Ethical aspects of research and treatment with stem cells

The generalized popular knowledge about stem cells and their possible use in regenerative medicine has awakened a great interest in the population and an enormous expectation of treatment for almost all illnesses. But the use of these cells deserves very different ethical evaluations depending on where they come from and how they are gotten. Cells from the umbilical cord and adult individuals do not present with ethical problems different to any other type of treatment or research. The case of embryonic cells does create ethical problems, but in this text the morality of its use is maintained and defended, provided some minimal limits are preserved.