Embryonic stem-cell research is both scientifically feasible and morally permissible according to the majority of the electorate in the State of California, where voters approved a $3 billion bond initiative in November 2004 to fund such research. An embryo is defined as an individual, human or animal, from the time the zygote first begins cellular differentiation, lasting through the eighth week after fertilization in humans. Embryonic stem cells, the immediate descendants of the zygote, respond to various stimuli to produce more specialized stem cells, ultimately resulting in adult cells like white or red blood cells. Disassociated embryonic stem cells are extracted from an embryo created through in vitro fertilization or cloning, and while these cells can split indefinitely in culture, the embryo that donates them dies. The scientific challenges and moral issues surrounding embryonic stem-cell research remain critical topics for further exploration.

An embryo is an organism that follows a God-given blueprint to develop normally into a breathing person in God's image. Scientists extract stem cells from an embryo created through IVF or cloning. In either case the embryo dies. The embryo is a maturing human being with the potential to become a glorified God being. Stem-cell harvesting permanently interrupts the embryo's development and therefore kills without God's permission. The embryo's subsequent development is a process of becoming what it already is from the moment of conception. An embryo is an embryo from the time the zygote experiences its first cellular split regardless of its state of womb-attachment. The term pre-embryo creates the illusion that there is something profoundly different between a six-day-old embryo and a sixteen-day-old embryo. Human development begins at fertilization. The zygote is a highly specialized totipotent cell that marks the beginning of each person as a unique individual. A zygote whether sexually or asexually created whether in a Petri dish or a womb has the potential to become a human being. The researcher's intentional refusal to allow that totipotent cell to develop to its potential does not change its nature from human to nonhuman. Reproductive cloning occurs when the cloned embryo is implanted into a womb. Therapeutic cloning is the creation of a clonal zygote with no intention to implant it into a womb. Regardless of the researcher's planned purpose a zygote is always a potential son or daughter of God. Somatic cell nuclear transfer is cloning. The procedure produces a zygote that experiences growth in culture and generates stem cells on its way to producing a mature human being. Wicked men interrupt the process extract the stem cells and kill the human being.