What Are Stem Cells?

Stem Cells

     What are stem cells? According to stem cell.nihl.gov  “Stem cells are a class of undifferentiated cells that are able to differentiate into specialized cell types. Commonly, stem cells come from two main sources: Embryos formed during the blastocyst phase of embryological development (embryonic stem cells) and Adult tissue (adult stem cells). Both types are generally characterized by their potency, or potential to differentiate into different cell types (such as skin, muscle, bone, etc.).”

"The controversy about stem cells and research is the fact that when harvesting stem cells the scientist take a fertilized embryo and keep it alive in a lab. This brings up the debate about abortion and when does life actually start." “Medical News Today, What is a Stem Cell, http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/stem_cell”. 

The other point of view relates to the scientific view. This is where they harvest “stem cells extracted from embryos can be induced to become any desired cell type”. These cells can regenerate organs and tissue, with the proper environment. There are many scientist and doctors that have outrageous claims of stem cells curing certain diseases which has not happened yet. According to “nationalstemcellfoundation.com, NSCF funds patient-specific stem cell therapy to halt or reverse the damage of Parkinson’s disease, April 28, 2016” National Stem Cell Foundation has provided funding to two doctors in California to do research on Parkinson's disease in hopes to reverse the symptoms of the disease. Research has come a long way for stem cell but, there have been no cures for anything as of 2016. 

The way the stem cells have been retrieved is also very controversial. There was one instance of an African American woman, Henrietta Lack who died of cancer in 1950.  (As referenced in the course material (Sloot, 2010)) With Henrietta's cancer cells ability to replicate so perfectly, she unknowingly became a big part of research. With no ones permission, these stem cells became front line news after her family became aware of what was being done with their family members body and cells. Possibly due to being taken advantage of her lack of knowledge and rights? Many would argue this is another case of discrimination because the doctor was Caucasian and the patient was African American. With so many similar cases of whites taking advantage of poor, lesser intelligent, colored people, its hard to down play this particular case to accident. 

Which in turn brings the other side of the argument, if the patient was white or rich, would they would of been treated better or would of been better informed of what was going on? With less cases of white intelligent people being taken advantage of, it becomes difficult to argue against. (As referenced in the course material (Sloot, 2010))

Scientists that are in support of stem cell research believe that it can be used to regenerate cells and tissue in hopes to aid in organs that are needed for donations to outweigh the supply. The growth of artificial organs could bring down health costs as well as the black market of organs. As kidney demands boom, the human traffic industry will thrive. While a kidney can fetch $200,000 or more, the World Health Organization fear gangs prey on vulnerable and desperate people, paying as little as $5,000 per kidney.  

While urban legend and horror movie plots center on you waking up in a bath of ice with stitches on your side in an unknown place leaving you in pain and confusion. This is not usually the case, but still very risky due to the unsanitary third world conditions and unqualified surgeons, performing about 10,000 per year. So a rough estimate of 10k kidneys at $200k is $2 million. Imagine if stem cell growth could replace even 1% of the illegal kidneys that would give people other options in not supporting black market organs. Right now I believe its a long wait list for certain organs. While deadly disease and genetic deformities threaten our existence, science is trying to prolong life through stem cell research. How far can science go with playing god and prolonging life? That is an entirely different issue I do not want to get into.