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Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Of all of the ethical controversies in modern times, human embryonic stem cell research remains as one of todays most debated topics. The controversy centers the fact that in order to obtain these embryonic stem cells for research, the blastocyte that the stem cells are derived from is destroyed. This is the murder of an embryo, of a potential child. Of this, I am completely against. The study and research of human embryonic stem cell research needs to be stopped. The shortcomings of embryonic stem cell research, the successes of adult stem cell therapy and treatment, the introduction of induced pluripotent stem cells, and ethics are all reasons that it time for the end of this study and research. At first glance, the promise of embryonic stem cell research is dazzling. With the pluripotent ability to differentiate into the over 200 different types of specialized cells found in the body, it is widely hoped by many to be able to treat a variety of diseases, conditions, and disabilities, including Parkinsons disease, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, burns, heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis. However, the process of obtaining embryonic stem cells is through extracting them from the inner cell mass of the blastocyte, the four-to-five-day stage of the human embryo, which destroys the embryo. In theory, the extracted human embryonic stem cells will be purified, cultured, and allowed to increase in number before being directed to differentiate into a desired cell type and then implanted as any tissue or organ needed into the wanted area of the patient. However, to date, stem cell research has encountered several obstacles, including the inability to stimulate the cells to form the desired type of tissue, tumor formation, and unstable gene expression. Attempts to direct the unspecialized stem cells into a homogeneous line of a specific cell type have failed, leading instead to a heterogeneous mixture of multiple cell types. Scientists thus far have been unable to fully understand the complex internal and environmental signals that cause the cell signaling pathways that lead to differentiation. In the meantime, such research to solve this problem will require many more years in itself. Transplanting stem cells into the human body is extremely risky at this point in research, more than likely causing tumor formation and immune rejection. It has been shown to form tumors called teratomas, which are tumors of a mixture of different cell types that are also used to identify the pluripotency of cells. Teratomas are formed in part because of remaining undifferentiated cells in the graft, as fully purified transplant populations have proved unsuccessful. It is still unknown as to why these cells are tumorigenic, as the embryonic stem cells lack chromosomal abnormalities. Furthermore, because the embryonic stem cells are not marked with the same surface markers that indicate native cells, they are treated as foreign material and are typically rejected and attacked by the recipients immune system, creating potential harm to the patient. A study of the transplantation of embryonic stem cells into the subretinal space of mice to determine tumorigenic effects was performed. The results expressed neoplasia formation in which the neoplasias were considered to be teratomas, and the tumor formation affected almost all layers of the eye. This occurred even after the cells underwent selection for a highly purified population, as no reliable selection procedure has yet produced a

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100% pure selection. The scientists concluded that the embryonic stem cells unlimited selfrenewal and high differentiation potential produced a high risk of tumor formation after engraftment, and much research and care must be taken before such practice became an option for degenerative disease therapy. Another flaw of embryonic stem cell research is unstable gene expression. Research of embryonic stem cells in mice resulted in the discovery of wide variations and instabilities in how genes were turned on and off in the mice, and further study found that the embryonic stem cells themselves were unstable. It is inferred that the extremely unstable state of the embryonic stem cell genome is the cause of the tendencies for cells to just grow, form tumors when injected, or form a varied collection of partially-formed tissue. Unlike the results of embryonic stem cell research, non-embryonic stem cell research has already been successfully used in human treatments for many years and provided therapeutic benefits for 73 diseases and conditions, including spinal cord injuries, heart tissue regeneration, corneal reconstruction, autoimmune disease treatment and Parkinsons Disease. Found in the human bodys organs and tissues such as fat, bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, placentas, neuronal sources, and olfactory tissue, adult stem cells are unspecialized cells that have plasticity, the ability to differentiate into other tissues of the body. Although initially thought to be significantly less pluripotent than embryonic cells and only able to develop into the cell type of its origin tissue, recent studies have proved that adult stem cells can be directed into becoming cardiac muscle, skeletal muscle, liver, neural, and brain cells and more and are not as limited as originally believed. In spinal cord injuries, a procedure called olfactory mucosa transplantation has been developed where stem cells found in the nasal region are transplanted into the injured area, and is performed by Dr. Lima in Lisbon, Portugal. Laura Dominguez was once paralyzed from the neck down, but after undergoing Dr. Limas surgery, an MRI found that 70% of the lesion had already recovered into normal spinal tissue. At six months she had regained sensation in her abdominal region, and a year later she was able to walk 1400 feet with braces and outside help. Adult stem cell treatment has also helped with heart tissue regeneration, where in one study, 28 patients received a transplantation of their own blood and hematopoietic (bloodforming) stem cells into their heart arteries a few days after their heart attacks. 26 of the 28 displayed greater levels of heart-pumping capability, jumping from 44.1 percent to 48.9 percent, and the amount of dead tissue decreased by 20 percent in the four months following the procedure. A French study has also been able to successfully treat cardiac degeneration by transplanting skeletal muscles cells from a patient back into his heart, while yet another study in Brazil found that implantation of patients own stem cells back into their heart increased oxygen capacity from 17 percent to 24 percent. A surgical procedure called limbal stem cell transplantation extracts stem cells from the limbus of the eye and implants it into the patients defective eye. This has been repeatedly successful as patients have experienced varying degrees of increased vision levels. Several people suffering from autoimmune diseases, including diabetes, lupus, Crohns, and multiple sclerosis, have experienced success with adult stem cell therapy. In one study of islet cell transplantation from cadavers, 200 of 250 diabetics did not need their insulin needles for over a year. A severe case of lupus was completely cured fifteen

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months after a transplantation of blood stem cells. In another treatment, a patient with Crohns disease was successfully treated with her own blood stem cells, and in three months the disorder, in which the immune system attacks the digestive system, was alleviated dramatically, and the patient could eat without discomfort. Another study of two Crohns patients received their own hematopoietic stem cells, resulting in remission for a year after the transplant. A patient that suffers from multiple sclerosis reported that the pain in his legs and hips has gone after receiving adult stem cells, and a recent trial cured 17 of 21 patients of multiple sclerosis, causing no deterioration in any of their conditions. Scientists have also met success in treating Parkinsons Disease. For a man suffering from strong shaking on his right side, stem cells were extracted from his brain and transplanted into the left side of his brain in 1999, which resulted in four years without symptoms of the disease. Many other diseases have found treatments with likewise success, including anemias, leukemias, lymphomas, and other cancers. Sickle cell anemia has been cured through receiving umbilical cord blood stem cells that stopped the production of sickle cells in the body, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation has produced an 80-85% success rate in over 200 sickle cell patients. In a study of leukemia, 14 of 18 patients became free of the disease after adult stem cell transplantation from umbilical cord blood. In contrast to embryonic stem cell research, adult stem cell treatment is usually provided through autologous stem cell transplantation, in which the cells are taken from the patients themselves. Therefore these cells are already naturally marked with the patients native surface markers, decreasing the likelihood that may be rejected by the immune system. These non-embryonic stem cell treatment breakthroughs are already being used for humans, unlike results from embryonic stem cell research, which has not yet produced any successes for human treatment. Another alternative to embryonic stem cell research is the breakthrough of induced pluripotent stem cells. Induced pluripotent stem cells are obtained by reprogramming an ordinary somatic cell into an embryonic-like pluripotent state. It can be argued that these cells are even more preferable to human embryonic stem cells because of numerous reasons. It is believed that they meet all the criteria of embryonic stem cells, except that they are not derived from embryos. Unlike embryonic stem cells, embryos are not destroyed, thus removing the ethical controversy that plagues embryonic stem cell research. Also, induced pluripotent stem cells will be specific and genetically identical to each patient, since they will originate from a patients own body cell. This means that it is very likely it will be accepted as native to the body and not rejected by the immune system. It is also important to mention that they will be patient specific without producing the ethical controversy connected with the therapeutic cloning of human embryos and destroying them to obtain their patient specific stem cells. The process is also relatively easier and more efficient because it provides researchers with a theoretically unlimited supply of pluripotent stem cells, whereas obtaining human embryonic stem cells requires the destruction of many embryos just to obtain one stem cell line. Although the original methods of reprogramming did use viral vectors and a gene related to cancer in humans, recent advances in the study of induced pluripotent stem cells have negated the need to use such risky materials. Induced pluripotent stem cells can now be created without the use of any viruses or cancer-causing genes.

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A significant detail about this discovery is that human embryonic stem cell research was not needed at all in this breakthrough. In fact, Shinya Yamanaka, the scientist credited with the breakthrough of the original induced pluripotent stem cell before developing the human version, was concerned about the ethics of using embryos or eggs in his research. He claims, Neither eggs nor embryos are necessary. Ive never worked with either, and that We cant keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way. The scientific community and the people of the world are divided between the ethical controversies of human embryonic stem cell research. It may seem on the surface to be ethical to allow the destruction of embryos in order to help millions of people all over the world, or even unethical to protect the lives of these unborn human beings if it delays the treatments for those that are suffering now and are fully developed. However, the fact remains that the embryo has the potential to develop into a full human being, and, given the right environment, will become a live, human child. The basis of this controversy is that no life can be weighed as more important than another. Embryonic stem cell research challenges human equality at its purest. These unborn embryos have no voice; they have done nothing wrong, and yet they are being destroyed for what is nothing that is their own fault. Following the Nuremberg Code, the voluntary consent of the human subject, the embryo, has not been attained, even though such consent is absolutely essential, and the research has not yet yielded fruitful results for the good of society, unprocurable by other methods or means of study and offends the basic code to above all else, do no harm as stated by Hippocrates. This murder is unacceptable. We cannot compromise these unborn lives for the sake of others. If we begin to compromise anything, we start an unstoppable reaction where more and more will be compromised for the sake of science, even it is for the sake of helping those who need it. Embryonic stem cell research is even now connected to therapeutic cloning, which is a proposed solution to rejection by the immune system, wherein an embryonic clone of a patient is created and then destroyed in order to extract its stem cells. If this is allowed, it would be impossible to stop the next step that is cloning if it were in some way helpful to society, even though at this point in time the public and government is set against cloning. In any case, the ends do not justify the means. It is not possible to justify the destruction of life when other means are available. The successes that happen every day in the research of adult stem cells and the introduction of induced pluripotent cells provide alternate means of saving the lives of those who suffer than a research that has not bore any fruit. These alternative means do not destroy embryos. They do not destroy lives, even for the sake of saving others; even at this moment adult stem cells are saving lives when embryonic stem cells have not achieved any human therapeutic benefits. By any logic, funds should be directed from the study of embryonic cells into these truly life-saving adult stem cells that have been dubbed miracle cells and have already produced miraculous results. Funds should also be directed to the advancement of induced pluripotent cells, which have been found to have the same characteristics that embryonic stem cells possess, with the important difference that embryos are not sacrificed. Many advocates of embryonic stem cell research argue that embryos that underwent in vitro fertilization never had a chance at life, having been intended from the start to

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be harvested for the use of research. Others also argue that the remaining embryos from when a couple uses in vitro fertilization treatments to become pregnant from fertility clinics are unwanted excess that should be donated to research, as they would otherwise only sit unused or be discarded and produce no good. It does not matter if the embryo was specifically fertilized in vitro for the purpose of stem cell research or if it is supposedly just waste. It is life regardless, and the destruction of that life is murder, as no one has the right to create a life with the intent to destroy it. Instead, Nightlight Christian Adoptions has provided a truly pro-life program called the Snowflake Adoption Program, which allows interested families to adopt un-implanted embryos instead of discarding them at the fertility clinic or destroying them in the research lab. In result, the families who originally create the embryos for their in vitro fertilization treatments donate these embryos, which wait in frozen storage before being given the environment needed to grow into the child they deserve and were created to be. When President Obama lifted the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research on March 9, 2009, he did so because the majority of Americans supported the research. However, it is known that just because something is supported by the majority, it is not always right, as demonstrated throughout history, especially in the prosecution of Jews during the Holocaust and the slavery of Africans in the slave trade. Through the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells, it has been proven that if science works with the will to avoid the use of immoral and unethical means, promising breakthroughs can still be made that provide amazing potential for the future, and even possibly better than unethical means. It only requires the effort to do so and to be responsible for the decisions required when it comes to ethical controversies such as embryonic stem cell research. Human embryonic stem cell research is one of todays most debated controversies, but the examination of key points such as the obstacles of embryonic stem cell research, the successes of adult stem cell therapy and treatment, the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells, and ethics are all cons that strongly suggest such study and research should end. The destruction of the embryo is an unjustifiable act by any means. Even though it holds the potential to save millions of lives, embryonic research to date has not produced any successful treatments for humans. Because there are alternative methods other than harvesting embryonic stem cells for research, funds should be directed to these studies of adult stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells. By ethical responsibility, scientists should endeavor to produce medical advancements in fields that have high potential but are not morally wrong and do not compromise the value of life.

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Sources: http://www.stemcellresearch.org/ http://web.kybaptist.org/web/doc/StemCellInfo.pdf http://www.iovs.org/content/45/12/4251.full http://www.cogforlife.org/adultStemCellSuccess.htm http://cbhd.org/stem-cell-research/overview http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/archive/nurcode.html http://usliberals.about.com/od/stemcellresearch/a/ObamaEmbyBan_2.htm http://www.nightlight.org/snowflake-embryo-adoption/