More importantly, this particular use of stem cell technology would spare the lives of the vast majority of needy organ recipients that die every year before a suitable organ can be found for them (Kinsley, 2007; Pollack, 2007).
Embryonic stem cells represent the greatest potential for medical applications, simply because they retain the greatest ability to develop into virtually any type of human tissue desired; they are capable of being extracted from fertilized human zygotes, such as the fertilized ova produced for each patient by the dozen in fertility clinics using in-vitro fertilization (IVF) techniques. The Michigan proposal centers precisely around the beneficial use of the many excess zygotes produced in IVF clinics that under current Michigan law, cannot be used even for privately funded medical research (Satyanarayana, 2008).
During the IVF process, infertile patients undergo a harvesting of their sperm and eggs (respectively) for external fertilization and subsequent re-implantation for normal gestation thereafter. Because the ovum extraction procedure is expensive, uncomfortable, and not always successful on any particular attempt, approximately one dozen or more eggs are actually fertilized, so that multiple re-implantations are possible without additional extraction procedures (Talan, 2007). Under the new proposal, the excess embryos produced through IVF techniques would be eligible for any privately funded research use that is permitted by existing federal law (Satyanarayana, 2008).
The pending Michigan proposal specifically targets this wasted resource of valuable embryonic research material. Currently, Michigan law requires all the excess embryos created in IVF clinics to be discarded as medical waste or frozen indefinitely (Hornstein, 2008). Under its provisions, the new proposal would allow these unused IVF embryos to be donated by the patients for medical research, provided they are less than 14 days old (Hornstein, 2008; Satyanarayana, 2008).
The proposal still bans other more controversial uses of stem cells, such as for experiments into human cloning. Medical researchers support this distinction...
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