• Question: What's your opinion on the use of embryonic stem cells?

    Asked by anon-198992 to Srinath, Natasha, Nana, Luisa, Gautam, Alex on 7 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Srinath Kasturirangan

      Srinath Kasturirangan answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      People who are unable to have children naturally, seek the help of fertility clinics and the process called In Vitro Fertilization. To increase the odds of having a viable embryo, for each child that is conceived by this process, several eggs are fertilized and frozen away. While a lot of these eggs could potentially grow into healthy babies, not every single one of them ends up being implanted into the womb. So if these extra frozen fertilized embryos are not needed, they are no longer necessary, and are essentially discarded. However, these embryos are a powerful source of embryonic stem cells which, given the right kind of stimulus, have the potential to develop into different tissues / organs of the body and can help cure some rather difficult to treat diseases. So I feel, if done the right way, embryonic stem cell research can provide a lot of insights and some really path breaking medicines.

    • Photo: Marialuisa Crosatti

      Marialuisa Crosatti answered on 11 Mar 2019:

      I assume you mean, human embryonic stem cells to be used in research. I am not against it in principle but I think there should be an honest debate about that also includes the general public and should be highly regulated to avoid people taking advantage of

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