Dianna Croke Professor Labecca Jones English 112 17 April 2014 Saving Lives Not Taking Lives: The Importance of Stem Cell Research Studying whole complex structures and organisms in order to understand how to they work would be incredibly daunting. That is why it is preferred that the smaller concepts are understood before bigger ones are tackled. Much like any grand structure, the human body is complex in its engineering. Trying to understand this complexity by looking at the greater whole is not only daunting, it is pointless as well. The smallest part of any organism is cells. All living things are made up of cells. Cells are the reason for life, healing, and death. They hold the genetic materials that determine the functions as well as the failures of the body. Cell death is required for the continued health and eventual death of the organism it is a part of. Without understanding cells, understanding the body is not possible. Scientists and doctors have long understood the need to research cells in order to increase quality of living and heal ailments in the body. Cell research has led to them most important discovery in medicine: cell regeneration is responsible for healing. The quest for cell regenerative treatments has led the discovery of stem cells, arguably the holy grail of medicine. Since the mid 1800’s, scientists have had considered the possibilities regarding a these cells. As medicine has progressed, so have the possibilities. Stem cells are cells that have the potential to differentiate into other cells. Most empty slates, capable of becoming a specialized cell to fit any environment within the body. All stem cells are regenerative and can make endless copies of cells. Unlike other treatments, the use stem cell ... ... middle of paper ... ... discarded embryos. The discarded embryos are actually discarded blastocysts, which are a cluster of cells found soon after fertilization. These blastocysts are donated by couples undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). Some of these may be poor-quality embryos that would otherwise be discarded. The resulting cells are considered to be “true” embryonic stem cells. The donated embryos are placed in a media preparation in special dishes and allowed to develop for a few days. At about the fifth day the embryo reaches the blastocyst stage and forms a ball of 100-200 cells. At this stage, ES cells are derived from the blastocyst’s inner cell mass. In some cases, the ES cells can be isolated even before the blastocyst stage. The use of discarded embryos is invokes strong emotions and beliefs in most people, and resulting in the questioning of ethics in this procedure.
Are stem cells ethical to use in medical research? The most basic cells in the human body are stem cells. Because doctors use stem cells for medical treatment of chronic ailments, stem cells play an important role in human medical research. However, despite the benefits of stem cells in medical treatment, controversy surrounds the methods employed to obtain them. Should researchers continue to use stem cells?
The body is composed of cells, which form the basic unit of life. Unique cells found in the body are the stem cells. These cells are biological cells that are not specialized for particular functioning in organisms. They can be distinguished since they have the ability to differentiate or divide into multiple body cells, and their ability to replicate self. They are unique in the way they can renew themselves by undergoing cell division when inactive for a long period. It is also possible to induce stem cells to organs or tissue cells under some conditions. When the cells divide, they replenish the cells in a living organism. They serve as an internal system that repairs and replaces the tissues that are worn out.1 Dividing cells may remain as stem cells or become specialized in their functions, for instance red blood cells, brain or muscle cells.
Couples experiencing infertility issues now have a number of options at their disposal from in-vitro fertilization to intrauterine insemination or going as far as using a surrogate and donor eggs or donor sperm. Technology has made it possible for someone to experience the joy of parenthood regardless of whether they can naturally conceive children. All of these procedures come with their own ethical questions and pros and cons. One of the biggest moral dilemmas is what to do with the left-over embryos still in storage when a family has decided they have had enough children. Most couples see this ethical quandary because they recognize that the embryos are whole human beings and do not think it is morally right to dispose
The extraction of embryonic stem cells involves destroying an early embryo, which means killing a potential future human being. Is killing a future human being necessary to save the currently living? The process of extracting embryonic stem cells requires abortion. The abortion is performed in an early stage where the cell mass has not developed a system capable of detecting pain or emotion. Embryonic stem cells can be found in the interior portion of an embryo, known as the “inner cell mass”. The inner cell mass is capable of making every type of cell in the body. Initially, the cells do not serve a specific function. When stem cells are exposed to an environment of other cells such as skin, or neural cells, they “morph” into the surrounding structure. When placed in damaged tissue, embryonic stem cells repair the damaged cells.
Stem cells help us to maintain and heal our bodies, as they are undifferentiated cells, their roles are not yet determined. They have the ability to become anything during early life and growth. Stem cells come from two sources, namely: embryonic stem cells (embryo’s formed during the blastocyst phase of embryological development) and adult stem cells (see figure 3).
Only the most pristine of labs get to receive stem cells to research and test. In the United States of America, most of these labs are usually at universities and institutes (Crosta). The United Kingdom is a “global leader” when it comes to stem cell research and it has the ability to advance stem cell technology to benefit billions of people all around the globe. In order to start helping people labs receive embryonic or adult stem cells from donors (PR Newswire). In some cases providers of embryonic cells are paid to let labs use their blastocysts, also known as the phase of five day old human embryos (Baylis). This tends to go hand in hand with abortion but, the realization is that these cells are saving so many lives, which ends up being a gain of life, not a loss. Stem cell research has helped advance towards treatment and cures for some of the worlds most lethal diseases. Also, some of the medical breakthroughs using stem cells include Parkinsonism, Cancer, Diabetes, Arthritis and mental illnes...
Stem cells are mother cells that have potential to develop into a new different cell in the body. It can self-renew or multiply while developing into other types of cells, for example they can become cells of the blood, heart, bones, skin, muscles and brain. Stem cells were discovered in human cord blood in 1978, and in 1998, Thompson, from the University of Wisconsin, isolated cells from the inner cell mass of early embryos (early stage of an animal or person before it is born) and developed t...
Stem Cells are cells that scientist have began to try and use to help people. “In the mid 1800s it was discovered that cells were basically the building blocks of life and that some cells had the ability to produce other cells.” With the discovery of stem cells came the opening to a new area of development in what could be done with health and medicine of the world. Of course throughout history, stem cells have been a very heated subject between different groups of people who believe it is right or wrong. Some people believe that this form of research is against ethical or moral values. They too see this as being wrong because they view human embryos as a form of life. These cells are neutral cells that can be turned into any other one that is needed at the time. Stem cells can make more of themselves when they aren’t being used allowing them to be ready when something happens. In the human body, stem cells help repair the tissue that has been broken, torn, or lost. They help fix bones, heal abrasions, and even repair internal organs if needed. Scientist have the ability now to mani...
Therapeutic cloning involves the cloning of embryos for the production of stem cells. Therapeutic cloning extract the nucleus from the somatic cell then inserted into the egg, which had its nucleus previously removed. The egg is now stimulated to divide and shortly forms a cluster of cells known as a blastocyst. This blastocyst has both an outer and inner layer of cells and it is the inner layer. The cells in the inner cell mass are isolated and then utilised to create embryonic stem cell lines, which are infused into the patient where they are ideally integrated into the tissues, imparting structure and function as
Every year countless people are diagnosed with cell based diseases, 7.6 million a year alone receive the petrifying news that they have cancer. But what if we could eliminate the idea that a cancerous diagnosis is the equivalent of a death sentence? The use of embryonic stem cells could, for the first time, make diseases like cancer or parkinson a non-issue. This is why the use of embryonic stem cells should not be viewed as unethical but rather a huge step towards unthinkable medical breakthroughs and the eradication of life threatening diseases.
Have you ever seen a movie or read a book where they can tell what your child will look like or if they have a disease or birth defect. Or have you ever wondered how the world would be shaped if we could have clones or even erase genetic diseases. All of these things are theoretically possible with stem cell research. If we are able to reach this point what would we have to sacrifice in the process. To understand humanity would we have to sacrifice the values that truly make us human? What would the fail rate be if we are able to genetically enhance the human body?
This paper focuses on the benefits of stem cell research in the medical and nursing field. New technology is always being created to help us understand the way the human body works, as well as ways to help us improve diseased states in the body. Our bodies have the ability to proliferate or regrow cells when damage is done to the cells. Take for example the skin, when an abrasion or puncture to the skin causes loss of our skin cells, the body has its own way of causing those cells to regrow. The liver, bone marrow, heart, brain, and muscle all have cells that are capable of differentiating into cells of that same type. These are called stem cells, and are a new medical tool that is helping regrow vital organs in our body to help us survive. Stem cells can come from adult cells, or the blastocyst of the embryo. The cells that come from these are undifferentiated, and can be specialized into certain cell types, making them available for many damaged tissues in the body. While using stem cells in the body is a main use, they are also being used to help doctors understand how disease processes start. By culturing these cells in the lab and watching them develop into muscles, nerve cells, or other tissues, researchers are able to see how diseases affect these cells and possibly discover ways to correct these diseases. While researchers have come very far in using stem cells, there are still many controversies to overcome when using these cells.
Research on stem cells is advancing knowledge about how an organism develops from a single cell and how healthy cells replace damaged cells in adult organisms. This promising area of science is also leading scientists to investigate the possibility of cell-based therapies to treat disease, which is often referred to as regenerative or reparative medicine. There is genuine scientific excitement over the concept of using the body's own cellular building blocks to regenerate damaged or ageing organs. Stem cells are one of the most fascinating areas of biology today. But like ...
Although the actual procedure of retrieving stem cells from embryos is highly complicated and scientific, the ideology is quite simple. The study of stem cells that were taken from human embryos has been around since the early nineties, but until the summer of 1998, a majority of the country had been none the wiser. The country’s “non-knowledge” of this very promising medical technology may have been a blessing in disguise. With the story rapidly hitting newsstands and telecasts around the country, pro and anti-research rallies were the top headlines. Literally defined, embryonic stem cells are “undifferentiated, or unspecified cells that are unlike any other adult cell”(Stem Cells: A primer). They are unique because they are totipotent, or have the ability to form into almost any of the 220 cell types in the human body. Embryonic stem cells are taken from the blastocyst, the name given to the stage of the embryo when it is four to six days old. The blastocyst consists of two cell masses; the first is an outer “wall” of cells that are already specified and will grow to become placental tissue and membrane. The inner mass, however, is a large group of unspecified stem cells that can be manipulated and eventually used for the treatment of diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Diabetes. Not only do stem cells show promise for cures to these diseases, but also they also offer hope for the sufferers and ...
Could you imagine being able to create new organs, tissues, muscles, and even food? With embryonic stem cell technology, believe it or not, these things are possible. Stem cells are the body's raw materials. Specifically, they are cells from which all other cells with specialized functions are generated. Under the right conditions in the body or in a laboratory, stem cells can divide to form more cells called daughter cells. These daughter cells either become new stem cells or turn into specialized cells with a more specific function, such as blood cells, brain cells, muscle cells or bone cells. The possibilities are almost endless. The debate and main issue with this technology is that the actual stem cells come from embryos. Embryos are an unborn or unhatched offspring in the process of development. Although there is controversy surrounding these cells, embryonic stem cells should continue to be researched and used, because they have so much potential.