For 3 Debates 2009 Carpe Diem School

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. My name's Nicol Licanqueo, and I will present the third speaker.

Presently, aborted fetus' are frozen and then thrown away. However, stem cell researchers say that It would be possible to cure many diseases with these discarded fetus'. So why throw the fetus’ away when we can cure diseases with their stem cells?

• We know that stem cells are some of the the more basic elements of organic life. They have the characteristic of regenerating and adapting to become a new part of damaged tissue.

- addittionaly -

• We can use these particular characteristics to investigate and find cures for so many diseases, like: Parkinson, alzheimers, spinal cord injuries, diabetes, and even cancer – the second leading cause of death in Chile, and in the world.(www.scielo.cl; www.cancer.org – global facts)

• Nowadays the treatment for these diseases is so expensive and physically painful that it can be unbearable for not only the patient involved but for the family invested in walking with their loved ones through the treatments. Often, the therapies are so physically damaging that death comes not from the cancer, but from the patient's body being unable to cope with the stress.

• When Barack Obama became the President of the United States, one of his first, more controversial decisions, was to eliminate the prohibition on Federal Funding for stem cell research. This was a big step for the families of cancer sufferers and other genetic diseases. Currently, aborted fetus' can be frozen, and stored for research later when researching stem cells becomes more economically feasable, presumeably when the U.S. federal government is able to fund this research.

• However, one point of contention is that many countries in the world maintain abortion is illegal, and that researching stem cells is a violation of human life. Obama argued that one reason he made his decision on behalf of the United States was because he did not want to lose a chance at changing the world . . . and it's true.

• The countries who do not back this research are losing the opportunity to cure an unnumerable amount of diseases, create an environment where suffering is no longer in the hands of disease, but can instead be cured by an infinite amount of possibilities that stem cells creates.

CONCLUSION

Many of these people who suffer don't want anything other than more time to spend with their families and loved ones. And if we accept that the first responsibility of government is to create an environment where human life can thrive, and be good, and better than it was, than not endeavoring to research stem cells is irresponsible and unhelpful – and the government wont be doing its job.