The Stem Cell Controversy

The Stem Cell Controversy

Most people don’t even know exactly what a stem cell is and what it does. There are many different views on stem cell research. Embryonic stem cells are very delicate cells that have the potential to grow in a lab and metamorphose into almost all types of tissue, which in contrast treat certain diseases. The ethical debate of stem cell research primarily concerns the creation,treatment, and destruction of a human embryo.
Not all stem cell research involves creation,use, or destruction of a human embryo. Adult stem cells, amniotic stem cells, and induced pluripotent stem cells don’t involve human embryos at all. Although embryonic stem cells are the best of the best in treating physical trauma, degenerative conditions, genetic diseases, and some cancers. Further treatments using stem cells could potentially be developed thanks to their ability to repair extensive tissue damage.
In 1995 United States Congress passed the Dickey-Wicker Amendment. The bill was signed by president Bill Clinton. This amendment prohibited the Department of Health and Human Services to federally fund research in which human embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to death or injury. In March 2009 president Obama issued an order which removed the restriction against federal funding of stem cell research.
In early 2009 the FDA approved the first human clinical trials using embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent.  Pluripotent means the stem cell is able to differentiate into any of the 3 germ layers: endoderm( interior stomach lining, gastrointestinal tract, lungs) mesoderm ( muscle, blood, bone, urogenitial) ectoderm( epidermal tissue and nervous tissue). Pluripotent stem cells can help any fetal or adult cells that are damaged or diseased. However alone they can’t become a fetal or adult organism because they lack potential to contribute to extraembryonic tissue such as the placenta.
Induced pluripotent stem cells are a type of cell that is artificially formed from a non-pluripotent cell typically an adult somatic cell by inducing genes. An adult somatic cell is a biological cell forming the body of an organism that is in a multicellular organism. An example of an adult somatic cell are skin cells. Induced pluripotent cells are obtained by genetically reprogramming the adult somatic cells. This process can cause significant risk depending on which methods are used. Hypothetically speaking if viruses are induced into an adult somatic cell to genetically alter the cell it can trigger “oncogenes” which are cancer causing genes. If this was to happen and oncogenes became present in the cell this would activate the persons natural killers cells which would kill the cancer, but in the process also destroy the whole organ. Everyone has natural killer cells. They are a type of cytoxic lymphocyte critical to the immune system. Natural killer cells provide rapid responses to viral infected cells and respond to tumor formation.

Adult stem cells are very limited into differentiating into different cell types of their tissue origin. However some evidence suggests that the plasticity in an adult stem cell may increase the number of cell types it can become. To break this information down think of it this way. An embryo stem cell is very young . It hasn’t decided what role its going to play in the body yet when it grows up. On the other hand an adult stem cell are older and usually have already chosen what role they will play in the body. This is why scientists have used embryo stem cells to treat certain diseases because they can genetically pick what role they want the embryo stem cell to play in the body. Suppose a mother chose to freeze her babies umbilical cord blood at birth, and later in life that child got leukemia. Doctors could perform a stem cell transplant from stem cells in the childs very own cord blood. Then new stem cells could create new healthy blood cells while the cancerous blood cells usually die off.

Some stem cell researchers are working to develop techniques of isolating stem cells that are as useful as embryonic stem cells, but don’t require a human embryo. Anthony Atala of Wake Forest University said “ The fluid surrounding the fetus has been found to contain stem cells that when utilized correctly, can be metamorphosed towards cell types such as fat, bone, muscle, blood vessel, nerve, and liver cells. The extraction of this fluid is thought not to harm the fetus in anyway.” He hopes that these cells will provide a valuable resource for tissue repair and for engineered organs as well.

Embryonic stem cell research is by far a controversial debate. With present day technology, the creation of a human embryonic stem cell line requires the destruction of a human embryo. Current stem cell issues have motivated the pro-life movement, whose members believe that human life begins at conception. A portion of stem cell researchers use embryos that were created and not used in invitro fertilization treatments to create new stem cell lines. Most of the embryos are to be destroyed, or stored long past their viable storage life anyway. In the U.S. alone, there have been at least 400,000 embryos that have gone to waste.

Medical researchers agree that stem cell research has the potential to dramatically alter ways of understanding and treating diseases. In August 2000, The U.S National Institute of Health’s Guidelines Stated: “ Research involving human pluripotent stem cells promises new treatments and possible cures for many debilitating diseases and injuries, including Parkinson’s Disease, diabetes, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, burns, and spinal cord injuries. The National Institute of Health believes the potential medical benefits of human pluripotent stem cell technology are compelling and worthy of pursuit in accordance with appropriate ethical standards”

In 2006 researchers at Advanced Cell Technology of Worcester, MA accomplished obtaining stem cells from mouse embryos without destroying them. If this technique and its reliability are improved, it could alleviate some of the ethical concerns. In 2005 The National Institute of Health funded $6.7 million dollars worth of stem cell research. In 2005 the state of California also took out 3 billion dollars in bond loans to fund embryonic stem cell research. Since president Barack Obama removed the restriction of government funding for stem cell research they are now being funded federally.

If you look at both sides to this debate each side has very good reasoning. Although embryonic stem cells are the best approach in finding a cure for certain diseases it does involve risk, injury ,or even death to an unborn fetus.