Cell Cells And Adult Stem Cells Essay

Stem Cell research and its funding have caused a lot of controversy throughout the past years. Stem cells are cells that are present in all living organisms. These cells have the potential to grow into any type of cell, including blood cells, nerves, muscles, and pancreatic cells. Stem cell research is essential because of the beneficial aspects it has to offer. Stem cells could potentially treat conditions such as Alzheimer 's, Parkinson 's, birth defects, strokes, Diabetes, cancer, and help in the reconstruction of severely damaged organs. Although stem cell research withholds great potential for many medical advances, a lot of controversy surrounds the sources and methods of obtaining stem cells and the possibility of improper usage of the knowledge acquired from research and experimentation. It is necessary for scientist to continue research as well as recognizing any ethical issues that may be present.

Embryonic cells should be allowed to be used because of the medical benefits they provide. They can be used to cure diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, traumatic spinal cord injury, Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy, heart disease, and even vision and hearing loss (nih.gov 2009). There is no problem using them for medical purposes and it is not immoral to use them for this reason. Embryonic cells have the potential to save lives. Therefore, the usage of embryonic cells outweighs the ethical issues.

Stem cell derivatives may be a beneficial source of transplantable cells that may be able to repair and regenerate certain tissues. If this could be accomplished, the medical benefits would be enormous, such as helping Parkinson disease, MS, diabetes, and muscular dystrophies. Although, this could be an extremely important advancement in the field of medicine, there exist many ethical and religious issues that look down upon destroying embryos for research. The stem cells that are focused on in this report are embryonic stem cells. However, adult stem cells may also be used to give rise to lineages of cells that are more specialized than themselves. They are more differentiated than embryonic stem cells. Research using adult stem cells is much less controversial since they can be obtained without destroying an embryo. There is also a strong political aspect that has been brought up in recent discussions regarding groups who try to push adult stem cell research over embryonic stem cell research since they consider it a more permissible option. In contrast, people in favor of embryonic stem cell research try to discredit the potential of adult stem cell studies.

this research would be to identify the factors that are involved in the cell making process that determines cell specialization. A few of our extreme medical conditions, like birth defects and cancer, are a direct result of abnormal cell specialization. If researchers obtain a better understanding of the normal cellular process, they can isolate the causes of these deadly illnesses. The most exciting potential use for stem cells is the generation of tissues and cells. Many diseases are a direct result from complications of cellular functions or destruction of tissues in the body. Many people donate organs and tissues to replace failing or destroyed tissues. Unfortunately, there are many more people suffering from these disorders than there are organs to transplant. That is where stem cells step in. They will give humans a chance to have a renewable source of cells and tissues that will treat a slue of diseases, and disabilities such as, Parkinson’s, stroke, burns, Alzheimer’s, spinal cord injury, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and

The 70's focused on research that involved fetuses in utero. The 80's shifted to research of transplantation of fetal tissue into adults with serious medical conditions such as diabetes, Parkinson's, and spinal cord injuries. The latest saga involves using cells from days-old "spare" embryos that are created in infertility treatment process and all are considered unethical and unmoral issues.

First of all an understanding of what a stem cell is, where it comes from, and the significance of it's medical potential is essential. Stem cells are the "master cells" that form the human body or whatever other animal it is from. Stem cells can be extracted from adult tissues, bone marrow, umbilical cord blood ( ), and embryos in the blastocyst stage. Although scientists have found ways to manipulate the stem cells from adult sources into other types of cells, they claim that they are less capable of deriving the desired tissue and are not "biologically equivalent" ( ) to stem cells extracted from embryos.

A brief introduction to stem cells; Stem cells are cells that are undifferentiated, or, simply put, a cell that has not yet been given a job, such as cells that create molecules. In recent years, scientists have discovered the potency that stem cells contain, due to their versatility. For example, stem cells could be studied and used to cure a man of liver disease, a child’s handicap, a woman’s breast cancer, etc…, etc…. One may now be asking themselves? “That’s great… then why are so many people against stem cell research? What could possibly be the drawback? “. You see, stem cells are acquired by human embryos, or, in Layman’s Terms, unborn fetuses. Take for

The use of stem cells can advance drug development, knowledge of disease, patience specific disease treatment, and can bypass the limits of mouse-models for research. According to the National Institute of Health (1), stem cells are unique in the following ways: they can divide and renew themselves for long periods, they are unspecialized, and they can give rise to specialized cell types. The uniqueness of these stem cells allows for the testing of new drugs, cell-based therapies and the study of human development including cancer research. Human stem cell therapies have been used for the treatment of neurological disease in human clinical trials such as Parkinson’s disease (2), spinal cord injury (3,4) stroke (5), and

Stem cells are defined as the population of cells within an organism that retains its ability to divide and differentiate into various cell types. Since the early 1980s, scientists have researched the use of stem cells in the treatment of various human diseases such as cancer and diabetes. The research has sparked a controversial debate worldwide due to the nature of stem cell research and the source of pluripotent stem cells used in research. Stem cell research is a necessity, despite the source of pluripotent stem cells, because the research has led to breakthrough information involving the treatment diseases and injuries and the use of stem cells to replace damaged cells.

Embryonic stem cells are undifferentiated cells that are able to differentiate into any type of cell in the body, and they are obtained from four or five day old embryos that are in the blastocyst stage of human development. For example, an embryonic stem cell could turn into brain, skin, muscle, and bone cells. Stem cells have the potential to cure a plethora of diseases, but they come at a cost. The researchers that obtain these stem cells destroy the human embryo, therefore killing human life. The use of embryonic stem cells should be eliminated because embryonic stem cells can be unpredictable and can cause tumors, there are more effective stem cells that can be obtained without

The process when stem cells give rise to blood cells, or any other specialized cells, is called differentiation (“Stem Cell Basics”). Stem Cells’ ability of differentiation can be targeted and directed to generate tissue and therefore to cure degenerative diseases (Panno 24-28). However, such medical promise faces the doubts and gives rise to disputes. In fact, federal funds for stem cell research were banned under President Bush’s administration, but the ban was then lifted by President Obama’s administration (Obama). Despite the different arguments, more medical trials should be conducted with embryonic stem cells in order to determine whether the medical promise is applicable or far-fetched.

Stem cells have a plethora of side effects that over powers the benefits. The ability to differentiate is known as plasticity, and it is thought to only be at its greatest in embryonic stem cells. In order for the embryonic cells to be of use they must be fertilized, after which, the stem cell is removed, destroying the embryo. Stem cells can be used in adults; however it is believed through the consensus of the medical community that the plasticity of embryonic stem cells is not even closely matched by those of adult stem cells. The general idea is that “adult stem cells have a limited capacity to differentiate (Solter 8).” Adult stem cells are already stuck in their ways, which makes it useless, in a way. They can only reproduce the same cell type that they originate from. Thus, despite the prospecting medical leaps that this technology can provide, the process of how to obtain the embryonic stem cells overwhelms the benefits by far.

Scientists are interested in stem cells for their ability to become any type of cell in the body, a process called differentiation. Theoretically, this allows for limitless possibilities in disease

Research is being conducted on both embryonic and adult stem cells due to their ability to divide indefinitely. By keeping a close eye on stem cells as they mature into specialized cells, doctors and

Stem cells show potential for many different areas of health and medical research, and studying them can help us understand how they transform into the dazzling array of specialized cells that make us what we are. Some of the most serious medical conditions, such as cancer and birth defects, are caused by problems that occur somewhere in this process. A better understanding of normal cell development will allow us to understand and perhaps correct the errors that cause these medical conditions. A stem cell is a primitive type of cell that can be coaxed into developing into most of the 220 types of cells found in the human body (e.g. blood cells, heart cells, brain cells, etc). Some researchers regard them as offering the greatest