Stem Cell Research Debates--when does life begin?

I recall a time in my Catholic school days when I had to write a paper about when life begins, and I have to giggle a bit at what they had me writing. Of course I wrote this lengthy narrative about how life begins at conception, but to add to it I was inspired by the faculty to describe the experience from the embryo's perspective. Being young and all, I just wrote what they told me to with some flair- talked about how it was scary and painful...that sort of thing. Looking back, I find it kind of terrible. Of course the cell is living, but to give it feelings and emotion at such an early stage is like give a skin cell the ability to be afraid.
As an adult, I now find myself asking why not? I understand the whole ethics backing and what not, but if something so great can come out of this research... and the resources for it are so abundant... why not take advantage of that?

As far as touchy subjects go, there's no question that this is one for the record books. Anytime you put the words "harvest" and "human embryo" in the same sentence, everyone gets a little squeamish. I am inclined to agree that growing human fetuses, as talked about in the article, for harvest does sound too diabolical for me to support. However, completely disregarding the pro-life vs. pro-choice argument, I see no issue with using aborted fetuses, so long as the would-be-parents give consent. When you think about it in scientific terms it makes perfect sense. The stem cell researchers are in essence protected from an ethical stand point. They do not request that babies are aborted, they simply request that the already aborted baby be used to help better mankind. In this sense, it is not much different from being an organ donor. So, for other pro-life supporters to oppose stem cell research has never made much sense to me. They are not a bunch of monsters bullying distraught pregnant women into aborting their children for the sake of research. Besides, and I feel awful even saying this, the fetuses in this research are already dead, and there's nothing that can be done about that. However, the research from their stem cells has serious potential to save thousands, if not millions, of lives, which should be quite intriguing to people who are pro-LIFE, at least while abortions are still taking place.

I believe that no stage of a human life should be "harvested" for the stem cells, BUT we should still use stem cell research. What many people don't realize is that there are stem cells within the umbilical chord. These stem cells aren't quite the same in that they don't have the same success rate, but for research all we would need is a consent from the mother to use the umbilical chord (which is usually thrown away) and the stem cells within for research without ever needing to "harvest" any stage of a human life.

In my opinion, human life shouldn't be labeled as one until it obtains a heart beat. Once the heart starts beating, the fetus has human life. But that's only an opinionated statement. There are a lot of factors that go into when it is ethically acceptable to use these cells if you decide that it is okay to use them for research. With some families choosing abortion I feel like it is acceptable to use those cells, like recycling. Also I wonder if it is possible to extract a few stem cells from the embryo without harming the embryo. If this was possible it would make the concept of stem cell research a lot more ethically acceptable.

The idea of stem cell research and whether it is "murdering a human being" is a very touchy subject. I believe that human life does not start until organs are present and a heartbeat exists in the infant.However, I believe the main thing to consider when looking at stem cell research is, "Do the positives out way the negative." If we are able to cure disease's such as cancer, brain damage, etc in millions of people around the world would extracting these cells be seen as worth it? Personally I believe it would be, but as a stated earlier stem cell research is a very controversial subject with no correct answer.