Caprood 1 Sunshine Caprood Professor Cassie Hewitt Eng.

1020 19 November 2013 Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Embryonic Stem cell research is one of the greatest debate topics of the century, it induces heated arguments all over the world, due to moral issues. Embryonic stem cells offer hope for new therapies, and have the potential to save so many lives. I stand firm with the opinion that Embryonic Stem cell research and its possibilities far outweigh the moral concerns surrounding it. Which is why I think more money, time and resources should be used to ramp up the research in this department and benefit from the results!

When an egg cell is fertilized by a sperm, it starts to form a human embryo. This embryo creates stem cells in the first few days, when a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential either to remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell. This is why researchers prefer embryonic stem cells over adult stem cells because, adult stem cells are no longer capable of changing what type of cell they are. Embryonic stem cell research, is the research going in to testing these cells from the early human embryo and what benefits they can give us. Ideas such as being able to grow new organs for things like heart transplants, liver transplants, even to grow extra limbs. Embryonic stem cell research focuses on stem cell lines. These are populations of cells, all carrying the same genes, grown in the laboratory through many cycles of growth and division over many generations of cells. One cell line can supply lots of researchers with huge numbers of cells. There are a couple ways that these cell lines can be obtained: Cell lines that already exist, another way is spare embryos left over from fertility treatment or stem cells and Custom-made

Caprood 2 embryos created by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), which is the technique used to create Dolly the Sheep. Some people oppose using human embryonic stem cells under any circumstances. However, the use of cell lines that already exist is the most widely accepted source of stem cells. This acceptance is based on the argument that whats done is done. Its important to remember that these stem cells were going to be destroyed either way and whats done is done. The big argument about using left over embryos from fertility clinics do bring interesting outcomes that are a possibility; like if stem cell therapies become routine treatments, then human embryos could be exploited as a source of therapeutic materials. This could result in embryo farms, cloned babies and fetuses used for spare parts, decreasing respect for human life. Each cycle of IVF can produce many blastocysts (blastocyst develop an early embryo made of 16 undifferentiated cells, through cavitation) some of which are implanted into the woman and the rest are stored in the IVF clinic freezer. After a couple has completed their family, they must decide what to do with any remaining embryos. They can continue paying to store the embryos or they can defrost the embryos, which destroys them. Some couples may choose to donate the embryos for adoption, though that option is not commonly taken. In some states, couples can also choose to donate the frozen embryos for research. These donated embryos are the source of human embryonic stem cell lines. Some embryonic stem cell lines also come from embryos that a couple has chosen not to implant because they carry genetic mutations like the ones that cause cystic fibrosis (a disease passed down through families that causes thick, sticky mucus to build up in the lungs, digestive tract, and other areas of the body. It is one of the most common chronic lung diseases in children and young adults. It is a life-threatening disorder) or Tay Sachs disease (is a rare autosomal recessive genetic disorder. In its most common variant, it causes a progressive deterioration of nerve cells and of mental and physical abilities that commences around six months of age and usually results in death by the age of four). These are discovered through routine genetic testing

Caprood 3 prior to implantation. Still other embryos might be malformed in some way that causes them to be rejected for implantation into the mother. These embryos with genetic defects of malformations would have been discarded if the couple had not chosen to donate them to stem cell research. One must look at the bigger picture, IVF has been happening for years, there are thousands of embryos that are disposed of everyday, there has been no cloned babies or baby farms, and we are using these embryos that would have been killed anyways and putting them to good use.

Embryo stem cells created in a lab with the sole purpose of research are considered to be morally the worst way of obtaining these stem cells. The process of Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) requires human eggs from living donors. There are a wide range of national and international policies regarding human egg donation. All policies require voluntary and informed

Caprood 4 consent from the women so they understand the risks and benefits of egg donation. In this process, an embryo is made by putting the nucleus of an adult cell from an animal into an egg cell that has had its nucleus removed. The embryo can be allowed to grow to a very early stage of development, and then used as a source of stem cells. The argument is that it is morally wrong to create human life only with the end result to be death, many consider this murder! While others say that society deems to kill people all the time with the death penalty, and say that this made the world a better place. The benefits of embryo stem cells could result in curing complex life ending diseases. Stem cells hold the promise of treatments and cures for more than 70 major diseases and conditions that affect millions of people, including diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cancer, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS), spinal cord injuries, blindness, and HIV/AIDS. With the research that has already been conducted using stem cells we have made medical break troughs. Life-saving stem cell treatments are already successful and in widespread use for some diseases. For example, bone marrow transplants use stem cells to treat leukemia. Scientists are working on a wide range of stem cell-based therapies. They have created "tissue patches" for burn victims. They have grown islet cells that produce insulin to treat diabetes and healthy brain cells to ease the symptoms of disorders like Parkinson's disease. They have genetically changed cells and then used them to deliver healing or protective agents to injured or diseased areas of the body. There have been no definitive cures yet from this research yet and people argue that this has been a waste of human life that we could have preserved. President Obama gave some food for thought on that topic when he lifted the ban put on stem cell research he said this in his speech "Medical miracles do not happen simply by accident. They result from painstaking and costly
research, from years of lonely trial and error, much of which never bears fruit, and from a government willing to support that work...

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"Ultimately, I cannot guarantee that we will find the treatments and cures we seek. No President can promise that. "But I can promise that we will seek them -- actively, responsibly, and with the urgency required to make up for lost ground."- President Obama

Everything that has happened in medical history has come from tons of time, money, mistakes, trials and errors and why would stem cell research be any different.

Statistics are surprising considering the heated debate on this topic, 68%Americans support embryonic stem cell research. 55% of Texans favor medical research using embryonic stem cells. 70% of Kansas voters want to allow SCNT research in Kansas. 63% of Missouri voters approve of embryonic stem cell research. 64% of Americans support federal funding of research on chronic diseases using stem cells taken from human embryos. In fall 2004, California voters approved a $3 billion bond to fund embryonic stem cell research.

Caprood 6 With our economy in such a huge national debt, the cost of this research important information for taxpayers to know. To treat, for example, the 17 million diabetes patients in the United States will require a minimum of 850 million to 1.7 billion human eggs. Collecting 10 eggs per donor will require a minimum of 85 to 170 million women. The total cost would be astronomical, at $100,000 to $200,000 for 50 to 100 human eggs per each patient. While that seems crazy and not within our reach let me give you some other statistics to ponder. We could save over 250 billion in treatments a year on 5 diseases that could be cured from embryonic stem cell research. This division of medicine also supplies many jobs, over 6, 000 hold jobs in this industry and over 1,300 of those employees could lose their job if federal funding was lost. Even with the amount of money that goes into federal funding for stem cell research 70% of American tax payers agree that we should expand the federal funding in order to move research in a more result bearing direction.

A great story to show what kind of positive outcome can come from using stem cell therapy was on September 2, 2012 hope was raised yesterday for people left paralyzed by injury. Doctors succeeded in using stem cells to restore feeling in two patients. For the first time ever doctors at Zurich University said two out of three men who had agreed to take part in an early trial had regained some sensation below the level of their injuries. This was such a breakthrough and positive outcome from stem cell therapy for severe spinal cord injury. They are looking forward to the possibility of greater

Caprood 7 things in the future. The ultimate goal is to help those paralyzed by injury to walk again and they finally have a building block to move forward on!

Since the 1970s, skin stem cells have been used to grow skin grafts for patients with severe burns on large areas of the body. Sadly only a few clinical centers are able to carry out this treatment and its usually reserved for patients with burns that are life threatening. There are some glitches that need to be resolved such as hair follicles and sweat glands but research is working towards improving the technique. Currently, these are the only stem cell therapies that have been established as safe and effective treatment. Some other stem cells are being used in clinical trials, including the use of stem cells to regenerate damaged tissues such as heart, skin, bone, spinal cord, liver, pancreas and cornea or to treat blood or solid-organ cancers. The majority of these trials are using mesenchyme stem cells (from sources such as fat tissue, bone marrow and connective tissue. most advanced clinical trials are those that aim to treat certain bone, skin and corneal diseases or injuries with a graft of tissue grown from stem cells taken from these organs. For example, stem cells from the eye can be used to grow a new cornea for patients with certain kinds of eye damage. This has already been shown to be safe and effective in early stage trials and shows much promise in the future!

I understand and appreciate the voters against using embryo stems cells, because they value human life and believe embryos are human beings from the moment of creation and deserve life. While I respect them I do not agree with their objections, the embryos are only 2-3 days old and have not developed into anything more than a grouping of 8-10 cells under a microscope. Those 8-10 cells have the vast ability to cure over 70 diseases that humans suffer and die from all over the world. While we do not yet have those cures right now, we have the medical technology to develop them. What would have happened if we had banned the research on antibiotics and vaccines, how many lives would have been lost that could have been saved

Caprood 8 from research. So, despite all the ethical issues, embryonic stem cells show to be too high a potential in disease treatment to not move forward, and with Obamas policies behind it, it looks like the US will be accelerating it research and on a faster route to new discoveries and treatments. They will continue to look for ways to use adult stem cells, but doesnt seem likely that this will be successful. Even though there are some that will always disagree with what is going on we will show respect for those opinions, but voters have high hopes are siding with the expectations of what fruit this research will bear.

Caprood 9 Works Cited

Bethesda, MD. "Frequently Asked Questions." What Are Embryonic Stem Cells? [Stem Cell Information] . N.p., 13 Sept. 2010. Web. 3 Nov. 2013.

Hug, Kristina. "Sources of Human Embryonic Stem Cells: Embryos and Stem Cell Research | Europe's Stem Cell Hub | EuroStemCell." EuroStemCell. N.p., 25 July 2011. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.

Harvard University. "Stem Cell Lines Created from Discarded IVF Embryos." Stem Cell Lines Created from Discarded IVF Embryos. N.p., 5 Feb. 2008. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.

Author, Unkown. "Stem Cell Research." Gallup.Com. N.p., 2013. Web. 30 Nov. 2013

Adams, Stephen. "This Stem Cell Breakthrough Helped Two Paralyzed People Feel Again." Business Insider. The Telegraph, 4 Sept. 2012. Web. 07 Nov. 2013.

Barrandon, Yann. "What Diseases and Conditions Can Be Treated with Stem Cells?" EuroStemCell. Euro Stem Cell, 6 Oct. 2011. Web. 7 Nov. 2013.

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