Fernando Vargas
1300 Clinton St. #9
Santa Ana, Ca 92703
9/26/14
Congress
United States Congress
Washington, DC 20510

To Whom It May Concern,
My name is Fernando Vargas. I am a scientist working with Adult Stem Cells in the CERN Laboratory in Switzerland. I am here for you to listen to this one request. That is for you to provide funds for Adult Stem Cells ONLY. I believe that Embryonic Stem Cells are an unnecessary loss of life in the scientific research community. I am here to not only take a stand in ethical controversies, but also in what is for the good of science.
Adult stem cells are a benefit to science. Stem cells are an undifferentiated cell of a multicellular organism that is capable of giving rise to indefinitely more cells of the same type, and from which certain other kinds of cell arise by differentiation. They are the body’s toolbox. They are used when normal injuries or wear is put on the body, but they can also be used to help people with heart attacks, and if put more research into, stem cells could help out patients with brain damage. In the process of using adult stem cells, there is no need for an unnecessary loss of life. At this moment, scientist do not have the ability and availability to grow the cells in the amounts needed for treatments. More work and money is needed to invest into this type of research. Adult stem cells are a better way of using and obtaining stem cells because when stem cells are taken from embryos, then the embryo is usually left to die which causes many controversial topics. When we do have access to obtain as many adult stem cells as needed, we will be able to cure patients with diseases. But first there are multiple hurdles that must first be overcome. One example is the availability of the adult stem cells. Such adult stem cells would need somehow to be isolated, expanded, and then efficiently reprogrammed onto a new pathway of differentiation if they were to be used to treat patients. This extra reprogramming step makes the development of specialized cells from adult stem cells more complicated than from embryonic stem cells.
Although stem cells are hard to obtain, they have been found in brain tissue, bone marrow, some blood vessels, skin, teeth, liver, and the skeletal muscle. This means that there are many stem cells in your body, but there needs to be more research in order to find an efficient way to grow them in multitude so that they can benefit the society. The uses of adult stem