Wilson

Tyler Wilson
Mr. Jim Coy
English 201-09
11-27-12
Stem Cells

Stem cells are a highly controversial topic in todays news and their use divides people
along moral versus scientific advancement lines. What are the pros and cons of stem cell
research? The first thing you need to know when trying to compare the pros and cons of stem
cells is what stem cells are exactly. Stem cells are cells that have the potential to develop into a
cell or many other different cells to fit the body (National Institute of Health)
Stem cells are cells that are put into the area of the body where the cells are needed, and
then the cells are supposed to replace the cells that have died off, or that are damaged. With the
stem cells research scientist hope to have a simple way to replace cells to help with the brain,
eyes and spinal cord injuries.
What scientists are hoping to do with the stem cell research is to make medical
advancements in this area of study. Scientists say there are many pros to stem cell research. One
of those pros is that stem cells can replace almost any cell that has been damaged in an accident,
or from a birth defect or disease.
They replace the dead or infected cells that are in the body that need replacing. Stem cells
can replicate any type of cell so when they enter the body, they look to see what is missing and

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make those cells. For example, it is theorized that if a cell in the retina is damaged, a stem cell
will make new retina cells and repair the damage.
This topic is important to me on a personal level because I have an eye disease called
Stargardts that kills off the rods and cones in my central vision. This disease has made it so now
Im legally blind with vision of only being able to see at 20 feet compared to a normal person
who can see at 200 feet.
Since my vision is so bad I cant drive legally and doing class work is really difficult. So
if this research continues to progress I could possibly have a cure for my eye disease in two years
or so, if the FDA approves it and the stem cell research keeps progressing.
If we were to stop the progress of stem cell research then, not only would I be majorly
affected by this in not being able to get a cure for my eye disease, and being able to see better,
and drive others like me would be in the same situation and would not have their diseases fixed
either. Some say that we should not spend money or take cells away from embryos if we are
healing the old so they do not die right away and can live longer, but really its not just for old
people.
In fact there are a couple other people in the Spokane area that have the same eye disease
that I do and that would greatly appreciate a cure from this disease of Stargardts. Im just one of
the many people that could benefit from the process of stem cells in their bodys to repair their
damaged cells. Some people could use stem cells for their heart, liver, eyes, and almost any other
part of the body that could use healthy cells.
There are three main types of stem cell sources; adult cells, cord cells and embryonic
cells. Adult cells are taken from the bone marrow of the person that needs the cells. They take

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the cells from a bone that isnt near the infected or damaged area and is pretty effective, because
the cells are already from the body so the immune system doesnt reject the new cells into the
area. A con of this procedure though is that it takes a long time to harvest the cells and amass
enough of them to deliver an effective treatment.
This lengthy process is not adequate for treatment of some types of disease or illness
such as cardiac, heart or cancer treatments. Not only is this type of stem cell research painful and
can take a long time to do the procedure to get the cells, the number of cells they can get from
this type of research is nowhere near the amount of cells they can get with the cord cells, and the
embryonic cells. (Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research)
The next type of stem cell research is the method of cord cells, which cells are taken from
the umbilical cord. This method of stem cells is very popular because it has the second highest
concentration of stem cells. Because the cells taken from the umbilical cord are a good match for
the patient should they need them in the future, it would be wise for the family to plan ahead and
save the cells for a family member.
These cells are harvested after the delivery of the baby by capturing the blood from the
umbilical cord, and then storing the cells in cyrogenic storage system to keep them cool until its
time to implant the cells into the patient.
The only down side to this type of stem cell procedure is that these cells are just like
blood types, so matching donor and recipient with the right cell type can be a little tricky.
Although there may be some difficulty in trying to match the cells up from donor to patient, there
are way more benefits in this cell method with it being the most richly way to get stem cells and
the ability to store them for a period of time is helpful. (Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research)

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Embryonic cells are the third most common use of stem cells to repair damaged cells.
This method of stem cell research is perhaps the most controversial of the three types of stem
cell research because the stem cells come from a fertilized egg and each egg when extracted has
about 100 cells in it. When put in the containment center to keep in storage the stem cells that
start with 100 stem cells from the fertilized egg, can multiply every two to three days.
When the stem cells multiply into many stem cells its called a stem cell line. Once a
stem cell line is created or established, it cant be destroyed its immortal and can also be frozen
and be used by different scientist.
Embryonic cells are thought to be the best cells for stem cells, because when they extract
the cells from the embryo, the cells have not yet taken a cell form and so they can be formed into
the cell that the patient needs to replace the damaged cell. These cells are highly value, because
they take hold better and can change to any cell and can be matched to any cell body.
Embryonic stem cells research is the most controversial because of where the scientists
get the stem cells from. Many people believe that life begins at conception and using fertilized
eggs is the same as committing murder. For those with this worldview, the potential benefits of
the embryonic stem cells will never outweigh the cost in human life nor justify the murder of
these living organisms. (Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research)
Scientists say that they arent committing murder because that embryo cells they are
taking from the fertilized egg have not yet developed any human features. In their view, the
embryo is just a group of cells that is devoid of any human life.
These opposing viewpoints have divided the nation and limited the amount of support
and funding for research President Bush in 2001 started a policy for the research of stem cells

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saying in a speech that reviled his policy he talks about a great promise and the ability to
improve the lives of those who suffer from many diseases. (The New Atlantis.)
Although President Bush passed this policy in 2001 he was pressured into doing this very
quickly to get it done, and in 2008 when President Obama became President he reversed the
policy to ban stem cell research and got rid of it.
What President Obama did was sign an executive order that got rid of the federal funding
ban on the embryonic stem cell research, and said that scientists need to be able to have funds to
find cures for diabetes and Parkinsons disease and loved ones deserve a cure for their family
members to. So President Obama ended the eight year ban against federal funding for embryonic
stem cells. (The New Atlantis.)
Until we as a nation reach a majority of support for embryonic research, the amount of
research will remain limited. However, as the abortion debate has demonstrated, the issue of
when life begins is highly volatile. As there will always be people against the topic of abortion
and have their negative views on the topic, there will be the same problem with the stem cell
research as it progresses more and more, and becomes closer to being available for surgery and
open to the public for their treatments.
An outlook on how America feels about the stem cell research a study was done asking
males and females about rather they like the idea of stem cells or if they disagree with the
research. Men, when asked about stem cell research said that sixty percent of males agreed with
the process of the stem cell research, while forty percent of males disagreed with the process of
the research. For females, fifty-two percent of them agreed with the stem cell research while
forty-eight percent of women disagree with the research.

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The womens percentage is much closer than the males percentage maybe partly,
because the stem cell research would actually come from their body and not the males. Which
this statistic is interesting as males tend to be more protective of people and especially of our
young. So you would think that the percentage of males for and against stem cell research would
be closer. (Google Images)
There is still much to learn about stem cells and at this time many of the treatment
applications are still theorized. Laboratory testing on mice has been promising. For example,
the clinical trials of stem cell therapy have been so promising that the FDA has recently
approved a limited clinical trial for stem cells to see if they are safe on humans.
If they appear to be safe then a larger study of higher doses of stem cells will be initiated.
Once that study is complete and the results are tabulated, a decision will be made as to the safety
and viability of stem cell therapy for the treatment of Stargardts. As you can see, the road to a
cure still has many hurdles and much can still go wrong.
In other stem cell research, problems with the stem cells have arisen. In mice that have
Parkinsons disease, a 20 percent death rate with the stem cells has occurred. Also when the cells
have been stored for a long period of time have caused these death in the mice and have caused
medical problems. Even though there are these major problems, and some controversy in the
stem cell research the embryonic stem cell procedure is probably the best one to have if you are
waiting on a procedure to get replacement cells, because of how well the cells take in the body of
the patient.
Stem cell research has progressed so much over the years from when they were first
really started with the Bush administration and too now where they are close to real sing public

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trials to start treating the American public of their diseases. The United States are not the only
ones that are working on stem cells especially embryonic cells.
There are many other countries whos scientist are working on stem cells to make cures
for their population in order to correct and cure some of these diseases. Some of these countries
working on stem cells are England, China, Mexico and parts of Europe. Out of these counties the
United States and England are the closest ones to have public clinical trials coming, in what
scientist and FDA says about two to three years for some of the stem cell treatments.
Like the United States these other countries have gone through a few hoops and
controversy to do their research as they also have people from the public saying they shouldnt
take human lifes doing this research, and that its not ethical to be harming baby lifes. They
also have to deal with their governments laws and regulations on how much they get for a
budget and approvals for continuing research and moving closer to those clinical trials.
If we as a nation and these other countries are allowed to continue the research and
clinical trials with the stem cells, we should have a nation and a world with less people with the
disease of Parkinsons or Stargardts or even the diabetes and much more that they can develop
to cure and the nation and world will be a better and healthier place with this research and trials.
Although there are so many promising things with the stem cell research with the
possibility of being a cure for so many different diseases and could heal a lot of people. There is
still a few questions not answered though with the research so far. One of those is even if you
cure the disease like it said the stem cells will is there any chance of the disease coming back or
if the dead cells will disappear or come back just later in time. So if you were to have parmesans

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disease or a Stargardts if you were to get the treatment of the stem cells would they stick forever
or if they would disappear and the damaged cells would come back and take over again.
There are some uncertainties when talking about the possibilities of the stem cells taking
hold but the research as not gotten there quite yet and so we are not sure if or what the
complications could be with the stem cells. Another question is if a person is a vet able at birth or
has a major medical problem will stem cells in the future be able to cure those problems also.
Those are questions for later on as for right now scientists dont know the answers to that yet,
because the research has not progressed that far yet to be able to answer some of these questions.
Even though there are these questions about the unknown with the stem cells there are
still a lot more good things that could come out of the research that goes on with the stem cells.
They can help a whole lot more people than they might not work for. the promising things that
can come out of stem cells should be more helpful.
Hopefully people see that the research isnt killing off potential babies, but yet helping
the people of the world that if they were to get the procedure they would be able to get back the
life they might have had before the disease took over and caused whatever problems that may
have been occurring.
In closing, while stem therapy holds much promise, there are still many issues to resolve
before we can fully understand the potential impact of this treatment. Moral, ethical and
viability issues all have to be examined before we will know if this is a miracle cure or just
another minimally effective treatment.

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Works Cited

Boseley, Sarah. "Stem Cell Scientists Take Hope from First Human Trials but See Long Road
Ahead." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 04 June 2012. Web. 20 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jun/04/stem-cell-first-human-trials>.
Cohen, Cynthia B., and Mary A. Majumder. "Future Directions for Oversight of Stem Cell
Research in the United States." Future Directions for Oversight of Stem Cell Research in
the United States. Kenedey Institute, Mar. 2009. Web. 19 Nov. 2012.
"Google Images." Google Images. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://townipproject09.wikispaces.com/file/vie
w/Ryan_K._Graph_Number_Two.png/68255591/Ryan_K._Graph_Number_Two.png>.
"Frequently Asked Questions." FAQs [Stem Cell Information]. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012.
<http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/faqs.asp>.
"The New Atlantis The Stem Cell Debates - Lessons for Science and Politics." The New
Atlantis The Stem Cell Debates. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-stem-cell-debates-lessons-for-scienceand-politics>.
"Pros And Cons Of Stem Cell Research." Pros And Cons Of Stem Cell Research. N.p., n.d. Web.
13 Nov. 2012. <http://www.allaboutpopularissues.org/pros-and-cons-of-stem-cellresearch.htm>.
"Stem Cells - Types, Uses, and Therapies by MedicineNet.com." MedicineNet. N.p., n.d. Web.
18 Nov. 2012. <http://www.medicinenet.com/stem_cells/article.htm>.

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"What Are the Potential Applications of Stem Cell Research? | Europe's Stem Cell Hub |
EuroStemCell." EuroStemCell. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.eurostemcell.org/faq/what-are-potential-applications-stem-cell-research>.