Ethics of Stem Cell Research Stem cell research has quickly become a hot new topic to debate these days. One side says it's unethical, the other says it's critical to the advancement of medical science. It's hard to make a decision before you know the facts, so here they are. Stem cells are cells that have the ability to transform into any type of tissue cell in the human body. After a sperm fertilizes an egg, the cell it forms is known as a zygote or totipotent cell. This cell goes through numerous mitotic divisions and after about four days forms a blastocyst. This blastocyst has an outer and an inner layer, part of which is hollow. The outer layer grows to form what will become the placenta. The cells contained in the inner layer are known as pluripotent cells. They are what the term stem cells generally refers to. These pluripotent cells cannot survive on their own. But they have the ability to form most of the tissues necessary for the survival of the embryo. These are the cells that scientists are interested in. They say that if these cells are isolated from the embryo, they can theoretically be induced to transform into a special type of cell, such as a nerve cell, or a brain cell, or a blood cell. But there's a hitch. If you take these cells from an embryo, the embryo will die, just as if you take out a man's heart to give it to another, the donor will die. It is on this fact that the opposition to stem cell research is based, to stop the killing of embryos just for scientific research. On the other hand, scientists say that using this universal cell, treatments can be developed for many diseases, such as Parkinson's disease, diabetes or heart disease. Furthermore, the development of stem cells into certain cell types is controlled by so-called “on/off genes”. Scientists say that the same type of genes are responsible for the development of tumors that lead to cancer, and if we can research these on/off genes in stem cells and understand how they work, then it is possible to find a cure for cancer. possible.Not all stem cells come from embryos. Therefore anti-stem cell researchers proposed the idea of ​​carrying out research on adults, since adults also have stem cells in their bodies.