What You Should Know about Stem Cells
A topic of extended scientific and ethical debate in our society as of late has been the question of Stem Cell research. Going down this path could yield unprecedented medical leaps in treatment and prevention that medicine will be able to offer. Before I address the debate of whether or not Stem Cell research should be done, I want to first explain to my readers what stem cells are, how they come to be and what we can use them for. We must first start with the different types of cells, I will explain them as I take you through part of the fetal development process. The first type of cell is the totipotent cell. This cell is created when a sperm fertilizes an egg. This kind of cell can
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Once we are able to create these stem cell lines a variety of possibilities will be open to us. The first is the ability to speed up our future drug testing. This benefit should please animal rights activists. If we create a line of human stem cells for new drugs to be tested on than we can assess the negative and positive effects on the stem cell tissue before the drug is ever used on an animal or a human. Not only that but testing new drugs on stem cells increase the amount of information we can learn because we can target specific and more varied tissues that previously we had access to. Now I will get into more direct benefits of stem cell research. Pluripotent stem cells can be directed to develop into almost any kind of tissue, and this creates the possibility for a renewable source of replacement tissues and cells. What does that mean? We would be able to better treat and cure a large number of diseases and injuries including but not limited to: Parkinson?s, Alzheimer?s, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. I have included an example taken from the National Institute of Health?s Primer on Stem Cells:
Transplant of healthy heart muscle cells could provide new hope for patients with chronic heart disease whose hearts can no longer pump adequately. The hope is to develop
Stem cell research has been quite a controversial topic since its origin in the 1960s by Gopal Das and Joseph Altman. Of course, anything that uses a human embryo would be. Stem cell research could open a vast number of new doors for modern science, it could let us test new drugs, one of which could be the unfound cure for AIDS or Alzheimer’s disease. However, this branch of science comes at a high price, the price of a human life that is only five to six days
Scientists need the opportunity for research and they have researched that stem cells can do a lot of things such as having the potential to treat many diseases. (Devitt 14)
Embryonic stem cell research is already proving useful in the study of regenerative medicine, human development, cellular responses to disease, drug testing, and many other fields. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There is still much more to be discovered and created using the research platform this stem cell research provides. Although opponents argue it to be unnecessary, it is clearly important because embryonic stem cells are the most pluripotent stem cells, and all stem cells are required for the full potential of research. Embryonic stem cell research can also be justified, because the embryos come from sources where they would otherwise be destroyed, but they are instead contributing to the advancement of medicine and science. Finally, and notably, this field is supported, and is clearly leading to a new future of science and research. This research is important to everybody because it is creating and will continue to create cures, medicines, and therapies. Any person could be struck by a disease or ailment unexpectedly, and the more research scientists are able to do with a variety of options means that person may not have to experience discomfort or pain for long. This research is helping reduce or eliminate fatal disorders as well, meaning that it could possibly save a loved one’s life, if they struggle with a terminal illness. In these ways, embryonic stem cell research continues to be an issue that affects, and should be understood by, everybody. Embryonic stem cell research, though controversial, is a field so valuable and with so much potential that it is important to contribute
There are some pros and cons on the research on embryonic stem cells. There is many benefits to conducting research on the stem cells. They could use differentiated cells that could result to certain disease that require transplanting stem cells generated from the human embryonic stem cell. The diseases are traumatic spinal cord injury, diabetes, Duchene’s muscular dystrophy, vision and hearing loss as well as heart disease. (White) Stem cells could also
Stem-cell research is a complex subject. First of all you need to know there are three main categories of stem cells. Embryonic, Fetal and Adult; not everyone is for or against all of these types. There are different sets on pros and cons to each of these types and I will address a few for each type. I believe the pros outweigh the cons in each of these and stem cell research is very beneficial for medical purposes.
Drug companies can use these cells to created better medication. New drugs can be tested for side effects in humans that may have not shown in animal testing. More specific research into to certain genetic groups can now be fine-tuned. By testing the toxicity of drugs, it “becomes safer and more effective of the target groups.” (CIRM) This also allows researchers to test the effect of drugs on heart, liver, and brain cell. New drug testing would be one of the more immediate effects of stem cell research.
Stem cells have been used in the world before to develop vaccines for diseases basically eradicating them. These diseases include small pox, chicken pox, and the MMR vaccine. The development of these vaccines has made it easier to conduct research on synthesizing a cure in diseases that are more complex. The breakthrough research from those cures has furthered our, “...understanding of diabetes, MS, and Parkinson’s disease that offer the potential for new treatments and cures.” (Allum 6) The cures that we have found in the past have helped with research for developing new ones. The more complex diseases would be diseases that affect the brain and the nervous system this could include autism and cerebral palsy. To find new treatments for diseases like this would be a major breakthrough because it would affect more than just the patient, it would also affect the lives off loved ones because the patient finally received the care that they needed. Developing cures for diseases like this could affect millions of lives by themselves, but those three diseases are not the only ones they are trying to treat and they could affect millions more lives. Other diseases that researchers are attempting to find new treatments for are all types of cancer and AIDS. Stem cells have already been used to try to cure cancer and AIDs and it is showing promising results. The cells that they used treated and show promising results to making improved treatments, or even cures for, “...lung diseases; cancers; autoimmune diseases…” (Bishop 4) and many other diseases. If scientists could find cures for diseases like cancer then it would be an incredible breakthrough because it would save millions of lives, and it could prevent people from going through radiation treatments. Since there has already been promising results from tests then scientists may be close to discovering a cure for cancer, and this would change so
Stem cell research can be used in a multitude of way in which the main once being to treat disease. Scientists can use stem cells as a way of monitoring and learning about how some organisms can develop. Because of its ability to renew themselves, stem cells can be used to help treat and cure disease. They can also be used to study some diseases and further advancements in new medical
Stem cell research has become an important part of medical research in the past few years. Embryonic stem cell research is controversial because of the blurred lines in the moral viewpoints of many people. These embryonic stem cells are pure and are easily manipulated to fit any type of cell needed. This is useful in the testing of new drugs and treatments of permanent or incurable diseases such as ALS and MS. Adult stem cells are also useful in research, but they are already specialized which makes them only useful for the type of cell they come from.
Stem cell therapy has helped researchers learn more about the growth of human cells and their development Stem cell therapy has many medical benefits. Researcher found a way to use stem cell to clone animals and organs. Stem cell therapy shows unlimited potential in the treatment of a number of conditions like Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, cancer, diabetes and possible organ failure. Stem cell research will allow scientists to test a number of potential medicines and drugs without continuing experimental test on animals and humans. The drug can be tested on a population of cells directly.
Researchers are, at present, using stem cells to monitor new medications and to improve the experiments of regular development and detect the reasons behind birth deficiencies. Investigation on stem cells remain to improve information on how an organism progresses from a single cell and how strong cells substitute injured cells. Stem cell research is one of the most interesting studies of modern science, nonetheless, as with countless increasing areas of science investigation on stem cells, limitless debates arise.
Stem cells are now used to treat various of diseases and studied for possible treatments in the future of the medical world. Although people argue that stem cell research is unethical, I think that it's very beneficial to humankind as it develops treatments for illnesses. Stargardt’s macular dystrophy is a genetic disease that “causes a membrane protein used for active transport in retina cells to malfunction” (Allott and Mindorff 13). The photoreceptor cells degrade in the retina; therefore, one’s vision to worsen severely enough to cause blindness. Researchers developed a treatment by making the embryonic stem cells to grow into retina cells. In November 2010, a woman in her 50s received the procedure and “there was an improvement in her
The Film Stem Cell Revolution was extremely interesting and was able to capture the attention of the viewer with the explanation and viewing of procedures along with a further look at the future of stem cells. According to the film “Stem Cells are the answer to everything.” Not only do stem cells have the answers to life, but many scientists and professors wonder what stem cells are NOT capable of doing because of their ability to be used in so many situations. Years ago stem cells were not even being considered to make medical breakthroughs, but as time has passed the positive results have been unexpected and unprecedented.
Imagine the possibility of life threatening diseases and illnesses being cured by the use of preexisting human cells. Imagine being able to receive a transplant for a deadly disease made possible by cells from one’s own body. With continued stem cell research and funding, this is possible. Stem cell transplants take existing cells from the human body, remove them, specialize them to stop a certain disease, and then put them back in the body to effectively rid the body of that specific disease. Stem cells can be used to cure a multitude of diseases - from blindness, to blood disorders, to even the deadliest cancers. Continued research will bring the possibility of cures for these horrible diseases that kill millions yearly. Stem cell research
The best pro in this kind of research would be the limitless opportunity for scientists to discover about human growth and cell development from studying stem cells. Another benefit with stem cell research it provides regenerative medicine and therapeutic cloning. These benefits can lead to finding cures for diseases such as the following: different kinds of cancers, diabetes, spinal cord