Stem Cell research & Gene Therapy

Started by Livewire September 15th, 2013 8:42 PM
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  • 3 replies

Livewire

Male
Sunnyshore City
Seen December 3rd, 2022
Posted August 2nd, 2019
14,091 posts
13.8 Years
The stem cell controversy is the ethical debate primarily concerning the creation, treatment, and destruction of human embryos incident to research involving embryonic stem cells. Not all stem cell research involves the creation, use, or destruction of human embryos. For example, adult stem cells, amniotic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells do not involve human embryos. So in that regard, it's not quite as controversial.

While stem cell research has, for years, been stymied by concerns of ethics and morals, in recent years there have been advances in obtaining and using stem cells extracted from adult subjects. By using stem cells taken from an adult,scientists have been able to treat some of the worst diseases that continue to plague our species, including various forms of cancer as well as muscular and neurological degenerative diseases. Taking these stem cells from adults does not permanently harm the patient and has none of the ethical or moral pitfalls that embryonic stem cell research has been associated with. While this new form of stem cell research is gaining in popularity, it still has a stigma attached to it solely by being “stem cell research”. If the public can be educated about this, a new form of medicine may be fast approaching from the horizon.
Where do you stand on the issue? Should we pursue stem cell research and/or genetic therapy in order to combat many of the diseases and disorders that plague mankind? Do you ever think adult stem cell research will lose the stigma associated with embryonic stem cell research? The kicker: do you feel we should conduct embryonic stem cell research as well?

Flushed

never eat raspberries

Seen November 4th, 2017
Posted May 18th, 2017
2,301 posts
9.7 Years
You sir make good topics.

Stem cell research is very real. From what I know, or at least think I know, stem cells can form any tissue in the body. This means that the limits are quite possibly endless, and people should know that. I wasn't quite aware of the adult stem cell research, and if it's true, that it "does not permanently harm the patient and has none of the ethical or moral pitfalls that embryonic stem cell research has," then we should definitely work harder to promote such research.

Embryonic stem cell research is quite a different beast. I would assume the only reason to have both adult and embryonic research is greater opportunity presented in embryonic stem cells. For me, I'm not exactly sure where I stand. You can look at trimesters, or the political side of things, but once you get down to it, this bears similarity to abortion. Obviously stem cell research is a positive "sacrifice" (not saying abortion isn't), but it's still the end of what would've been life. So for the time being, I'd say no to embryonic stem cell research. Someone tell me the advantages over adult stem cells and I'll give it some more thought.

Kanzler

naughty biscotti

Male
Toronto
Seen April 22nd, 2022
Posted March 11th, 2022
5,957 posts
14.8 Years
USE ALL THE STEM CELLS. Even for embryonic stem cells, it's a ball of fluff and its only purpose is to divide. I mean, it comes from a blastocyst. Can you say blastocyst? It hasn't been implanted, and half of it is a placenta. Or should I say potentially a placenta. They're easier to isolate and work with and grow faster than adult stem cells. Apparently they can even treat heart damage - although this is highly debated (as it should be, the discovery is recent), this transforms the previous paradigm that heart damage was permanent because there are no stem cells in the heart - if the research goes well, this could be the source of a revolutionary treatment. For those of us who suffer (and will suffer) from heart attacks, you could probably even lower the risk of heart attack for those who have already suffered multiple ones (heart failure kills heart cells, so every time a person gets a heart attack their risk of another heart attack increases because they have less and less cells to do the original work, and thus the heart is taking on relatively increased stress every time). And this is only one example.

Stem cells = regeneration. We will fix the unfixable, replace the irreplaceable. Playing god? Bah, god never did any of that for us, at least he gave us the tools to figure it out on our own though ^^

Shiny Celebi

Seen August 25th, 2015
Posted October 17th, 2013
2,377 posts
12 Years
I feel that Stem Cells are important to medical research and could lead to breakthoughs, while I understand people are uncomfortable with embryonic stem cell research I think all stem cells should be used for the most potential for the research to really pay off. While adult stem cells could lead to good things, people would be missing out on the potential embryonic ones also could offer.