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If you had an accident and suffered a severe spinal injury that paralyzed you from the neck down and you were told you would never move again, would you give up? What if someone told you there was a way you would be able to move again? If some one told you there was a way to repair the nerves of your spinal cord, and even though the therapy would be extremely tough, there is a chance you would recover. Would you want this treatment? I would.
This kind of treatment is real. This treatment is called stem cell therapy. Research has been done, tests prove that stem cells can repair nerve damages on animals, but the research cannot be applied to humans. The controversy around application of human embryos is stopping the research from continuing. Is this right and is it just embryos that can be used? If the research has been done and has proven a success, why can't it be used for humans? I believe we should be using stem cells in medical practice.
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The use of stem cells could change the way we treat many different types of problems; from spinal cord injuries to damaged hearts.
The media has cultured a terrible conception of stem cells research. The ways and views in which the media has portrayed stem cells do not accurately reflect the ways in which research is being done today. Many of these ideas have stemmed from pro-life organizations, such as United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and conservative political members.
In order for this research to be incorporated into regular routines for medicine, the public must lose their misconceptions and cautions about the research.
When this research first began it was all about embryonic stem cells, and the media portrayed this as abortion. This caused a social up rise and unrest about the use of stem cells. The media obtained this information mostly through pro-life programs such as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. They say, "As a matter of biological fact, this new living organism has the full complement of human genes and is actively expressing those genes to live and develop in a way that is unique to human beings, setting the essential foundation for further development" (n.p.). The destruction of this life is wrong no matter what the outcome may be and we cannot destroy a human life. This does not only mean that using aborted or miscarried fetus' is wrong, but that the use of any cell that has been fertilized is wrong. This argument holds strong even today, but the results are beginning to tear down this belief. This argument kept research from being funded; while research continued, the budget was cut dramatically, and the finding/developments were hidden from the public. In order for this research to be truly beneficial, the public must know how it is being done. They need to know what a stem cell really is, the types of stem cells there are, the collection methods, and how incredibly useful they are.
There are many misconceptions about stem cell research. The biggest of which is that the stem cells come from aborted babies. This is a completely wrong statement. The researches on embryos in the early stages of development lead to the discovery of large quantities of stem cells in the embryo; the highest concentration of embryonic-stem cells in the blastocyst. Since the concentration is so high in this area, that's where they are collected. Research now is not conducted on miscarried fetuses, rather on fertilized eggs through invetro-fertilization. This is a process in which the male or female is sterile and cannot conceive a baby on his or her own. If they choose to have this procedure done, the doctor removes eggs from the woman, and retrieves sperm from the man or another donor. More than one egg is fertilized and when one egg begins to grow, it is implanted back into the uterus. The remaining eggs that have been fertilized can be used for research, upon the consent of the parents. These eggs are only a few days old, and have just begun to start making stem cells. That's all we need. A few cells to start with can go a long way because embryonic stem cells can be cultured very well in the lab.
Stem cells are the basis for all the different cell types in our body. They make bone, blood, nerve, skin, organ, brain cells etc. There are two different types of stem cells, embryonic- stem cells and somatic-stem cells, also known as adult stem cells. Somatic and embryonic-stem cells have two different functions, but there are three key characteristics that contribute to both. First, these cells are undefined cells with the ability to produce more of themselves. They are unspecialized cells, and have the very unique ability to change in to a specialized cell. Next they divide to produce more and more of the same cell. There are also no limits to the way in which these cells divide. They can also help to repair damaged tissues or organs (stemcells.gov). In other areas stem cells only divide under specific conditions. Finally, stem cells cannot change once they are a specific type of cell, meaning they cannot turn into a bone cell then into a skin cell. Embryonic stem cells were the main source for researchers and medicine because they have the unique ability to proliferate, meaning that they have the ability to continuously divide at a seemingly endless rate for months, or years at a time (stemcells.gov). Certain embryonic-stem cells can continue to divide in the lab and create millions of themselves; all of which can be used for research or patient treatment. We are now finding new ways to keep somatic stem cells in labs. As Dr. Zannos Greckos, a leading researcher in the Stem-cell field, says:
in the past 18 months, about 100 patients have received adult stem cell therapy at a Dominican hospital. Most of them have been patients with severe heart disease, while the rest have suffered from chronic lung illnesses, the Israeli laboratories can produce between 40 million and 80 million stem cells from a patient's blood sample. Then they also activate them and educate them to become the end organ to any tissues we are looking to regenerate. (CNN)
Somatic stem cells are collected from any tissue or muscle in the body. Embryonic and somatic stem cells reside within the body, but after initial development the amount of embryonic stem cells decrease drastically. In order to separate an embryonic stem cell from a somatic stem cell while still in the body, researchers use two guidelines. First, the cell must be labeled in a living tissue, and specify which specialized cell types they generate, then the cells must be transplanted into another living organism to see if the cells repopulate the organism (stemcells.gov). The job of somatic-stem cells is to help repair damaged organ tissue or tissue cells, and when the time comes they repair the damaged cells. In order to collect somatic stem cells, only tissue or muscle cells need to be taken. This means that right now I could give skin, heart, or even nerve stem cells. The somatic cells work just as well as embryonic stem cells, the only difference is that they can only be used for the specific tissue or organ they were collected from. One great example of this comes from Australian surgeon Dr. Fiona Wood and her spray on skin cells. Dr. Wood developed a way to take skin cells from any part of the body, break them down to only somatic skin cells. Then induce them to divide millions of times, essentially developing more skin cells, and simply spray the solution on to the burned area. This technique is beginning to replace the need for skin graphs. The spay on skin only needs 1/10 of an inch to cover a one square inch area, instead of the traditional one square inch for one square inch of burned flesh. (technologyreview)
As you can see, the way in which stem cells are collected has changed over the decades and it is not how the media portrays it to be. Now we do not completely rely on embryonic-stem cells; somatic-stem cells make up the bulk of studies. While embryonic-stem cells are still being collected, it is not in such large quantities because we can proliferate them for long periods of time. Through invetro-fertilization we have cut out the scientific need for abortion. Stem cells are the miracle cure of the future. The more we study these incredible cells, and continue to prefect our techniques, the greater their potential will be. Imagine a day when a severed spine, destroyed brain cells, or failing hearts are just minor problems. With a simple treatment of stem cells over a period of time, those problems could be fixed. I would love to live in that world.
A Research on the Regenerative Power of Stem Cell Therapy. (2023, May 30). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/a-research-on-the-regenerative-power-of-stem-cell-therapy-essay
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