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Advancements in medical technology
Embryonic stem cell ethics debate sides
Technology in the medical field
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Recommended: Advancements in medical technology
Advancements in medical technology has allowed for a new understanding of stem cells and further developments in research. The use of stem cells in regenerative medicine may hold significant benefits for those suffering from degenerative diseases. To avail such advancements in stem cell research could see the alleviation or complete cure of afflictions that take the lives of millions worldwide each year. (McLaren, 2001) A stem cell 1 is able differentiate into any somatic cell found in the human body, including those identical to itself.
Differentiation is a cellular process whereby a stem cell will divide into a specialised cell, for example a neuron2. To harness the unique cellular function of a stem cell could mean the cultivation of entirely new organs; saving countless lives and resolving acute organ transplant shortages. (Healey, 2007) Although stem cell research poses a considerable breakthrough in regenerative medicine, it raises serious ethical controversy. A specific type of stem cell used in regenerative research is an embryonic stem (ES) cell; harvested through the destruction of human embryos. (Hurlbut, 2006) This poses a significant ethical dilemma, as ES cells are sourced from pre-implantation embryos leftover from In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF). The destruction of embryos is seen by many as an abuse of human life, an exploitation of those that are living, but cannot decide their own fate. (Masters, 2005) Before ES cell research is to make a positive impact on modern medicine and the global scientific community, this ethical predicament must first be considered.
Embryonic stem cell research will allow for an emerging era of medicine, where researches will be capable of providing a cure for many of todays degene...
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...velopment, Monash University, Australia
Fuchs, E 2008, Stem Cells: Biology, Ethics and Potential for Medicine, L'annuarie du College de France, France
Denker, H 2006, Potentiality of Embryonic Stem Cells: An Ethical Problem Even With Alternative Stem Cell Sources, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Scott, C 2008, Stem Cells: new frontiers of ethics, law and policy, Stanford University, United States of America
Healey, J 2007, Cloning & Stem Cell Research, Volume 265 edn, The Spinney Press, Sydney, Australia
Morgan, S 2006, From Microscopes to Stem Cell Research: discovering regenerative medicine, White-Thomson Publishing, Oxford, United Kingdom
Dowswell, P 2000, Genetics: the impact on our lives, Hodder & Wayland, London, United Kingdom
Maters, C 2005, DNA and your body: what you need to know about biotechnology, UNSW Press, Sydney, Australia
“Through the isolation and manipulation of cells, scientists are finding ways to identify young, regenerating ones that can be used to replace damaged of dead cells in diseased organs. This therapy is similar to the process of organ transplant, only the treatment consists of the transplantation of cells rather than organs. The cells that have shown by far the most promise of supplying diseased organs with healthy cells are called stem cells.” (Chapter Preface)
" An Overview of Stem Cell Research | The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity."
Stem cells are pluripotent cells of the body which are “undifferentiated.” This means that stem cells can ultimately give rise to any type of body tissue. Thus stem cells have the potential to cure a vast number of diseases and physical ailments including Parkinson’s, diabetes, spinal cord injury, and heart disease. Consequently, stem cell research and the development of associated medical applications are of great interest to the scientific and medical community. The area of stem cell research involving human embryonic stem cells is of particular interest in that embryonic stem cells are derived from week-old blastocysts developed from in vitro fertilized eggs. As opposed to adult stem cells, which must undergo a complicated process of de-differen...
Because stem cells are essentially a blank slate, scientists are theoretically capable of growing any human tissue cell. There is enormous medical potential in this. Stem cell research is the next step in advancing the medical field. It is comparable to the discovery of penicillin or the inoculation for smallpox.
Siegel, A. (2008). Ethics of Stem Cell Research. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/stem-cells/.
This report does a fairly comprehensive job on educating the public to the definition of stem cells, describing them as “a diverse group of remarkable multipotent cells that are relatively undifferentiated and unspecialized cells of the body.” Stem cells have the capacity for unlimited self-renewal and the possibility to produce differentiated descendant cell types. The main in...
The ethical issues behind the method in which stem cells are obtained out weigh the benefits of stem cell therapy. We should not try to play God, in the aspect of creation of living beings just to be sacrificed for the “betterment of mankind”. Many egregious acts have been committed under the guise of “the greater good”. This is one instance in which the ends do not justify the means.
“Stem Cells: The Future of Medicine.” Medschool.umaryland.edu. University of Maryland School of Medicine Web 14 Nov 2013
Those who favour stem cell research are optimistic about the continued developments in stem cell research will open doors to many breakthrough discoveries in biomedical science. The scientific and ethical questions arise as rapidly as the reaching of milestones in stem cell research. There are two main types of stem cells, namely embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. Adult stem cells are undifferentiated cells in our body. But they have restricted-range of cells that they can further differentiate. On the contrary, embryonic stem cells have the ability to differentiate into nearly two hundred cell types in the human body, called pluripotency. The process of harvesting embryonic stem cells involves destruction of embryos (Mooney, 2009).
The wide range of prospective uses for stem cells could greatly improve the health and wellbeing of many people. In stem cell treatments, undifferentiated cells are programmed to form specific cells, which can then be transplanted to the afflicted area. Stems cells can possibly treat afflictions including “Alzheimer’s diseases, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis” (“Stem Cell Basics”). Another important use is in drug testing. Drugs can be tested on stem cells that develop into the target tissue before using it on human test subjects, which improves safety. Finally, transplantation of organs created from stem cells could eliminate the need for human...
Anderson, Ryan. "Stem Cells: A Political History." First Things. First Things, November, 2008. Web. 10 Feb 2012.
Stem cells offer exciting promise for future therapies, but significant technical hurdles remain that will only be overcome through years of intensive research. Stem Cells have the incredible potential to develop into many different cell types in the body during early life and growth. Scientists primarily work with two kinds of stem cells from animals and humans. The embryonic stem cells and the non-embryonic stem cells. Stem cells are the cells from which all other cells originate. In a human embryo, a large portion of the embryo’s cells are stem cells. These stem cells can be used for cell-based therapies. Cell-Based therapies are treatments in which stem cells are induced to differentiate into the specific cell type required to repair damaged or destroyed cells or tissues. Stem cells are versatile and offer the possibility to treat a number of diseases including Alzheimer’s, stroke, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, etc. The problem is that for the process of embryonic stem cell research and embryo will be destroyed if used. This raises a moral issue and questions of whether stem cell research is unethical or not.
John A. Robertson, “Human Cloning and the Challenge of Regulation,” The New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 339, no. 2 (July 9, 1998), pp. 119-122.
The scientific and medical progress of DNA as been emense, from involving the identification of our genes that trigger major diseases or the creation and manufacture of drugs to treat these diseases. DNA has many significant uses to society, health and culture of today. One important area of DNA research is that used for genetic and medical research. Our abi...
In order to discover the ways for the remedy of diseases, studies in therapeutic approaches have been doing widely and kept increasing at accelerated pace. A lot of research areas had emerged for that purpose including one of the most fascinating and highly active areas at present, stem cells therapies. Due to self-renewal property and differentiation capability of stem cell, it becomes a new hope in modern treatment.