Stem cell research has been termed by the medical research fraternity as one of the greatest milestones in human health science. Stem cells can be defined as any kind of cell that can divide through mitosis and thereby specialize into any of the several different kinds of cells found in the human body. This specialization of the cells into any of the functional cell in the body means that doctors can use it to heal many cell-associated diseases. For example, there diseases and condition that lead to the damage of the neural cells in the brain or the spinal cord, using stem cell technology such damaged cell can be replaced. This technology can also be used on cancer patients to replace dead cells due to chemotherapy. This flexibility to replace any kind of cells allows the medical fraternity to treat even the hardest of medical conditions (Gruen, Grabel and Singer, 14).
Stem cell technology relies on three kinds of stem cells. The first kind of stem is the embryonic stem cell. This is a kind of primitive cell that can be developed into nearly 220 different kinds of cells. However, such stem cells commonly led to the death of the embryo. This is the most contentious kind of the stem cell (Panno, 6). The second kind of stem cell is the adult stem cell. In this kind of stem cell technology, the stem cell is extracted from adults and such extraction is from the bone marrow or any peripheral cells. However, Adult Stem cell extraction is usually a very painful process and the extraction is quite time consuming.
The final kind of stem cell is the Induced Pluripotent Stem cells. As the name suggests this kind of stem cell take ordinary cells such the skin cells and then processed to behave like embryonic stem cells. This kind of stem cells have not actually been tested and thus still under research however, it would prove to the best way of harvesting stem cells (Hug, 17).
Today there are over 350 stem research facilities in the United States (Hug, 18). Several pro-life and pro-choice lobbyists have debated on the need for all these research facilities in light of the moral disagreements that characterize the fraternity. Those in support of the stem cell technology argue that the process of harvesting the embryonic stem cells is in the case where life was not meant to exist in the first place. In essence, it is not an abortion since the process is done in the lab. The process of harvesting embryonic stem cells requires that a woman donates about 24 ova cells as well as a male donating the sperm (Gruen, et al, 28). The ovum is then fertilized in the lab. In case the woman wishes to give birth then, one of the fertilized ova is implanted.
Pro- choice groups further argue that the embryo is only made a stem cell at the stage where no differentiation has began and thus has no human features exist. Such an embryo is usually composed of about 100 cells and is commonly referred to as a "blastocyst" (Hug, 40). These blastocysts can contain several stem cells and is one of the best forms of stem cell. Additionally, the stem cells can be stored in frozen nitrogen and therefore used in the future. However, stored embryo is known to exhibit poor results under stem cell research. They tend to end up as cancerous cells.
Another moral argument that supports the idea of stem cell research is the fact the not all embryos will developed to become fully grown human beings. Therefore, science gives us the chance to utilize such embryo is advancing human health. This technology allows the development of organs and human cells without which human life would definitely come to an end.
In contrast, one of the greatest challenges facing stem cell research is the moral argument against the technology fronted by the pro-life activist. This group of activists is mainly concerned with the manner in which the technology harvests the stem cells under the embryonic stem cell technology. They argue that human life begins after conception. In that, as soon as the ovum is fertilized using the sperm, them conception has taken place and human life has began. Therefore, using such embryo to perform scientific research destroys the embryo and therefore the destruction of human life. Furthermore, the embryos that are not used in the research are usually thawed. This is regarded by the pro-life community as a form of murder .
In opposing stem cell research, pro-life proponents seem to be avoiding some fundamental findings. First, the idea of stem cell technology first originated from research into helping women who cannot conceive to do so . This eventually led to the idea of saving using the stem cell. To enable a successful conception in the woman’s womb, several cell needed to be fertilized. In the end several embryos would remain unused after a successful implant of a single embryo. These surplus embryos were to be used in stem cell research. Therefore, there is more to gain than to loose in stem cell technology.
Works Cited
Gruen, Lori, Laura Grabel and Peter. Singer. Stem cell research: the ethical issue. Chicago:
Blackwell Pub, 2008.
Hug, Kristina. Translational Stem Cell Research: Issues Beyond the Debate on the Moral Status of the Human Embryo. Boston: Springer, 2010.
Marzilli, Alan. Stem cell research and cloning. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2006.
Panno, Joseph. Stem cell research: medical applications and ethical controversy. n.d.
