Stem cells?
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Everything in your body is made of cells. Skin, organs, bones, even blood. All these cells have the capability of reproducing themselves--bones can make new bone cells, the liver can make new liver cells, etc.
But in developing embryos there are special cells that can develop into any kind of cell! Squirt them into the liver and they produce liver cells. Put them in the brain and they produce brain cells.
There are many degenerative diseases that are caused by parts of the body being no longer able to reproduce the cells they need. Alzheimers disease might be one of these, or Parkinson's. (I'm not sure but these are the kinds of diseases that are brought up as possibly being cured with stem cells).
The idea is that stem cells could be injected in the body at the site of the problem and help to rebuild parts of the brain, nervous system, or whatever.
Conservatives and Christians don't want research to be done with embryonic stem cells because they say it will encourage abortion. But thousands of embryos are discarded each year from in-vitro fertilization procedures, and nobody seems to care about them! So I think this is more politics than faith.
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