The public cheerleading of Varmus and others, without a doubt, helped make stem cells a household word and set a high (and unrealistic) expectation that therapies for a host of debilitating cell-based diseases were just around the corner." (Five Years Later, Stem Cells Still Tantalize) Introduction This report will define and provide some current and historical insights into stem cell research and technology and how that research affects the United States social, political and religious belief structures
Even though non-embryonic-stem-cell technology is already years ahead of ES work in terms of experimentation and application, recently it has exploded like a thermo baric bomb." (Fumento) Politically, embryonic stem cell research is too touchy a subject to get much support from either republicans or democrats
"He found it immoral to destroy a human embryo to create stem cell lines yet in the case where there's a human who's committed a heinous crime, he'll take their life," Trosko said, referring to Bush's capital punishment record as governor of Texas." (Hughes) They have agreed to allow existing fertilized eggs to be used for research but have said no to any new sources of fertilized eggs
A sperm and ovum together to create an embryo, harvesting the cells, and then discarding the embryo." (Celia) The concern for many people is that working with embryonic stem cells especially may somehow he breaching the rights of people and taking science to a point where it is playing god in a dangerous way
The concern, however, is that stem cells have the potential to develop into human embryos, and therefore the work that scientists do on these cells may be considered to be human testing. "Are they morally protectable entities, or are they more like other disposable tissues gleaned from the human body?" (Green) However, the choice is clear for many medical professionals that work with patients that are suffering every day, and it seems immoral to prevent this research from being done
For instance sensors detect whether DNA synthesis is complete, incase there is a malfunction that prevents the process to be successfully competed, signals are conveyed to the control system in order for it to delay the cycle progression to the next stage. The delays provide time for the malfunction to be repaired and also prevent the impending disaster that might occur if the cycle went on prematurely to the next stage (Sunkel, & Pinheiro, 2012)
S. Congress authored and passed a bill that would in effect discard Bush's executive order; but the president vetoed the legislation, saying that he would not "…support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others" (Babington, 2006)
What are Embryonic Stem Cells? "Among stem cells, human embryonic stem (hE's) cells are considered to have the greatest potential for biomedical and clinical research," writes professor Joanna Hanley in the British Journal of Haematology. The reason hE's cells have so much potentiality, Hanley and colleagues explain, is that they are capable of "unlimited self-renewal" and they have the capacity to "differentiate into all somatic cell types" in the human body (Hanley, 2010, p
In the Introduction to this paper, it was stated that most of those objecting to the use of embryonic stem cells in this research are conservative or members of conservative Christian faiths. It is worth mentioning that a recent study by the American Sociological Review (released March 29, 2012) points out that "…trust in science among conservatives and frequent churchgoers has declined precipitously since 1974" (Hoeffel, 2012)
Professor Insoo Hyun boils the main arguments against the use of embryonic stem cell down to two positions. One, he posits that since the beginning of embryonic stem cell research (ESCr), the movement has "…tapped into underlying dystopian fears about human cloning, the commodification of human biological material, the missing of human and animal species, and the hubristic quest for regenerative immortality" (Hyun, 2010, p
Because there are good reasons for trying to cure diseases and because human embryonic stem cell research promises markedly better treatments of disease than are currently available, the case for pursuing human embryonic stem cell research seems overwhelming…." (Marquis, 2007, p
191). Meanwhile, Jeff McMahan writes in the journal Metaphilosophy that the main objection to the use of human embryos is because they are viewed as "…essentially beings of the same sort that you and I are" and hence, using embryonic stem cells for research is "killing" humans (McMahan, 2007, p
Meanwhile Dr. Stephen Napier of the National Catholics Bioethics Center in Philadelphia contends that "battle lines" in the ongoing debate about using embryonic stem cells in research have been drawn around "metaphysical questions" like, "What is an embryo?" And "Am I the same thing as my embryo?" (Napier, 2009, p
The National Institutes of Health Resource for Stem Cell Research. (2012)
224). The American Presidency Project explains that embryonic stem cells are retrieved from the "inner cell mass of a human embryo" and those cells have the potential to "develop into all or nearly all of the tissues in the body… [and this is called] pluripotentiality" (Woolley, et al
Community-Based Correction Program The sentencing systems and incarceration programs that are established have four traditional, primary goals: incapacitation, punishment, deterrence and rehabilitation (Wright, 2010, p
The authors acknowledge the use of stem cells has grown in regard as a successful way to treat leukemia in many patients. They state, "In most patients, imatinib reduces CML to a minimal residual disease state in which options to further deepen remission, such as immunotherapy, are sought; monitoring techniques and interpretation of response advance in parallel to meet demands" (Mauro and Maziarz, 2006, p
The authors note, "98 received cord blood and 584 received bone marrow. The transplantations were performed from 1998 through 2002 and reported to Eurocord and the European Blood and Marrow Transplant Group" (Rocha, V
Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is an alternative, especial in pediatric acute leukemias. Umbilical cord blood is also found to be "an acceptable source of HSCs for adult acute leukemia patients who lack HLA-matched donors" (Tse et al
The authors studied 43 transplant patients and did follow-up studies on their condition after the transplants. These studies included "morphologic examination of bone marrow, assessment of hematopoietic chimerism with the use of short-tandem-repeat amplification, and HLA typing" (Vago, L