To educate the public on a highly controversial issue this election year, the Undergraduate Bioethics Society is hosting a presentation and panel discussion on stem-cell research called, "Science and Ethics of Stem-Cell Research."

"The science behind stem cells isn't understood by the public, it hasn't been explained very well," said Annika Storey, a physiology senior and Bioethics Society executive board member.

"By combining the hard science and what stem cells can do with the ethics, it can be a very comprehensive forum and increase knowledge and thought on these issues."

James Trosko and Scot Yoder will speak at 7 p.m. today in 116 Farrall Hall, also known as the Agricultural Engineering Building.

Trosko, a pediatrics and human development professor, will address the science of stem cells, which are cells that can transform into tissue for any bodily organ.

Yoder, a visiting assistant philosophy professor, will speak about the ethical concerns of the controversial research.

Much of the contention comes from the origins of stem cells, Storey said. Research uses lines of stem cells which come from unborn human embryos that are aborted or miscarried.

Yoder said the ethical concerns surrounding stem cells are similar to the moral objections of abortion, but with the difference of intent.

"It's one thing to talk about abortion, it's another to talk about the intentional creation of an embryo to destroy it," Yoder said.

Other stem-cell sources are banks of embryos left over from in-vitro fertilization, a process which fertilizes eggs outside of the body and then places them inside the uterus.

Cloning is another option scientists are investigating, but Yoder said there are also ethical problems with this science.

A panel will address religious, social and legal concerns of stem-cell research at 7 p.m. Wednesday in 116 Farrall Hall. Panelists will answer questions prepared by the bioethics society as well as queries from the audience.

Serving as panelists will be Paul Arshagouni, director of the Health Law Program and Justin McCormick, associate dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine. Also serving on the panel will be the Rev. Clayton Thomason, assistant professor in the Department of Family Practice and Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences.

McCormick said he approaches the issue of stem cells from a scientific and human perspective, but the potential for curing numerous ailments creates a need for greater federal help in stem-cell research.

"There needs to be more cell lines than are federally sanctioned at the moment to cure and study each individual human disease," McCormick said.