Embryonic stem cells can cure almost any disease. The world, at this moment, has a popular and widespread belief that that researching on embryonic stem cells is immoral and wrong. The research has a goal to find many cures for vast amount of diseases including diabetes and parkinson's. The problem with the research is how the cells are harvested. When the mother of a baby under 10 days old aborts the child, the fetus is taken and the embryos that hold the stem cells are harvested for use in research. Polls show that about 85 percent of America does not support embryonic stem cell research because it damages or destroys human embryos.Embryonic stem cell research because it has the potential to cure almost any disease and save billions of lives. The positive outweighs the negative and immorality of destroying the cells for research.
So, what exactly are stem cells? Stem cells are blank copies of any cell or tissue in the body. Adult stem cells are found in bone marrow and certain types of lipids in all living animals. Embryonic stem cells are harvested from the embryos of animals under ten to thirteen days old. Today, the research of embryonic stem cells is one of the most controversial topics in the medical field, side from human cloning and euthanasia.The stem cells are taken from the fetus and then researched on to find cures for various diseases ( Beil 1). The embryonic stem cells were first discovered in 1981 while studying adult stem cells in mice. A mouse gave birth months early to a stillborn child. The offspring was taken to a lab and researched on to find out why it was still born. The problem was never solved ;however, the scientists were looking through
...
... middle of paper ...
...h the different presidents, conservatives swing more to it being immoral and evil while liberals find it very useful in the medical field. ( 4 )
Embryonic stem cells are of today’s most controversial issues in the medical field. The cells are considered immoral, but are key to our future in medicine. The cells have the potential to cure almost any disease or birth defect at a near infinite rate. The cells will save millions on the spot because they regrow faster than any other cell and any other medicine known to man. The cells can literally be placed in any tissue or muscle to begin healing. The cells can save billions of lives in the future and outweigh the negative side of where they are obtained. “Embryonic stem cell research has the potential to alleviate so much suffering. Surely, by working together we can harness its life-giving potential”. -Nancy Reagan.
Before, there were no breakthroughs with the opportunity of saving lives. Innovations in medical technology made contributions to correct abnormal heartbeats and save lives by using a defibrillator and modern respirator. Who would know that the rapid discoveries would include successfully giving patients surgical transplants? Furthermore, President Lyndon Johnson implemented an executive policy requiring the usage of medical response trauma teams. Since 1976, this executive order has allowed the widespread use of CPR, and organizations like the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association were founded. “About 6.4 million people now survive angina chest pain each year, while an additional 700,000 people survive a heart attack each year (pg. 15 of Last Rights) Despite these remarkable breakthroughs that help those badly injured, the law becomes vague and allows more opportunities for misinterpretation on defining death. As a result, this could be advantageously used against the best interest of others and the government. “This ten-year mishmash of laws is what led the previously mentioned President’s Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research, established by an act of Congress in 1978 , to tackle the first task of defining death.” (pg. 81). The President’s Commission forced the U.S Supreme Court and
Over the past decade scientist and the U.S government have been debating about funds for stem cell research (SCR), the amount spent depends on who is in office. The Democratic Party fully supports SCR, but the Republican Party somewhat opposes the concept of SCR, arfuing it violates the Christian principle of life. As a result, this topic is considered controversial, but also beneficial if allowed. Despite the controversy, SCR should be well funded for medicinal use, because blank stem cells (SC) can be used to regenerate bones and muscle tissue, they can be used to control or even reverse neurodegenerative disease, and because they can be used for therapeutic cloning.
One of the most heated political battles in the United States in recent years has been over the morality of embryonic stem cell research. The embryonic stem cell debate has polarized the country into those who argue that such research holds promises of ending a great deal of human suffering and others who condemn such research as involving the abortion of a potential human life. If any answer to the ethical debate surrounding this particular aspect of stem cell research exists, it is a hazy one at best. The question facing many scientists and policymakers involved in embryonic stem cell research is, which is more valuable – the life of a human suffering from a potentially fatal illness or injury, or the life of human at one week of development? While many argue that embryonic stem cell research holds the potential of developing cures for a number of illnesses that affect many individuals, such research is performed at the cost of destroying a life and should therefore not be pursued.
Although some find embryonic stem cells unethical, supporting embryonic stem cell research will benefit humankind in many aspects.
As technology stem cell research intensifies, so does the controversy about whether such scientific progress is moral. In the past millennium to today the present stem cell research has become a controversial topic across the world. Stem cells are unspecialized cells that have unique regenerative abilities, allowing them to divide into specialized cell types. Understanding why these processes occur is essential to curing disease. Critics of stem cell research argue that the extraction of embryonic stem cells involves destroying an early embryo, equating the act of killing a human. Although stem cell research is a highly controversial topic, it is compulsory to continue stem cell research within ethical boundaries for the benefit of mankind.
Well, that is what I would think if I were a utilitarian bioethicist. This breed of bioethicists believes in "ethical distribution" of medical resources. They believe that medical resources are limited and certain standards should be created to determine who should receive treatment and who should not. Utilitarian bioethicists do not consider human life to be sacred; they argue that "some human lives are have greater moral and social value than others and that the authority to set these comparative values belongs rightfully to their elite group. They also believe in denying medical care to the elderly if their illness would impact the quality of their lives, even if patients believed their lives were still worth living or in fact enjoyable." (Koontz 354)
The ethical issues behind the method in which stem cells are obtained out weigh the benefits of stem cell therapy. We should not try to play God, in the aspect of creation of living beings just to be sacrificed for the “betterment of mankind”. Many egregious acts have been committed under the guise of “the greater good”. This is one instance in which the ends do not justify the means.
I was interviewed last June by Eric Zorn, a columnist from the Chicago Tribune. Mr. Zorn's "thesis," as he explained it to me, was this: if any partial birth abortions were being performed for truly "elective" reasons, for reasons the public would consider nonserious, as the pro-life movement was claiming, the movement should produce the mothers involved. I explained at some length that it wasn't "the movement" claiming that the majority of these procedures were "elective", this fact was asserted by the partial-birth abortion providers themselves. I sent Zorn Dr. Haskell's statements as quoted in the American Medical News. I also sent the charts Dr. McMahon had provided to the Subcommittee on the Constitution in which he had detailed the rationales for abortions he had performed. These documents showed the elective nature of the majority of these procedures -- and in the words of the abortionists themselves. I asked Zorn to reconsider his own logic: aren't patient records confidential and in the possession of the abortion providers themselves, I asked? And if you were a woman who had your healthy child aborted would you be eager to go public? Nothing, however, could shake Mr. Zorn's tenacious grip on his thesis. He ended up writing- "That explanation won't do. If these once callous, cruel, selfish women who drive this national debate truly exist, let's hear from ." (June 6, 1996). In a follow-up column, he wrote: "Well, there are late-term abortions, there are "partial-birth" abortions and there are abortions performed for non-medical or elective reasons. We find very little overlap ... because later-term abortions are very rare and almost always performed for serious medical reasons. . .." (June 13, 1996).
Monroe, Kristen, et al., eds. Fundamentals of the Stem Cell Debate: The Scientific, Religious, Ethical and Political Issues. Los Angeles/Berkley: University of California Press, 2008. Print
...oll(2010), around 33% of U.S. voters believe that taxpayers’ money should be spent on embryonic stem cell research and more than 50% of the voters disagree that taxpayers’ money should go the research(Roe, 2010). Hence, it is believed that government should not fund the stem cell research.
Human embryonic stem cell (HESC) research involves removing tissue from the aborted embryo to get cells to study. This research can potentially help treat Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Stroke, Diabetes (Type 1), Birth Defects and Spinal Cord Injuries. I can also help replace or repair damaged organs, reduce risk from transplantation and play a major role in the treatment and prevention of cancer. (Experiment-Resources.com)
Although there are many arguments against embryonic stem cell research, there have already been many success stories because of stem cells. Through bone marrow transplants and stem cell transplants many people survived illnesses against the odds. A bone marrow transplant is when bone marrow from a
Stem cell research has been around for some time, and many people have been cured from certain diseases because of it. Many scientists observe that embryonic stem cells are easier and flexible to use than adult stem cells Adult cells are diseased curable cells as well to a certain extent because they are taken from certain tissues that are already established in an area of the body. Stem cell research has long ways to go for scientists to be able to use them to cure all cancers, infectious diseases, and other health problems however stem cells are on the path of changing the world.
According to the Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System issued by the CDC, “the number of reported pregnancy-related deaths in the United States steadily increased from 7.2 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1987 to a high of 17.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2009 and 2011.” The CDC Abortion Surveillance System, found that the mortality rate for women who had abortions was 0.7 deaths per 100,000 procedures. This shows how safe legal abortions can be when done professionally. When the procedure is done by someone who is not a trained professional then it becomes detrimental to women. If abortion was illegal more of these procedures would occur and can possibly risk more lives. It’s better for it to be legal and safely done than illegal and done
Lastly, I support the idea of legalizing euthanasia because the patients own their bodies, and they can do anything with it. Even though the doctor is the one who put the patient to death in a process of euthanasia, the patient is the one who makes the decision to be “killed”, and therefore, euthanasia is a type of physician-assisted suicide, which is not any of other people business.