Monday, January 27, 2020

The Unethical Business Practices Of Shell Commerce Essay

The Unethical Business Practices Of Shell Commerce Essay Unethical practices by organizations are frequently increasing as the pressure to compete and succeed compels them to ignore the ethical and moral aspects of their practices and decision-making. In order to maximize value for its shareholders and gain profitability, Shell ended up bribing the Nigerian officials to  make it easier to import their goods and equipment, in order to avoid customs duties, extend contracts and lower tax etc. Therefore this report investigates and scrutinizes Shells unethical practices in context to its the moral code of ethics and recommends Shell to be more ethical in their practice. 1.3 Introduction As globalization increases many organizations indulge in unethical practices to achieve growth and profit maximization. Consequently, the examples of such companies include LOreal, Nike, Wal-Mart, Shell etc. Shell, is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies. They have their headquarters situated in Hague, the Netherlands.  The parent company of the Shell group is Royal Dutch Shell plc, which is incorporated in England and Wales. Shells operated in more than 90 countries and has an approximate of 93000 employees. Their production mainly consists of forty eight percent of natural gas and around 3.3million barrels of gas and oil is produced per day. Shell has established forty three service stations worldwide. According to a survey conducted in 2010, theyve sold an estimated 145 billion litres of fuel. The Company has two main streams, upstream which explores for and extracts crude oil and natural gas and Downstream which refines supplies, trades and ships crude worldwi de, manufactures and markets a range of products, and produces petrochemicals for industrial customers. According to their financial report of 2010, with the capital invested of $30.6 billion and $1 billion in Investment in research and development, they had an income of $20.5billion with revenue of $368.1 billion (Shell, 2010). 1.4 Historical Background Shell was born during days of the oil boom and started out in the shadow of John D. Rockefellers Standard oil monopoly. Royal Dutch/Shell was the result of a merger in 1907 between the British-based Shell Transport and Trading Company, which pioneered the use of seagoing oil tankers and the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, which made its fortune developing new oil fields in Borneo and Sumatra. Marcus Samuel was an enterprising fellow who decided to greet ships returning to England from India, Japan, Africa, and the Middle East and offer to buy any trinkets and curious that sailors had collected abroad. In the 1890s, the French Rothchild family decided to go into business exploiting the oil fields opening up in Baku in Russia. Needing a partner to help them transport and sell the oil, they turned to Marcus Samuel the younger. After a brief trip to the Caucasus, Marcus Samuel decided that the only way to take on the near monopoly grip that Standard Oil held was to radically reduce oil tr ansportation costs. During that time kerosene was transported in crates of tin containers. Loading the fuel into these relatively small containers, crating them, and loading them onto ship as time consuming, expensive and inefficient, Samuel argued. It would be much preferable to just pipe the oil into a tanker ship. In 1907, Sir Marcus Samuel and Henri Deterding merged the Shell Transport and Trading Company with the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company to create Royal Dutch/Shell. The company is owned forty percent by the Shell Transport and Trading Company and sixty percent by the Royal Dutch Petroleum (History of Business, 2010). In the 1980s, Shell sought to grow through acquisition. It bought out the remaining 30% shareholding in Shell Oil in 1985 to consolidate its American operations. The 1980s saw the development of offshore exploration projects, which were in much more challenging conditions than had previously been attempted.  The 1990s Shell saw the technology of biomass fuels and Gas to Liquids make giant leaps forward.  Shell was criticized over the Brent Spar episode in 1995, which centered on its plans to dispose of the storage platform. The Group learned that public opinion had become much more sensitive to environmental issues. In the next decade, the Group worked much harder to open a dialogue with interested parties regarding its environmental impact and to develop good relations with the communities affected by its work. Another problem to hit the Group arose from its presence in the Nigerian region of Ogoniland. The tribal minority in the Ogoni were aggrieved with the Nigerian government because they felt denied a proper share of federal revenues from the oil, and what they saw as other fundamental human rights. Their champion was the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa. The oil companies were targeted as collaborators with the corrupt government. Shell was accused of environmental despoliation. The story achieved international notoriety when Saro-Wiwa and eight of his colleagues were sentenced to death by hanging for their activities. Shell has since strived to follow a policy of demonstrating its community of interests and reciprocal good feeling with both the governments and the local populaces it deals with. The 1990s were notable for Shell for the development of the LNG gas business. Improved transportation and rising demand made this area of the Groups activities increasingly important and are expected to continue to do so in the first decades of the twenty-first century (Shell, 2010). 1.5 Report Preview This report examines various unethical practices of Shell. Firstly, it investigates upon the historical background of Shell. Moreover, we have related Shells immoral issues to the ethical theories. Along with these principles we also suggest some recommendations which could be reasonably essential for Shell to operate in a better and efficient manner. Finally, the report concludes with importance on ethics, corporate social responsibility and with our suggestion on its unethical action. 2.0 Shells Unethical practices: In 2010, Shell was accused of bribery practice with Nigerian officials in order to gain profit. Shell bribed Nigerian officials to make it easier for them to import goods and equipment, get lower taxes and avoid the customs. Shell said that it paid 2 million U.S Dollars to its Nigerian Workers in its deep water Bonga Project. Shell actually knew that part of the money will go to Nigerian officials whom will make shell avoid the customs process. This will give shell an obvious competitive advantage in the market. Shell actually gained $14million profit from this bribery of the Bonga project. Shell will pay $48.1 million dollars in order to settle probes by the U.S Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission. In January 2004, fraudulent overstatement of proven hydrocarbon reserves by Shell in Form F20 returns filed with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission(John Donovan,2007). Shell has given misleading and wrong statements about its reserves. It paid a $120 million fine for this claims settlement. One of the famous unethical practices by Shell was causing the high levels of pollution in Nigeria.40% of shells oil spills worldwide was in Nigeria. The oil spill also caused water contamination. It caused oil pollution in the Ogoniland region for the past 40 years or so. The pipelines were built in front of the peoples houses and in their farmlands. They suffered oil leaks through the pipelines. This has totally destroyed the environment over there. It killed the aquatic life; killing many fishes. Also enveloped the land with oil. This has been really devastating for the Ogoni people, economically and healthy, since their economy depends mainly on fishing and farming. People suffered respiratory diseases such as bronchial asthma; and cancer. Lots of vegetation is dying, especially Mangrove swamps, due to wastes of oil in the Niger River. The reason Shell has been successful in doing these unethical practices in Nigeria is because they used to bribe the Nigerian officials frequently to ease the process. Royal Dutch Shell Blames oil spills on sabotage to its equipment ( Chima Williams,2009). This explains how rude and unethically they take responsibility for their awful actions. According to the Covalence ethical ranking in 2008, saw Shell in the 510 position out of 541 multinational companies. Covalence s ethical quotation system is a reputation index based on quantifying qualitative data and It is a barometer of how multinationals are perceived in the ethical field(John Donovan 2009). The covalence ethical ranking is based on important issues such as Human rights policy, Waste Management, Labor standards and product social utility. A research done by Management and Excellence in 2005 sees Shell as the number 1 most ethical oil company in the world. But by the end of 2011, Shells position is expected to deteriorate much due to the bribery scandal it suffered for the last few months. 2.1 Conoco Phillips: Conoco Phillips is a Non-government owned American oil and Gas Corporation. Its the 3rd largest of the oil majors worldwide. It works in all different aspects in oil and natural gas industry such as Midstream, Petrochemicals, and Refining and Marketing. The company was formed as a result of a merger between Conoco and Philips in 2002. Its major competitors are Shell, British Petroleum and Exxon Mobil. Conoco Philips is one of the few Oil companies that suffer unethical issues. According to Conoco Philips, Our mission is to do more than to deliver energy. It has a long term commitment to achieve the top ethical standards and create a culture that encourages honesty and responsibility in everything they do. Conoco Philips values the importance of corporate transparency and ethics as they are a major drive for consumers and stakeholders confidence. A proof of ConocoPhillipss environmental concern is that it spent $80 million dollars to develop new technologies for unconventional and alt ernative energy sources. ConocoPhillips is a member of the U.S Climate Action Partnership, which is a group of businesses, major corporations and environmental organization with a goal to pressure the U.S Government to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. ConocoPhillips spent around $150 million dollars 2007 on research and development of alternative energy sources and new technologies- which is almost a 50% increase compared to the $80 million dollar spent in 2006. 2.2 Shell vs. ConocoPhillips Shell is the 2nd biggest company in the world in terms of revenue, which makes it more profitable than ConocoPhillips (16th). Actually, after the recent bribery issues about Shell, its position will eventually drop in the next few years. They will suffer from employee turnover, loss of company reputation and lots of other disadvantages which will not enable them to be more profitable like before. Whilst for ConocoPhillips, its very predictable that this company will get closer to Shell in terms of revenue and why not surpass it, due to its ethical practices! Thats why Shell should have good ethical policies like that of ConocoPhillips and actually adapt this policy and not violate it. 3.0 Recommendations and Facts: 3.1 Recommendations First of all if Shell wants to get back its reputation after the Nigeria bribery incident, they have to change their vision, not the written vision statement, in fact they have to change their insight toward the business they are doing and try to change their practices in a way that help and satisfy people instead of hurting them. They should keep in mind that business is not about gaining profit from whatever way, rather it is about gaining profit from providing services in a way that satisfies customers and if they act ethically eventually they will gain enough profit as they have satisfied people behind their back who support the company (Tempo, 2005). Shell should be considered guilty in this case and be fined for their unethical business practice. Furthermore, Nigerian government should be accountable and responsible for their action as well. The amount of fine that usually determined by courts should be either used for research purposes or as financial aid to help people around the globe. If they do so, Shell will force to do something that they escaped from and try to improve their instruments and facilities by doing research and development instead of trying to gain profit without thinking about safety and effects of their action on stakeholders (Tempo, 2005). More strict rules and regulations regarding the bribery issue and control of governments over their companies can lead to termination of bribery in long term. If Shell maintains a strict No Bribe policy, in long term bribe takers wont ask for it anymore. Then even if they fail in their business they wont blame themselves for paying bribes and they will know that there was something wrong with their facilities and services. 3.2 Facts The main reason that shell wanted to bribe Nigerian government was that they wanted to pay less taxes and easier import of their needed equipment, which eventually leads to higher profit. Thus they only looked for profit and to reach that, they choose bribery as an unethical practice. They shouldnt do that because even if we dont consider bribery as an unethical practice it was illegal and against law in Nigeria, however we know that bribery is an unethical practice indeed. The next thing is that bribery encourages corruption, and this action hurts the poor the most as they have to pay for something which is free and they get into trouble for paying the amount, because they cannot afford it. When a large company like Shell practices, in this case bribery, which is defiantly unethical, this act will spread to the whole society and affect the society in large (Tempo, 2005). Moreover when you start paying bribe for the first time it leads to demand for more bribes and work as a kind of temptation. So it is better never start it. Aid agencies trying to provide free services for those who need help and it is not morally accepted and expected from officials to try to make money from those services that supposed to be free. We believe and agree that Shell did something which is morally wrong and ethical person wont advocate it, but there is a positive point in shells case. Shell accepted that they did and unethical and wrong action and admitted their mistake, they also agreed to pay $48m in criminal and civil fines. However shell had to admit their mistake but still we can consider it as a positive movement from shell and we can hope that Shell try to be an ethical company from now onwards, stop their unethical business practices and try to gain profit while following ethical business practices (Temp,2005). 4.0 Conclusion In conclusion, we all agree that bribery is an unethical business practice and it is not expected from large company such as Shell to practice such actions. It is not only the case that Shell paid bribe, the most important thing is that such actions, eventually leads to corruption of society which all of us believe to be destructive. Shell can follow Conoco Phillips and invest in research and development and try to improve its facilities, and by doing this they might earn less profit in the short term but they can be proud of themselves by being an ethical company and gaining more profit than their competitors in the long term as they will have new technologies and facilities in future because they invest in research and development today. Shell Should be accountable for what they did and be responsible for their unethical behavior and try to stop such acts in future if they want to build their reputation again as people and stakeholders wont trust Shell as long as they continue bein g unethical. However if Shell really wants to be changed and get back its reputation they can do it by clarifying their vision among themselves and act ethically.

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Organizational Change Process Essay

Organizations need tactical responsiveness to external dynamics to bring strategic renewal within the continuum, which organizations need to create and maintain outstanding performance (Spencer, 2010). Through strategic renewal the organization alters its operational strategy to gain economic advantage. Successful of implementation of change should be a long-lasting occurrence often determined by readiness, resources necessary to implement change successfully, how the organization monitors such change (Whelan-Berry, Karen, Somerville & Karen, 2010). Gaps or omissions in the process of change often lead to disastrous outcomes. This paper will focus on the Lewin’s phases of organizational change reflecting on Concord Bookshop conflict and its effect on organizational failure. Lewin’s Phases of Organizational Change According to Lewin’s theory in studying human and organizations it is imperative for managers to understand change as forces working in different direction, for change to happen there should be a driving force with less counteracting resistance (Borkowski, 2005). Borkowski further states the importance for managers to understand the external and internal environmental influence and differentiating between forces that need to stay status quo and those that require change. Lewin stated three important steps of change that managers need to follow to attain successful transition to change. Unfreezing Schein as stated in Spector (2010) for effective learning and change to happen some sort of dissatisfaction should be created, to bring discomfort to the members. Underperformance does not necessarily create change because when people are comfortable with a status quo they are unmotivated to change. Instilling discomfort will force employees to change and unlearn current norms to learning desired new practices. Change The need for change should be communicated and parties involved must be part of the change process. Dictation by upper management at this phase will meet with resistance. Once employees are open to change, implementing new protocols will not have much resistance, during this phase retraining and education should take place to eliminate the fear of inadequacy and uncertainties. Employee’s involvement will give them sense of ownership and feeling of adequacy, and they will be willing to move from one set of behaviors to another (Spector, 2010). Refreezing Companies invest a substantial amount of money to process change within the continuum through training, retraining, and staff development. Therefore, the new learned behaviors should be permanent. â€Å"Refreezing stage is where a newly created equilibrium is made relatively secure against change† (Spector, 2010, p. 29). It is important that the management keeps tabs on the implementation phase through monitoring and evaluation process. Concord Bookshop Conflict Concord bookshop was facing economic turmoil created by the change in customer preferences and tight completion from its rivals. Therefore, it was imperative for management to revise both marketing and operational strategies to save the organization. The decision of hiring a manager without consulting with its departmental management was a serious mistake by the owners. They failed to create the discomfort needed for change. If the managers were put in that predicament they would have responded differently from resigning. The owners omitted unfreezing stage to change process, which did not involve the employees. For change to be successful employees should be part of the change, and they should believe they are indispensable. Announcement by management of hiring new manager brought fear, uncertainty, and inadequacy to the employees. Their job security was at stake, they also feared the unknown. Working for that many years demotion brought a feeling of shame and ambivalence accompanie d by loss of status and power. The combination of all these factors brought resistance to change. The Concord management failed participative decision making, delegation, team building, and employee involvement in its organizational transformation, which met with resistance from both employees and the public (Elie-Dit-Cosaque, Pallud & Kalika, 2011 ). Creating a driving force for change, avoidance or elimination of resistance ensures successful strategic transformation in meeting and implementing new goals. Awareness of internal and external factors that influence change is of paramount importance when dealing with organization strategic transition. Knowing and applying Lewin’s phases of organizational changes empowers the managers with essential skill to process change within the continuum and ensure smooth transformation to new ideas and behaviors. Concord Bookshop failed to follow Lewin’s phases, which led to resistance and conflict from both employees and the publi c. References Borkowski, N. (2005). Organizational Behavior in Health Care. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Elie-Dit-Cosaque, C., Pallud, J., Kalika, M. (2011). The Influence of Individual, Contextual, and Social Factors on Perceived Behavioral Control of Information Technology: A Field Theory Approach. Journal of Management Information Systems,28(3), p201-234. Spector, B. (2010). Implementing Organizational Change: Theory into Practice (2nd ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Whelan-Berry, Karen S., Somerville, & Karen A. (2010) ‘Linking Change Drivers and the Organizational Change Process: A Review and Synthesis’, Journal of Change Management, 10(2), 175-193.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Case Study Analysis Lincoln Electric: Venturing Abroad Essay

Lincoln Electric (LE) has been a producer of electrical and welding technology products since the late 1800’s. The company remained primarily a family and employee held company until 1995, then approximately 40% of its equity went to the public. James Lincoln, one of the founders, developed unique management techniques that effectively motivated the employees. These management techniques were implemented as an unusual (for the era) structure of compensation and benefits called â€Å"incentive management†. The incentive management system consisted of four key areas: factory jobs based solely on piecework output; a year-end bonus that could equal or exceeded an individual’s regular pay; guaranteed employment; and limited benefits. Management successors to James Lincoln continued with this successful philosophy even during hard times. This incentive system provided Lincoln Electric with a significant competitive advantage over its domestic competitors. This incentive system plus the bonus allowed Lincoln employees to earn more than their counterparts at other firms, which contributes to employee motivation. One additional aspect of Lincoln’s incentive system was that of limited benefits. James Lincoln developed a system of minimal company paid benefits, where he rationalized that; fewer benefits would equate more funds available for employee bonus and compensation. The successful incentive program and participative management style provided an environment where a Lincoln plant could produce many times (up to three times-with half the personnel) that of a similar manufacturing plant. The employee involvement program and the incentive program at Lincoln were significant contributors to their capability to maintain a solid reputation as a high quality producer, which has driven brand loyalty. When combined with the approachable and participative management style, Lincoln’s culture was able to continuously leverage changes from their employees. The management at Lincoln provided an environment where employees were free to make suggestions or complaints, these ideas became changes and the changes turned into innovations. Such as manufacturing equipment modifications that would run, two to three times their original rate. Lincoln continues to be profitable by significant contributions of these production efficiencies. An increase in production rates (with the same or less resources) equates directly to: higher returns on investments, lower  cost of goods sold, and the ability to do more with less (especially during economic challenges). In general, there is an entrepreneurial attitude at LE and the ability to harvest these innovations is Lincoln’s true competitive advantage. As of 1995, Lincoln Electric controlled 36% of the $1.5 billon U.S. market for weldin g equipment and supplies, where it is considered the leading competitor. The Lincoln Electric Company possesses financial stability, they have recently brought their debt under control as shown in Appendix B-Brief Financial Analysis, which shows an improving debt trend (current, quick, debt to assets, and debt to equity ratios) this is considered an enabling item when embarking upon a new international venture, financial/resources to overcome potential problems. In addition, Lincoln has experienced a strong recovery illustrated by the trends detailed on the net sales and income after taxes charts shown in Appendix B-Brief Financial Analysis. Lincoln will have to overcome its limited success in their prior international ventures, evident by the closures of plants in Germany, Japan, Venezuela, and Brazil. Some of this limited success was due to their lack on international experience and a failure to provide assistance, â€Å"sink or swim† corporate attitude. LE might not have been looking at a long-term view and may have given up on these plants too early. Similar domestic ventures take on the average seven years before becoming profitable. Additional reasons for early international failures was the lack of contingency planning in the form of no corporate support, advice or direction. Another shortcoming of their early international ventures is that Lincoln attempted to apply its incentive management universally to all countries/cultures. They failed to understand the importance of tailoring rewards and incentives for specific countries/cultures. Key elements of the first wave of LE’s international ventures are: domestic operations accounted for 85% of the worldwide production and nearly all new product development until the late 1980’s, universal application of the â€Å"incentive management programs†, and in general the corporation paid little attention to there international divisions. However, as of 1996, Lincoln  re-organized its international ventures by naming a president for each of the five regions, this is a demonstration of a new emphasis and focus on the international ventures from LE. In additional to the CEO having a planned oversight into the expansion there will be council consisting of each of these presidents to plan, integrate and implement global strategies. The compensation for these presidents will also include interregional cooperation. Both of these efforts address key Lincoln weakness from there prior international ventures of: â€Å"sink or swim† corporate attitude and interregional destructive competition. One final item is that Lincoln realized that in the second wave of international expansion true understanding of a country/culture is as important as technological skills. First, Lincoln must continue to utilize its successful incentive and management philosophy formula for employees in the U.S. The domestic operations provide the financial/resource foundation or enabler for continued global expansion, but with no loss of focus on the domestic operation. Lincoln should complete a product structure analysis to determine which plant (domestic or international) should build which product. This analysis should consider all external environmental (particularly political) factors and ensure the company’s strategies for long term and short term goals are a significant part of the analysis. A key roadblock to the expansion into Indonesia is the political environment. The civil unrest and an uncertain future government must be watched and analyzed with great care. A meeting should immediately be setup with the local government to present Lincoln’s long-term strategy. However, prior to this meeting Lincoln must conduct extensive research into the stability, history and any significant background information about the current government and then decide how to approach this potentially volatile situation. Also Lincoln must establish contingency plans should the government become a problem and then be continuously adjusting these contingency plans as the situation changes. One threat to Lincoln’s expansion plan to enter the stick welding consumables markets is that it is dominated by two other multinational firms (see Appendix A-Consumables Market); they control approximately 60% of this market. Once again, Lincoln must conduct continuous extensive market  research to determine risk, provide data for their living short-term and long-term tactical and strategic plans. This marketing research will also support the development of Lincoln’s entry strategies. Once, the production focus areas are defined Lincoln should develop incentives to ensure cooperation with no destructive competition between regions, interregional management compensation will help. A consistent set of financial metrics must be developed and utilized to determine regional performance; each region will be compared in the same manner. Lincoln must also ensure that start-ups be provided a â€Å"safety net† of sorts that utilizes resources/innovations to combat obstacles that would prevent success. Another recommendation is to collect lesson’s learned on the failed European operations, ensure that the same situations are not repeated in Asia/Indonesia. The regional president’s council will help to ensure success, however control in key decisions should be left to the corporation. A joint venture in Indonesia is the best way to enter. Tira’s relationship with high level government officials is very important due to the political situation. SSHJ has the financial strength that Tira does not. Lincoln should go into a joint venture with both Tira and SSHJ since each firm brings complementary strengths. This joint venture must be carefully crafted; compensation will be direct as a partnership type between SSHJ and Tira, where incentives exist to ensure mutual success. An agreement with SSHJ to build a new factory should be completed and support for a low interest loan to help Tira with maintaining Lincoln inventory. This joint venture will be carefully controlled and monitored by Lincoln and they will maintain the maximum amount of ownership allowed by Indonesian law. As mention previously, Lincoln’s competitive edge is its ability to tap into employee innovative talents and then to quickly implement them. Lincoln should conduct cultural research int o what types of rewards apply to the Indonesian culture and then custom design an incentive system that utilizes these rewards. The successful implementation of this similar formula of corporate culture and incentives will allow Lincoln once again to continuously improve through employee innovations. The custom designed incentive reward may be: benefits on a rising scale; additional vacation/compensation time; or company ownership as a stock option plan instead of the bonus/compensation plan used in the U.S. Lincoln should  continue to leverage their brand reputation/loyalty, and leverage their ability to produce at a lower cost (through its successful innovation processes) and to break into this new market; also, price competition should be avoided as an entry strategy. Instead, compete on product value. The planned entry strategy into the stick welding consumables is the right direction, the growth rate and potential market is very attractive, however the entry strategy must also be developed to counter whatever defensive or offensive moves the other controlling multinational firms do to prevent Lincoln from gaining market share. Finally, Lincoln’s long-term strategies must be compatible with achievable goals that allow sufficient time (seven to ten years) to for the Indonesian venture to fully develop profitably.

Friday, January 3, 2020

The Controversial Topic of Stem-Cell Research in the...

Stem cell research is a fairly controversial topic in the United States. Stem cells are cells that have the potential to become certain types of cells throughout a human body. There are a few types of stem cells, which are embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells, and induced pluripotent stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are the most controversial due to the manner from which they are obtained. Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent cells gathered from the inner cell mass of a blastocyst, which is an early-stage embryo that contains about 50-150 cells. However, the extraction of these cells causes the blastocyst to be destroyed, which is what raises many flags to people. The controversy of stem cell research began as early as 1996 when congress†¦show more content†¦There are many benefits that come from stem cell research; the government should be more open to obtaining stem cell research in other manners because it can be used to regenerate brain cells, it promotes nerve repair, and insulin secreting cells. If the government was to be more open to obtaining stem cell lines in other ways than just donations from fertility clinics, there would be much more stem cells available to be cultured. Since there have been so many limitations set on stem cell research, it has been difficult for scientist to find the many benefits of stem cell therapy. As far as we know, stem cells could be used for the possible cure of incurable diseases such as, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes, and paralyzed human beings. Alzheimer and Parkinson’s disease are caused primarily due to the loss of brain cells, which our body does not regenerate. With other common diseases such as diabetes, stem cell therapy can play a role if they promote insulin secreting cells, which are the cells that humans with diabetes are lacking. It is very likely that these incurable diseases can be cured by stem cell therapy if it became easier to obtain such stem cells. Researchers should be able to clone embryonic stem cells for research purposes if donated embryos are in short supply. One of the rules that the NIHShow MoreRelatedEssay about Embryonic Stem Cell Research1357 Words   |  6 PagesHuman Embryonic Stem Cell Research Embryonic stem cell research is a highly controversial topic in todays society, this kind of stem cell commits to regenerate any type of tissue. Unfortunately, Embryonic Stem Cell Research has a dark side. To obtain these cells will kill the embryo automatically. In other words, the acquirement of the Human Embryonic Stem Cell includes performing an abortion. To obtain these cells, it would kill the embryo. 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