Stem Cell Research Embryonic Stem

¶ … Stem Cell Research

EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Charges Rampant on Stem Cell Issue: Look Into Claims Reveals Facts Behind Stances of Both Sides. By Megha Satyanarayana (the Detroit Free Press, October 12, 2008)

According to the article, Michigan is preparing for a statewide vote on the issue of embryonic stem cell research. Proposal 2 is about an amendment to Michigan state law that currently prohibits any research use of embryonic stem cells. Michigan is one of the few states that actually prohibits embryonic stem cell research; the proposal, if passed on November 4, 2008, would permit the use of embryonic stem cells for research use that is permitted by federal law (Hornstein, 2008; Satyanarayana, 2008).

Under federal law, embryonic stem cell research may not be funded by federal money, but such research is not illegal. Critics of that distinction have pointed out that the federal funding ban achieves almost the same purpose as an outright ban on this valuable form of research, simply because medical research of this type is far too expensive for private institutions to conduct and relies nearly completely on federal funding (Kinsley, 2007). Most states do not actually prohibit privately funded stem cell research, but Michigan specifically outlaws some of the most potentially beneficial medical research in the field of modern medicine. Stem cells were first discovered to possess the ability to develop into almost any other form of human tissue approximately ten years ago (Satyanarayana, 2008). Since then, the Bush administration has taken up the argument put forth mainly by religious objections to research into their medical applications, resulting in a complete ban on all fetal and embryonic stem cell research use of federal funds (Kinsley, 2007; Pollack, 2007).

The Importance of Embryonic Stem Cell Research to Human Medicine:

Human stem cells come in several different varieties with different degrees of capability in terms of medical applications. While adult stem cells are able to be extracted from the bone marrow of adult patients, the biopsy procedures are considerably uncomfortable and not without dangers (Talan, 2007). More importantly, by far, adult stem cells possess only limited potential in comparison with fetal stem cells, which could be extracted from legally aborted fetuses, or from umbilical cord blood or placental tissues discarded after live births (Kinsley, 2007; Pollack, 2007).

The likely benefits of stem cell research, particularly embryonic stem cell research are so numerous that they read almost like a "wish list" of medical researchers.

So far, indications strongly suggest that the applications of stem cell science will eradicate many untreatable human diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Cystic Fibrosis, Diabetes, Sickle Cell Anemia, and Tay-Sachs Disease (Talan, 2007).

Other applications will likely allow neurologists to restore mobility and sensation to victims of traumatic paralysis, including thousands of people crippled every year in motor vehicle and swimming pool accidents, not to mention American soldiers injured on the battlefield. Experiments on paralyzed laboratory animals have already proven the viability of this application, in principle, (Talan, 2007).

Some of the most breathtaking uses of human stem cells include the construction of complete human organs for autogenic transplant (Kinsley. 2007). Currently, thousands of American patients die every year while waiting on organ donor transplant lists before a suitable donor organ can be found. Even when they are lucky enough to receive a donor organ, the risk of rejection requires the lifetime use of powerful anti-rejection drugs to suppress their immune systems; this lees them extremely vulnerable to other diseases and infections and is tremendously costly as well.

The prospect of extracting DNA from the patient for combination with embryonic stem cells offers these patients the chance to live normal lives because the organs developed in this manner contain only the patient's own tissues. More importantly, this particular use of stem cell technology would spare the lives of the vast majority of needy organ recipients that die every year before a suitable organ can be found for them (Kinsley, 2007; Pollack, 2007).

Embryonic stem cells represent the greatest potential for medical applications, simply because they retain the greatest ability to develop into virtually any type of human tissue desired; they are capable of being extracted from fertilized human zygotes, such as the fertilized ova produced for each patient by the dozen in fertility clinics using in-vitro fertilization (IVF) techniques. The Michigan proposal centers precisely around the beneficial use of the many excess zygotes produced in IVF clinics that under current Michigan law, cannot be used even for privately funded medical research (Satyanarayana, 2008).

During the IVF process, infertile patients undergo a harvesting of their sperm and eggs (respectively) for external fertilization and subsequent re-implantation for normal gestation thereafter. Because the ovum extraction procedure is expensive, uncomfortable, and not always successful on any particular attempt, approximately one dozen or more eggs are actually fertilized, so that multiple re-implantations are possible without additional extraction procedures (Talan, 2007). Under the new proposal, the excess embryos produced through IVF techniques would be eligible for any privately funded research use that is permitted by existing federal law (Satyanarayana, 2008).

The pending Michigan proposal specifically targets this wasted resource of valuable embryonic research material. Currently, Michigan law requires all the excess embryos created in IVF clinics to be discarded as medical waste or frozen indefinitely (Hornstein, 2008). Under its provisions, the new proposal would allow these unused IVF embryos to be donated by the patients for medical research, provided they are less than 14 days old (Hornstein, 2008; Satyanarayana, 2008).