Stem Cell Research Paper

Submitted By deuchester
Words: 1537
Pages: 7

Stem Cell Research By: Deuchester Mogeni print 4 copies The doctor took a cautious step into the room. This was the part of his job he hated the most. He gazed at the ailing man in the bed before him, surrounded by his love one’s. “Well?” the wife inquired. The doctor took in a breath and let it slowly out. He spoke directly to Don, the man with stage 4 mantle cell lymphoma, “You have weeks to a month to live.” He tried to avoid the looks of dismay from the other family members faces. Fortunately for the Lindsey family there was a treatment that would save Don’s life. The doctor suggested that Don continue with his chemotherapy followed by a stem-cell transplant. Like most religious Americans, the Lindsey family opposed the stem-cell transplant. ”How could we participate in something that resulted from the killing of embryos, preborn babies? “ Little did they know, there were other ways to extract stem cells without killing the embryo. In Don’s case they would use his adult stem cells. His stems cells would be harvested, frozen then put back into his body after his chemotherapy. Upon finding this out, the Lindsey family went through with the procedure. Now Don has been cancer free for 4 years. Stem cells are important to us because of their ability to become other forms of tissue. Like in a 3 to 5 day embryo also called a blastocyst; the inner cells give birth to tissue and organs like the heart, lung, skin, egg, sperm, and more( National Institutes of Health). Adult stem cell found in tissue like bone marrow, muscles, and the brain can replace damaged, injured and old cells. Because of their abilities to regenerate, stem cell have the potential for treating diseases like diabetes and heart disease. Yet more research need to be done to understand how to use stem cell for cell based therapies. But some people oppose stem cell research. They view it as killing a potential child. One source of getting stem cells is from an embryo; a fertilized egg. A lot of people believe that life begins at conception, and therefore stem cell research should be banned. Some people also believe that stem cells is the basis of cloning, and with that we could make super ; humans humans with surpassing physical and mental capabilities. They believe that it would be going against nature. I believe that stem cell research is very useful. Some people say its taking a life, but its also saving many lives therefore it shouldn’t be banned.

Stem cells can save many lives. They are important because of their abilities to regenerate. They can replicate many times and have long term self-renewal. As I said, stem cell have the potential for treating many diseases. Scientist are trying to understand how they form into specialized cell. This is important because medical conditions like cancer and birth defects occur in this process (National Institutes of Health). Scientist also think that they could fix damaged organs and tissue. With the use of pluripotent stem cells; cells that can develop into many different cell types of the body (National Institutes of Health), they can replace the cell of the damaged and dying organ or tissue. We do know enough to treat many other disease. Diseases like Leukemia, Lymphoma, Myeloma, Sickle Cell and many others. These diseases are treated with Hematopoietic stem cells. Lets use Leukemia as an example. Leukemia is the cancer of the blood cells. It usually begins in the bone marrow, producing abnormal growth of white blood cells called leukemia cells. At first the leukemia cells act as normal white blood cells. But as more cells are produced, they can overwhelm the white and, red blood cells, and the platelets from functioning. To treat the leukemia; you have to destroy the leukemia cells, and there are many way to do that. One of those treatments is a stem cell transplant. They use high doses of chemotherapy to kill the leukemia cells. Along with killing the leukemia cells the