Science Research

What is stem cell research?  What are stem cells?  What are the pros and cons of embryonic stem cell research?

The New York Times reported this morning that President Obama said his administration will “make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology.”  President Obama signed an order ending Bush’s limits on human embryonic stem cell research.

What are stem cells?

According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), there are adult stem cells, and then there are embryonic stem cells, which is where the ethical issues are raised.

“Specifically, embryonic stem cells are derived from embryos that develop from eggs that have been fertilized in vitro - in an in vitro fertilization clinic - and then donated for research purposes with informed consent of the donors,” the NIH website explains.

However, an adult stem cell is a cell found among other cells in a tissue or organ that can renew itself.  The role of adult stem cells are to maintain and repair the tissue in which they are found.  Yet the abilities of these stem cells reach beyond the tissues in which they are found.

Researchers have found some of these stem cells have the ability to differentiate into many different cell types - so stem cells found in one area of the body may be useful for another part of the body that has begun to deteriorate.

According to wikipedia.org, human embryonic stem cell research is controversial because it requires “the destruction of a human embryo and/or therapeutic cloning.”

Recently, though, researches may have found a way to avoid the controversial part.  That is, “…adult stem cell lines can be manipulated to generate embryonic-like stem cell…that may allow stem cell creation without embryonic destruction.”

Pros and cons of stem cell research

The pros and cons of human embryonic stem cell research is widely debated.

Those weighing the cons of the argument warn that such technologies could potentially devalue human life.  The pro-life movement also argues the human embryo is a life and is entitled to protection.

Those weighing the pros of the research argue stem cells hold “significant medical potential.”  Wikipedia also notes that “excess embryos created for in vitro fertilization could be donated with consent and used for the research.”  (Perhaps lessening cases such as Octomom).

Among those celebrating Obama’s order are diabetics.  According to nydailynews.com , “Embryonic stem cells hold the promise of replicating the pancreatic cells that produce insulin.”

Transplanting cells cures Type I diabetes, but donated organs do not meet the need while embryonic stem cells would allow doctors to grow as many new cells as needed, said Robert Pearlman, president of Diabetes Research Institute Foundation.

Pearlman noted that of the 1.5 million Americans living with Type I diabetes, only 6,000 pancreases are donated each year.

But it’s not just the pro-life movement that’s outspoken about stem cell research.  Advocates of the private sector don’t want the Feds funding this research.

According to Steven Milloy , a Fox News blogger:

“The reason that the embryonic stem cell research community has been so vocal in advocating for federal funding of its work is that private investors virtually abandoned them in the late 1990s. Private investors have learned that there simply is little hope that money invested in embryonic stem cell research will produce a financial return anytime soon. Taxpayer money, on the other hand, is a much easier thing to obtain and spend in unaccountable ways — so that’s the game being played by the embryonic stem cell research community.”

What do you think about stem cell research?  Should the federal government fund this research?  Please share your thoughts and opinions in the comment section below.

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