Ethics in Society

Stem Cell Research and the Ethical Issues Accompanying It

Stem cells are found in all multi-cellular organisms on the planet. Research into Stem Cells was developed by the Canadian scientists Ernest A. McCulloch and James E. Till in the 1960’s and has since become a much heated ethical debate among people in politics, media and everyday people. A Stem Cell is a cell in the human body which is taken out and is used to branch of and created a different kind of cell. It is essentially a blank cell that when put next to other cells of a different type will adapt and turn into the new cell of the same type. These Stem Cells have the ability to become any tissue in the body and has the potential to cure the damages inflicted by a plethora of disease and conditions the human body has come under including and not limited to heart attacks, strokes, diabetes Alzheimer’s disease and muscle conditions such as muscular dystrophy as well as repopulating the bone marrow that has been destroyed by high-dose chemotherapy (Shamblott, 1988).Stem cells can be harvested from adult human and animal organs such as the heart, brain, blood, bone marrow or muscles and can be cultured in a lab and retain their ability for long periods of time but are not as potent and as efficient as younger or fetal embryos. The idea and thought of Stem Cell research is a touchy issue for many people and borderlines the same issues that abortion faces, in which when is a human being considered being alive? The moment of conception, a week later, when it has its first heart beat? The same goes for when dealing with fetal stem cells. Our society has attempted to define the legal status of the human embryo before and in 1973 the U.S. Supreme ruled that a fetus is not a person in terms of constitutional protection (Roe v. Wade, 2001). In the following pages I will go over each of the dilemma paradigms and give my opinion of Right vs. Right argument that is “should we use stem cell research?” The most difficult paradigm for me is the Truth vs. Loyalty. This I believe is most influential of the four major paradigms. When you break it down it is what you believe in deep down to yourself. Do you as a person believe that infant fetuses should be used for experimentation and not given a chance to grow older, or perhaps grown artificially using in vitro fertilization and formed in a test tube, OR do you believe that what scientists are doing to a fetus is an abomination against God and should be banned and we should not be dabbling in creation of life even if it could save a life down the road. This is a very touchy subject and can be viewed in many different ways. I believe you can be both with these examples you want to be true to yourself but at the same time you want to be loyal to you and your family. An example of this is if you have a form of cancer and it is going to be untreatable except by stem cell injection. Would you want to be true to yourself and have the injection to save yourself or rather the fetus be saved and you end up dying. What if you have a family and your wife has the same cancer would you want to use the cells then to give a chance for your child at a better life. It is difficult but no matter how much you can argue both sides end up being right in their choices but you can’t choose both. Individual vs. Community has a lot of the same paradigms as Truth vs. Loyalty does, in which it is a matter of how the person views of stem cell research. From an individual’s perspective stem cell research is an amazing thing if you are the one that has a problem. My girlfriend has diabetes and both she and I are for stem cell research because it has the possibility to cure her diabetes. With the break through that can possible with the stem cell research it is hard to argue against it when you are someone that is inflicted with a problem that