Embryonic Stem Cell Research – Murder or Saviour
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Embryonic Stem Cell Research-Murder or Saviour
Have you ever tried to cut off a gecko tail and amazed to see how it grows back, exactly the same like there was no mark of any damages? Have you wondered if human process that ability and see how it improves or survival rate? I certainly think that we do have that ability but we just cant see it like in the geckos which essential for them to survive. Human beings have a very special type of cell. These cell properties have the remarkable potential of growing into any other cells in human body. By this, it doesnt mean we can re-grow our limbs just like the geckos and other animal but it gives us the chances to replaces our badly damaged organs using our organ not being transplanted from another donor. That does sound good, doesnt it? We call those wonderful things “stem cells”. They are very interesting because of the regeneration abilities and tissues forming potential. Scientists are researching a lot about them in order to learn more about the abilities and apply it to medicine. But these researches are always being put under pressure of many points of views. Why is that? We will discuss that later on and that is what this essay about.
Scientists must continue to keep the research on stem cell in progress to benefit future medical development and people. In 2004, George Bush vetoed a bill that provides funding on the research of embryonic stem cell (ESCR). He said, “This bill would support the taking of innocent human life of the hope of finding medical benefits for others”. (Bush out of touch on stem cell). Many people do not seem to agree with him due to his moralistic. He feels the research is more like murdering innocent people rather than saving them.To me, what George Bush said is undeniable however; he didnt look on the beneficial sides of this research. What keeps patience alive till today if it is not a cure from doing the research? Would the people with diseases like heart attack, diabetes, cancer and even more, live so much long without the use of medicine? No, these people would have died as soon as they get a disease. Medical miracles do not happen by accident, but it results from doing more and more research. Barrack Obama said, “At this moment the full promise of stem cell research remains unknown and it should not be overstated.”(Obama end stem cell funding ban). Hence, the research on stem cell must not deserve to stop the experiment on finding cures.
Now I will start talking more about stem cells to give you a better understanding what stem cells are. As I have stated above, stem cells are special cells in our body which have an unbelievable potential to grow into any other type of cell. A single stem cell under right stimulus will develop into brain cells, red blood cells, muscles cells, etc. What does this mean to medicine if we can manipulate it? Imagine a patient with a crippled spine, who cannot walk anymore, it would be virtually accepted by the patient that he or she will never be able to use their legs again. According to the stem cells research, we can literally re-grow that persons spine and replace it into the patient and he will be fully functioning again. The new spine was growth from the patients stem cell so there would be no rejection from the body. This would also be another leap for mankind in medicine but there is a problem with stem cells research. There are two types of stem cells, embryonic stem cells (humans zygote) and non-embryonic stem cells (umbilical cords, bone marrow, etc). Nowadays research shows that we can find adult stem cells in many different organ tissues, but after extracting stem cells from the body, their dividing capacities will be lowered making it harder to create large quantity of generation of stem cells much more difficult. This gives way to the ESCR. Embryonic stem cells can be cultured into many generations easier than adult stem cells using cloning technique and also have more potential than adult stem cells. This is where we have our argument. “The ESCR are extremely important to study about stem cells but there are many ethical issues around it as it involved destroying human embryos to harvest stem cells
The embryonic stem cells research has been opposed by many different points of views from the rest of the world. One of the most influent opposing forces is religious point of views. There had been many bills being vetoed of federal funding for ESCR. In 2009, the 44th president of America, Barrack Obama has approved for the funding to continue on this filled with potential research. Why was there a big opposing from the government about stem cells research? After reading a discussion of Ron Green and Nigel Cameron*, I found out that the people who involved in passing the bill to the federal convention were mainly Catholic believers and Baptists. In Catholicism, it is believed that a human life is sacred and it is completely immoral to destroy it. In Baptism