are big debates on the ethics of human embryonic stem cell research.

      But many of the embryos that we have used to get human embryonic stem cells from are left over from IVF treatment – woman given many eggs and once she is pregnant, there may be many eggs left over. Taken cells from these seems less wasteful than just throwing away the eggs.

      But this is a great question and you can debate a lot about this – do you think the embryo is an alive person when its just a ball of cells right at the beginning of development? Do you think its right to remove this cells, and what about the left over eggs for IVF treatment? What do you think?

      Anzy

    • Photo: Matthew Tomlinson

      Matthew Tomlinson answered on 14 Nov 2013:

      Hi katiealexander

      I also agree with David and Anzy, the cells that are used for embryonic stem cell research come from a ball of roughly 150 cells and I don’t think that by that stage consciousness has developed, which is when I would say something is alive. I realise it is a very controversial subject, but for me it is much better if the leftover cells made for IVF treatment are used for something beneficial rather than being thrown away. It is an unfortunate part of IVF treatment that so many extra embryos have to be created, but it is necessary to give potential parents the best chance of having children.

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