An influential scientist is claiming that far from avoiding stem cell research as a dangerous precedent to human cloning, stem cells should be embraced because they could lead about to cures for things up to and including permanent spinal damage.

Professor Christopher Higgins of Durham University, a regenerative medicine school and pro chancellor at Durham University, said while speaking recently at the University of Ilorin that using stem cells could heal people who have been disabled by replacing a damaged spinal cord. In the lecture, which was titled “Stem Cell Research: Science, Medicine, and Ethics,” Higgins argued that there’s no reason why we can’t cure diseases and disorders like Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, injury to the spinal cord, or even diabetes, because in all of those cases there is no fundamental damage to the cells or the organs, and that it is simply the loss of those cells that is resulting in the negative health effects, according to media reports.

As a result, health issues affecting millions of people could be wiped away by careful use of stem cell research, which could allow scientists to use stem cells to regenerate old tissue to replace the damaged or missing tissue. Higgins said using stem cells could result in huge benefits for mankind and that therefore any worries about human cloning pale in comparison to the potential benefits.

Stem cells, which are essentially undifferentiated biological cells that can be turned into a specialized cell of any type, resulting in the creation of more stem cells, can be steered into repairing parts of the body and replacing tissue. There are two types of stem cells: embryonic and adult stem cells.

A stem cell can be specialized into a specific role in the body, which is why it has such a huge upside for repairing tissue that are damaged later in life, according to the reports.