Last Thursday night, President Bush announced that he would allow federal funding for the research into the benefits of embryonic stem cells. These cells, which grow at the earliest stages of human development, are basically “blank” cells that if harnessed at this stage and given “proper programming” – can be turned into any other kind of cell in the body and have the potential to be used as treatments – and possibly even cures – for everything from paralysis, to Alzheimer's disease, to heart disease – to even Type I diabetes.

In preliminary experiments, Israeli researchers have taken these “blank” human embryonic stem cells – and grown heart cells from them that can be used to combat heart disease. More amazing then that – researchers at the Spinal Cord Injury Unit at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri paralyzed laboratory rats and then injected them with stem cells, which the researchers hoped would cause spinal cord regeneration. Six weeks later – the rat’s hind legs functioned again – and the rats were able to walk as if they were never injured.

My question is – is stem cell research and development the answer to our prayers – or the beginning of our end?

The way stem cells are harvested is by cloning embryos at the moment of fertilization and then stopping the cloned embryo's division at a very early stage. At this point, the stem cells are collected from the now terminated cloned embryo. These cells could then be grown to create replacement organs, neural implants for patients with degenerative nervous disorders like Alzheimer's disease, or disease-fighting cells, all of which would be an exact genetic match for the patient being treated – because the cells came from their clone.

Does anyone else see a problem with this?

I realize that if used properly, stem cell research and development can be the answer to the world’s medical problems – but if used improperly – cloning can become a disastrous new invention that could do much more harm then good.

My opinion regarding cloning has nothing to do with the debate over human life and whether or not it should be terminated at the fetal stage, my argument regarding cloning is whether or not we should do it at all. I feel that cloning humans is playing God – and that is something that humans should never attempt. With Earth’s population growing rapidly with each passing year as more and more couples have children – cloning can only add to the population boom, but it can do it at a much more expediential rate then conventional means. Plus, does this mean that parents that now want to have twins or triplets simply have to clone their fertilized embryos? Who are we to take something that God has given us – and make a Xerox of it? If God wanted a couple to have twins, he would have given them twins – but now – we have the ability to override God’s decisions when it comes to life.

Worse then that, as scientists continue to advance in the field of cloning, which began with Dolly the sheep and now can stretch into the cloning of humans – how far will we go and will we ever stop to think if what we are doing is wrong? Just because scientists can do something – does it mean that they should?

I applaud anything that can be used as a weapon against the horrible diseases, ailments and medical problems this world has – but I just hope that the ability to clone humans and use stem cells doesn’t get misused or fall into the wrong hands – because I would hate to be right.