The Cure has been Almost Found
It is amazing to think how our world has progressed in the past 50 years when it comes to automobiles, technology and medicine. Yes, we have come a long way since the horse and buggy- combo, now the new thing is small, fuel- efficient cars that come equipped with backup cameras, assisted parking, blue tooth technology, and even more gadgets. About 50 years ago, the most used piece of technology was a black and white television that not every home on the street had. Now, it’s a small portable IPod that can play music, videos and send messages back and forth. As research continues, more new updated devices will become available, in the technology world and a parallel in the medical world. Many new advances have also been made recently when it comes to finding cures and using the appropriate equipment for treatment. For example, the most advanced medicine was penicillin, right after WWI, then in the 50’s a break through with the polio vaccine was made. Today, there are discoveries being made on treating cancer. This accomplishment has been made through stem cell research. There have been proven cases where the use of stem cells has been effective in the treatment of cancer. However, many are opposed to their use due to ethical issues, but that is because not everyone is aware of all of the information and the multiple ways they can be derived. If such great accomplishments have been made in the recent years using stem cells, more research is a must and should be allowed to further the accomplishments and find the ultimate cure.
Research has been found to prove the embryonic stem cells are the most effective. In a science journal written by Anne E. Bishop, Lee D. K. Buttery, and Julia M. Polak, it states “The capacity of embryonic stem cells for virtually unlimited self-renewal and differentiation capacity has opened up the prospect of widespread applications in biomedical research and regenerative medicine.” (“Journal of Pathology”). Embryonic stem cells hold out to be the most promising because of their biology. Since the embryo is not developed yet, its cells are not developed, and therefore have the most use since they still have the possibility to develop into any cell, “the cells [embryonic cells] provide hope that it will be possible to overcome the problems of donor tissue shortage and also, by making the cells immunocompatible with the recipient, implant rejection” (“Journal of Pathology”). Since the embryonic stem cells have not differentiated into a particular cells yet, the chance of rejection between the donor and accepting cells, is much less. Therefore, the effectiveness With all the research still in process and that has been done, many uses for stem cells have been found. One use, for example, is using stem cells in skeleton engineering, as research by Paolo Bianco and Pamela Robey. They experimented with “Skeletal stem cells (SSCs; also known as bone-marrow stromal stem cells, or mesenchymal stem cells)” and found “Upon ectopic in vivo transplantation in model systems, all of the main tissues found in bone as an organ (bone, cartilage, adipocytes and haematopoiesis-supportingstroma) are formed” (“Stem Cells in Tissue Engineering”). Skeletal Stem cells are stem cells that come from bone marrow, and are derived without the use of embryonic stem cells, but still proved to be effective.
As part of the research, implanted embryonic stem cells and an inner cell mass were implanted into mice to compare. It was found that
“The developmental potential of embryonic stem (ES) cells versus 3.5 day inner cell mass (ICM) was compared after aggregation with normal diploid embryos and with developmentally compromised tetraploid embryos. ES cells were capable of colonizing somatic tissues in diploid aggregation chimeras but less efficiently than ICMs of the same genotype” (“Embryonic stem cells alone are able to support fetal development in the mouse”). Even though this research was done on fetal mice, the results still proved that embryonic stem cells are the most effective compared to any other implanted donor cells.
However, still with all the research done on stem cells, many people are still opposed to incorporating them into treatment plans. This is all due to the fact that it is considered unethical in the way they are retrieved. Since embryonic stem cells are the ones that have been proven to be most effective in treatment, because they are still in the beginning stages of development and have not differentiated into specific cells, however this method of retrieval is the most controversial. Arthur Calplan, from John Hopkins University Press stated, “Pluripotent human stem cell research may offer new treatments for hundreds of diseases, but opponents of this research argue that such therapy comes attached to a Faustian bargain: cures at the cost of the destruction of many frozen embryos” (Cell Proliferation). In the book Cell Proliferation, “Embryonic stem cells have huge potential in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine as they hold the capacity to produce every type of cell and tissue in the body” (Cell Proliferation). Even though the effectiveness of the embryonic cells has been proven, it raises the political issues of using unborn fetal cells.
Since stem cell research, especially embryonic stem cells research, is such a controversial topic in the science world, the government has the ultimate say of whether or not such research can be allowed. In 2001, President Bush however signed the pledge that prohibited the use of embryonic stem cell research. In 2009 President Obama signed off on the pledge to allow stem cell research. However, a year after President Obama signed and gave permission to further the embryonic stem cell research; the federal court prohibited any further action, “The court challenge was brought by adult stem cell researchers who argued the new rules not only would increase competition for limited funds, but violated federal law” (Fox News). The federal courts do not feel it is ethically correct for this type of research to be sponsored by federal money. However, anyone can see that the government will be depriving possible cures by not allowing the possibility of even embryonic stem cell research.
Another argument that was in opposition for continuing this research was from “A nonprofit group, Nightlight Christian Adoptions, also joined and argued that the government's new guidelines would decrease the number of human embryos available for adoption” (Fox News). This also goes along from the moral argument of using fetal stem cells, of embryos that are not born yet. The federal government wants no part in that, so further research is prohibited as of now. The government is willing to compromise and allow stem cell research to continue, but without the use of embryonic stem cells.
Even though the final say of whether or not stem cell research is prohibited in America, stem cells do hold a very effective treatment. Many diseases will be able to be cured with the implantation of the stem cells, as shown by all of the research done. Some retrieval methods are more effective than others, which is why it is important to continue the research. However the bigger issue that is presented here is that the government and science should not overlap. Even if some methods are considered unethical in the political world, in the long run this benefits the citizens, and in the science world, it could end up saving a life.
