Just over four years ago, my wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy, our son Benjie. Prior to birth, we took all the standard classes and were naturally introduced to a number of products and services - including the cryogenic storage of stem cells from the blood collected from the umbilical cord and other matter. The motivation for doing this is to have a source of stem cells for Benjie and Mom (from my understanding it can't help dad as much) in the event of the onset of a variety of ills including certain types of cancer (not to mention what may be able to be done with the cells as medical science progresses). Since 2000, Benjie's stem cells have been in cold storage in Florida and available for use (The service also advertises that the cells can be donated for research and other uses).
So why is it necessary to use stem cells only from fetal tissue? What is the difference? Isn't a stem cell a stem cell? Is this issue more to do with abortion (justification) than medical science? Doesn't it also mean the more births we have, the more stem cells that would be available for research and treatment - without using aborted fetuses?