Should stem cell research be legal based on ethics

and moral reasoning?

I. Background Information & Regulations

A. Stem cells
1. Unlike other type of cells, stem cells are capable of renewing themselves

by undergoing cell division and have the potential of becoming tissue in

specialized conditions.
2. Two types: embryonic stem cells and somatic/adult stem cells
a) Embryonic: more abundant, easier to extract, develop faster
b) Somatic: not as abundant, do divide to create as many stem cells
B. Regulations
1. Based on two principles: that research with stem cells will have the

potential to improve human health and illness along with our

understanding of it, and donors of embryos are donating with voluntary

and informed consent. A few guidelines include:

a) Embryos must undergo Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis and

those that are considered unsuitable for clinical use should not be

transferred into a womans uterus and then can be used towards

scientific study with consent of donors.

b) A person may not donate embryos to medically benefit themselves

directly.
c) Donors may not receive financial benefits from donating.
II. Uses/Benefits
A. The primary goal of stem cell research is to experiment with self-renewal cells

that could become regenerative cells, replacing disabled cells that cause disease

and/or tumors.
1. As George Q. Daley from Harvard University supports in his article Stem

Cells and the Evolving Notion of Cellular Identity, the benefit of using

embryonic stem cells (ESCs) is their significant ability to be pluripotent;

meaning these cells can be an active member of many different types of

 cell groups rather than for example just serve as replacement blood cells

or just muscle tissue for kidneys.

2. The ethical benefit of using somatic stem cells is their background of

coming from matured adult cells, rather than embryos which must be

destroyed in the process of stem cell research.

a) Usually adult skin cells
3. The fairly young concept of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)

discovered by Shinya Yamanaka and his colleagues in 2006 has benefits

of its own. Since these stem cells are derived from somatic stem cells,

they must undergo a process using transcription factors that reprogram

the (somatic) cells into pluripotency allowing them to have multiple uses

similar to the embryonic stem cells (Daley, 2015).

B. As there are different types of stem cells, there are different uses for these cells

as well.
1. In the area of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)...
a) A company known as AstraZeneca is experimenting with iPSCs in

order to persuade damage tissues into healing itself. On the flip

side not related to regenerative implications, AstraZeneca and

other companies such as GlaxoSmithKline are using IPSCs to test

drugs and their toxicities before using the medicine on humans

(Potent Medicine, 2013).

b) There is research using IPSCs directly from patients with an

illness; with the potential to explore how the illness develops,

testing can determine if the illness fails to resist the drugs used on

it (Potent Medicine, 2013).

2. A study performed by the Respirology journal series explained in the

article Can stem cells be used to generate new lungs? Ex vivo lung

bioengineering with decellularized whole lung scaffolds, explores the

area of lung replacement with stem cells. The authors found longer

survival rates for the ESCs, although the IPSCs have less controversial
 rates and are less likely to form tumors. The research done with these

stem cells have their fighting pros and cons, but ultimately there is still

more research to be done. There is similar research being done with

other organs such as the liver and bones such as teeth.

3. Studies involving stem cells and bone marrow have evolved and are

continuing to in process such as Morrison & Scaddens study of The

Bone Marrow Niche for Haematopoietic Stem Cells (2014).

4. With additional online research, you will notice that there is always

studies being done relating to stem cells and their great potential to

replace cancer cells.