As the world elevates in a technological sense, we begin to question the boundaries of reason and if we have reached the limit of truly understanding the human race. Through stem cell research we are able to interpret and grasp the point of our existence, breaking the restrictions in which society presents itself. The world is rapidly evolving but can we say the same for ourselves? Instead of searching across the universe for the cures and advances in medicine, we must look within us. It is our DNA that holds resolution.

As teenagers, we rarely recognize a life other than our own. We don’t notice an elderly man who has forgotten all accounts of his memory pass in confusion, a woman helpless stranded in her house who lost her leg due to diabetes, or a child, much younger then us undergoing treatment for cancer. These are some of the examples of the types of people that benefit from stem cell research. Advocates against stem cell research often claim that this experimentation is a form of “playing God”, but these people fail to realize the improvement in which this process serves to the people who need it the most.
My brother was diagnosed with epilepsy at three. He hasn’t had much of a normal upbringing since. After undergoing at least a dozen operations and treatments, he can no longer function entirely by himself and doctors cannot conclude what started the seizures in the first place. At one point, he was having at least a hundred seizures a day. While other kids his age were playing outside, he was kept in a hospital room in critical condition for three months. This February he will turn thirteen, suffering a decade with this disease. A seizure causes a severe amount of trauma to the head, causing the body to loose all accounts of knowing how to function. My brother no longer speaks and has trouble balancing. It’s difficult to understand why certain people become a victim of a certain disease while others go on simply living, what made them react so differently? Through stem cell research we are able to understand ourselves on a whole other level, it would reveal the answers to diseases such as epilepsy.

Stem cell research has the potential to dramatically change medical treatment as we know it. A number of adult stem cell therapies already exist, particularly bone marrow transplants that are used to treat leukemia. Technology in medicine could potentially cure the diseases that plague in families. Why do we allow ourselves to be naïve, to ignore these people who suffer just to simply live? As the years progress, we can not allow medical standards to remain the same.