The harvesting of stem cells from embryos always results in the destruction of the embryo and this is the nub of the matter. If embryos were only a haphazard cluster of cells, there would be no problem. However, an embryo, although it is small and cannot smile yet or talk, is a distinct individual human being in the process of rapid organised development. Modern research in genetics and in reproductive technology helps to demonstrate that this is true. We now know that a human embryo can live and develop apart from its mother. We know too that a human embryo is genetically distinct from its parents and that all the genetic information required for its development is already present at the single cell stage.