Government Funding Stem Cell Research Essay

Stem electric electric cellphone investigate is a relatively unseasoned scholarship that is the first of much medical squall heretofore much controversy as intumesce. The type of base cells required, immature stubble cells, argon exactly obtainable one(a) way through and through the wipeout of mankind race race embryos. In 1996, the Dickey-Wicker Amendment was passed, making the governing unable to computer storage every seek where human embryos argon created or destroyed. At runner the amendment was a minor obstacle the politics had to work around to withal get the floor cell scientists the money they needed.It wasnt until August 23, 2010 that enunciate Lamberths ruling halted all government lineageing for stem cell look. Today, stem cell research does non receive government finances as the research, though effectivenessly life-saving, crosses object lesson and religious barriers that inhibit its maturement as a intelligence and as a gateway towards coming(prenominal) medical breakthroughs. With the opposing arguments in mind, I feel the government should descent stem cell research as doing so will house speed up the research cultivate and get us approximate to saving lives and ending human suffering.There are two types of stem cells, pornographic stem cells (found in adults) and embryonic stem cells (found in embryos). Although both(prenominal)(prenominal) possess at least some ability to replicate and cultivate into mature specialized cells, such as clamber cells, heart cells, or nerve cells, the adult stem cells are much less numerous than embryonic and generally much more limited in the types of cells they post form. Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, weting that they can form any kind of tissue and any type of cell.Embryonic stem cells are currently non utilize for medical shroudments yet are the spring of much medical promise in the near prospective. Obtainable only through the last of human embryos, embryonic stem cells can be viewed as life pitchrs or the products of life destruction. A type of adult stem cell, the hematopoietic stem cell, is already widely single-valued functiond to brood leukemia in fact, they are the only kind of stem cells currently used to treat diseases.Though past and current applications of stem cell therapy with valet may seem a bit underwhelming, scientists around the globe confine that stem cell research is worth the attention and will make for much relief to victims of many diseases. The main reason for government not to fund stem cell research is that it funds or at least encourages the destruction of human embryos. Judge Lamberth severed the governments loophole used to fund stem cell research, appealing to the numerous linked States citizens who do not want their tax dollars going towards the destruction of human embryos.Judge Lamberth concludes that the fact that embryonic-stem-cell research involves multiple notes does not mean tha t each step is a separate piece of research that may be federally funded, provided the step does not result in the destruction of an embryo (Keiper). The issue here arises from the belief that human embryos are likely worldly concern, and therefore, the destruction of human embryos should be finded the destruction of human life.Adam Keiper, the editor program of the New Atlantis, states that presuming the incalculable moral significance of human life, was certainly the absorbed of the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, and should be the aim of any decent society (Keiper). He believes that the government should not fund stem cell research regardless of which lineament of the research it is funding such funding of any research that involves the process of the destruction of human embryos, or capableness human beings (as some may see them), incentivizes ripe that.With that in mind, ones position on the stem cell research may be decided on simply weighing the electromotive force lives sa ved by conducting the research with the potential lives saved by not conducting the research. That decision relies heavily on ones morals, religious beliefs, and whether or not human embryos should be considered potential humans beings. Many embryos created through in-virto fertilization (IVF), a process that replicates conception, are never used by the patients of the IVF banks they are spares and would never become humans without the consent of the parents of the embryo, or embryos.To solution the caput of whether or not human embryos should be considered potential human beings, one must first answer the question What makes a human? A simple answer to the question would be anything that, under the right conditions, could become a human. However, the crucial step in the development of a human is the decision of the parent without agnatic consent, those spare embryos will never become humans. Thus, the embryos encounter no emerging as a person and should not be seen as potenti al life.The parents of the unneeded embryos have the option to donate the spare embryos to stem cell research or have them discarded. Laura Bothwell is a doctoral candidate in the history and ethics of public health and medicine in the section of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University. She believes that it is a great gift to humanity that the embryos left over(p) over from the assisted reproduction cycles can be used for research that has the potential to alleviate human suffering (Bothwell).Hundreds of thousands of spare embryos in IVF banks have no future as humans, making it unwise to not use them for stem cell research. In which case, the argument that the government is funding the destruction of potential human life is fundamentally flawed. We need to stop worrying about the lives of those who will never live and begin focusing on the lives of those already living. In the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the world has been transformed from what it is directly. Humans are grown in factories with special traits to fill specific roles in the society.Obviously, this is not the case today, and most would allot that is a good thing. However, we are slowly beginning to see that it may be possible. The possibility of growing our own human beings is scary to presuppose of. Looming deep in the minds of stem cell researchers and scientists and anyone educated about the science is the fear of what it may lead to. Could it lead us to becoming human engineers? Could it lead to our humanity slip away as we wander into a life where no one is special, where not God just we are the creators of human beings?It may not be a commonly hear question as most would label it farfetched. Therefore, as I support the government funding stem cell research, I also bring in the need for it to be proctored. Going into the science of stem cells and equable today we do not completely know what will become of it in the distant future. electric chair Bush declared his intention to name a Presidents Council to monitor stem cell research, to recommend appropriate guidelines and regulations, and to consider medical and respectable ramifications of biomedical innovation (Presidents Council on Bioethics). some other reason for the government to not fund stem cell research is that doing so would speed up the research while many, including those of the Presidents Council on Bioethics, think it should be monitored and restricted as to obstruct it from getting out of hand. Stem cell research is like a fire, some people want to see it grow and prove itself a source of warmth, some people want to see it diminish until there is postcode left most want to keep it under control and prevent it from becoming a raging inferno.Moral dilemmas and deep inner-looming fears aside, stem cell research has a promising potential that cannot be ignored. Researchers believe that stem cells can be used to treat a large garland of diseases and organ failure. They could be used to create organ transplants that will not be rejected by the patient. Stem cells have the ability to save countless lives across the world. They may be used in the manipulation of neurological diseases, such as Parkinsons disease or Alzheimers disease. They may be important for delivering targeted gene therapy.They have the ability to treat liver diseases and metabolic disorders such as Gauchers disease. Hematopoietic stem cells are currently used in treating leukemia, a reasonable and well established and accepted method of treatment. Ruth Kirchstein, a former playacting director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), notes that the ability to use stem cells in disease treatments by simple transplantation makes them a feasible remedy approach, and with limited supply of organs for transplants, stem cells are progressively viewed as an attractive alternative for treating failing organs (Kirchstein).If the only make up of funding stem cell research were the loss of embryos that had no future human life possibility than the numerous possible benefits of the research should assay the cost insignificant. Stem cell research holds much promise yet is deprived of the funding necessary to fulfill this promise. If funded, inside years we could be making medical breakthroughs and saving more lives than ever before. Luckily, modern science has unlocked a fresh possibility, one that could put an end to moral and ethical disputes and put an end to much human suffering.In new years scientists have made a new discovery, a new way to research stem cells, a way to reprogram skins cells to behave just as embryonic stem cells they are called induced pluripotent stem cells. This new method of acquiring stem cells breaks no ethical barriers while still giving us access to the life-saving potential of stem cells. In November 2007 a research group in Japan and another in Wisconsin successfully created the induced luripotent stem cells. Initially, the induced plur ipotent stem cells had a cancerous tilt that killed some of the mice in the first testing process. However, on November 30, 2007 Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University, the leader of the Japanese research groups, eliminated the cancerous melt downency. In the first process, six of the thirty-six mice injected with the cells died of tumors within 100 days, but in the second process, no mice died (Lewis).Not longsighted after that accomplishment, scientists at Harvard Medical School and Childrens Hospital in Boston created the induced pluripotent stem cells from a human volunteer, adding to the evidence that supports skin cell reprogramming as a promising means of acquiring the precious stem cells. Andy Lewis, a research editor for the Ethics & Religious shore leave Commission, declares that The breakthrough of inducing skin cells into pluripotent stem cells is an answer to prayer of pro-life advocates, who have long desired an ethical medical solution to flake debilitating disease s and illnesses in society (Lewis).Induced pluripotent stem cells, being class as stem cell research, should by all means be funded by the government as it poses no ethical issues and possesses the same potential as human embryonic stem cells do. It is a solution that makes everyone happy. The government should fund stem cell research. Spare embryos with no future as humans should be utilized to improve the lives of those already living. If anything, the government should fund and encourage the creation of induced pluripotent stem cells.Stem cell research has too much potential to not fund, even with taking ethical and moral barriers into consideration. However, we must prevent ourselves from getting carried away we must monitor the researchs growth, keep it controlled, and, most importantly, maintain our humanity. We can tend to the fire, let it glow brighter than ever, let it provide warmth and comfort for society, but if we let our guard down, if we allow the fire to become bigg er than us, a raging, untamable inferno, we may never be able to stomp it out. ?