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Stem cell ethical debate
Should government fund embryonic stem cell research
Stem cell ethical debate
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A controversial subject matter of federal funding for stem cell research has been ongoing since 2001 when President George W. Bush prohibited federal funding; however, President Bush did not prohibit the research itself, raising permissible concern. Stem cell research may have the potential to treat and cure cataclysmic medical conditions. The dispute of stem cell research is embryos are eradicated in the process of research, in addition to correlating embryos to an infant life; therefore, commencing a slippery slope of corrupting applications.
Irrefutable aspects of stem cell research pave the way to a consequential practice, in the same instance, it holds promise for life altering implications. The main focus of debate associated with
Are stem cells ethical to use in medical research? The most basic cells in the human body are stem cells. Because doctors use stem cells for medical treatment of chronic ailments, stem cells play an important role in human medical research. However, despite the benefits of stem cells in medical treatment, controversy surrounds the methods employed to obtain them. Should researchers continue to use stem cells?
Are embryonic stem cells the cure to many of the human body’s ailments, including defective organs and crippling diseases, or is their use a blatant disregard of human rights and the value of life? Thanks to the rapid advancements in this field, the potential benefits of stem cells are slowly becoming a reality. However, embryonic stem cell research is an extremely divisive topic in the United States thanks to the ethical issues surrounding terminating embryos to harvest the stem cells. In response to this debate, Congress passed the Dickey-Wicker amendment in 1995 to prohibit federal funding of research that involved the destruction of embryos. President Bush affirmed this decision, but more recently, President Obama lifted many of these restrictions.
Could you imagine being able to create new organs, tissues, muscles, and even food? With embryonic stem cell technology, believe it or not, these things are possible. Stem cells are the body's raw materials. Specifically, they are cells from which all other cells with specialized functions are generated. Under the right conditions in the body or in a laboratory, stem cells can divide to form more cells called daughter cells. These daughter cells either become new stem cells or turn into specialized cells with a more specific function, such as blood cells, brain cells, muscle cells or bone cells. The possibilities are almost endless. The debate and main issue with this technology is that the actual stem cells come from embryos. Embryos are an unborn or unhatched offspring in the process of development. Although there is controversy surrounding these cells, embryonic stem cells should continue to be researched and used, because they have so much potential.
In President Barack Obama’s speech of 2009, he issued an executive order which lifted the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, placed by the President George W. Bush. Obama addresses important factors of why he removed the ban such as keeping innovative scientists in the country and the many future promises the research holds. The president is biased towards the future of using embryonic stem cells in his speech― he strongly supports them and strives to improve research opportunities. However, President Obama does acknowledge the downside effects that this research can bring such as the risk of human cloning and addresses how it will be prevented. This speech will support an embryonic stem cell argumentative essay by demonstrating the benefits this research can bring to the country.
Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that can differentiate themselves into specific cell type. There are two types of stem cells. The first one is the adult's stem cell. These stem cells can be found in various places in an adult human body, like the brain, the bone marrow or the liver. The other type of stem cells is the embryonic stem cells. These cells are found in embryos before its implantation in the mother's uterus. At this stage the embryo is divided in two types of cell. The first one is the outer cluster of cell that forms the embryo that will become part of the placenta once the embryo hatch. And the inner cluster is the source of embryonic stem cell since it consists of undifferentiated cell that will divide and differentiate to form all the organs and tissue needed in an adult organism. As stem cell are undifferentiated cell they can become whatever cell type is needed in an organism and could be the solution to diseases that are, at this date, incurable. (Medical News Today, 2013). Most of the ethic's problem of the stem cells researches come from the embryonic stem cell researches and how the cells are collected. Embryonic stem cells can be obtained in several ways. The first one is after a couple's fertility treatment, there might be some embryos left and the couple can decide to donate their embryos to research. The second option is to collect stem cells from a foetus after an abortion. And the last possibility is to use therapeutic cloning. Using an ovum from witch the nucleus was taken off and the nucleus of a somatic cell, the origin of this cell in the body doesn't matter, it can come from the skin for example, it is possible to create an embryo and get the stem cell from the created embryo. But in all of...
Monroe, Kristen, et al., eds. Fundamentals of the Stem Cell Debate: The Scientific, Religious, Ethical and Political Issues. Los Angeles/Berkley: University of California Press, 2008. Print
Due to public awareness of science, people started realise that the stem cells have the potential in developing cell-based therapies for many uncured diseases. Objectors claimed that it is morally wrong for the government to advocate stem cell research because the research demands embryos’ destruction (National Bioethics Advisory Committee [NBAC], 1999, as cited in Nisbet, 2004).’’It’s immoral that hundreds of thousands of embryos are discarded yearly instead of used to research cures for human suffering.” (Gilbert, 2008).In 2001, President George W. Bush made his stand to oppose the stem cell research by l...
Obama, B. (2009). Removing barriers to responsible scientific research involving human stem cells. Federal Register, 74(48).
Stem cell research is a type of medical research. The fundamental element of stem cell research is the stem cell. A stem cell is a type of cell that you have as an embryo and it is capable of turning into any type of cell. In stem cell research you can either use a chemical solution on an adult cell, causing it to revert back into a stem cell, or you can use an embryo to obtain stem cells. Now that you have all of the basic information, you can understand stem cell research better. Stem cell research is when you take these cells and see how they can cure or treat diseases. Stem cell research has a few uses. One of the uses is to create cures and treatment. Another use is to grow new organs for people. Some organs are grown in a petri dish while others are done in an animal.
In the Bioethics book, the Magisterium of the Church argues against the use of embryonic stem cells and refers to it as “the first ethical problem”. The main argument supporting the claim that its unethical to destroy human embryos goes as follows: (1) It is morally impermissible to intentionally kill innocent human beings; (2) the human embryo is an innocent human being; (3) therefore, it is morally impermissible to intentionally kill the human embryo. While this is a valid argument that follows the form modus ponens, it is not sound, thus I argue that the use of embryonic stem cells is permissible.
Embryonic Stem Cells vs Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells: Why do they Generate so Much Excitement
The stem cell research controversy is one of the major headlines in bioscience and has been discussed and debated numerous times throughout the last decade or so. It became a major issue in 1997/1998 and continued into the 2000’s where George W. Bush joined the problem by vetoing the first bid that was brought forward by Congress to lift funding restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research. Bush stated after the veto that, “would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others” and also stated “It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect”. Bush was also supported by children that he said, “began his or her life as a frozen embryo that was created for in vitro fertilization (in vitro means the technique of performing an experiment in a controlled environment outside of a living organism) but remained unused after the fertility treatments were complete.
The use of embryonic stem cell research should be banned all together. To get embryonic stem cells, one has to extract the stem cells directly from the embryo before the embryo begins to mature. These kinds of stem cells can be kept alive when they are grown in cultures. When they are grown in cultures, the stem cells double every 2-3 days. Advocates against embryonic stem cell research believe that human life starts at conception, and this kind of stem cell research requires the killing of the embryo.
Stem cell therapies, while in their early development stages, hold significant promise for transformative and potentially curative treatment. Recent advances in knowledge, including research taking place at Creighton University, have the potential to revolutionize tendon repair strategy thus improving a patient’s recovery time and overall prognosis. Stem cell therapies have the potential to revolutionize medicine. Stem cell therapy also has the potential to provide alternative treatments and potentially cures for disease and conditions such as cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and diabetes among others. While there may be some risks to genetically engineered tissue, limiting a patient’s access to these treatments is wrong and I believe
Today, 10 million people are diagnosed with a crippling disease known as Parkinson’s. Another 5 million people are diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease, “a progressive disease that destroys memory and other important mental functions.” Treatments are currently being developed for both diseases; however, the most promising treatment has been surrounded by controversy since its discovery: embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are stem cells derived from a fertilized embryo that has yet to develop into a fetus. Many that are opposed to this treatment claim that the embryo has the same rights that humans have, even though they are not born. While this remains a debatable topic for philosophers, politicians, and scientists to discuss, many supporters of embryonic stem cell research have clung to the ethical theory of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that favors events that do the greatest good for the most amount of people and the least harm for the fewest amount of