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The issue of stem cell research is a big one in today's world. To
better understand this issue, I did a lot of researching of my own.
What are stem cells, you say? They are cells which are not terminally
differentiated and therefore they can become just about any kind of
cell. More simply, they are brand-new cells that can grow into any
possible organ in the human body.
Researchers and scientists use stem cells hoping to be able to
eventually cure diseases such as cancer, AIDS, Parkinson's disease, and
Alzheimer's disease. They use stem cells to repair specific tissues and
grow organs completely by scratch. Stem cells can transform into many
different forms. For example, bone marrow stem cells can grow to become
liver, nerve, muscle, and kidney cells.
Stem cells that evolve from embryos (which is an early stage of a
fetus) are called embryonic stem cells. Stem cells found in adults are
called adult stem cells -- for scientist to use adult stem cells, they
have to go to extra effort to "differentiate" them. Embryonic stem
cells are more flexible when it comes to use in research.
The big stem cell controversy is over embryonic stem cells. On one side
of the debate, people believe embryonic stem cell research is good
because one day we may receive many medical benefits from them, far
greater then those from adult stem cells. On the other side,
people believe that the embryos are human beings, and destroying
them for medical research is basically murder.
Whether you believe one way or another, or have no opinion at all, there
are two facts that you should know. First, adult stem cells have helped to cure
thousands and thousand of patients, ranging over a hundred different
diseases.
For example, when my uncle was young, he was diagnosed with
leukemia. Back then, it was a far deadlier disease with a higher
mortality (death) rate. New research about bone marrow came out, and as
one of the first recipients of the new research, my uncle was cured, and
survived one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Today, many, many cases of leukemia can be treated through the use of stem cells.
The other big fact that I will share with you is that embryonic stem
cell research has not actually cured anyone yet, or stopped any diseases. In the future, scientists and researchers hope to be more successful with embryonic stem cells and get to do just as
well with them as with adult stem cells.
I hope you enjoyed this short science lesson!
Adi??s,
Star1lara
Editor's
Note: Thank you for your obvious effort in researching this
important topic, Star1lara!! We would love it if you could tell us in
the BBS where your information comes from, so we can all share in the
learning! Has stem cell research really helped to treat and cure hundreds of kinds of diseases? I know they have tremendous potential, but I hadn't heard they had been so useful already! I look forward to reading what you have to share with us. Thanks!
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