However, while we should never disparate pure research for its own sake, physiological research and especially stem cell research are important not simply for the fact that they expand our knowledge but also for the fact that the knowledge produced within the realm of physiological research has a number of practical and often immediate applications, including medical uses. One of the key aspects of all physiological research but especially that of stem cell research is that it is promises us at least the possibility of creating or recreating fully functional systems - something that can only happened after we understand how they work.
The ability to create or recreate an entire physical system is arguably (and for the moment we are considering only the science and not the ethics of the issue) the greatest possible achievement of physiological research. Stem cell research offers this possibility to a greater extent even than most forms of physiological research. Stem cells offer such promise because they are both complete and immature: As undifferentiated but genetically complete cells they are theoretically capable of being prodded to turn into any type of cell in a human or other organism.
While the term "genetic engineering" may conjure in the minds of many people the image of mad Frankenstein-like scientist creating horrors and havoc in his (or her) lab, in fact a great deal of medicine may arguably be considered to be an attempt to cheat genetics. Much of what modern medicine does is to allow individuals who might well (on a purely Darwinian, natural-selection basis) be evolutionarily considered unfit to live to reproduce. This may still occur - possibly through the cloning of individuals that will make it possible for researcher and physicians to use those clones as a sort of repository for spare parts.
Stem cells are unspecialized cells that can renew themselves indefinitely and, under the right conditions, can develop into more mature cells with specialized functions. They are found in embryos at early stages of development, in some fetal tissue, and in some adult organs, although isolating adult stem cells is very difficult and multiplying them outside the body is not yet possible in most cases. In addition, there is only preliminary evidence that cells obtained from an adult organ can be coaxed into becoming tissue types other than those characteristic of the original organ.
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