Stem Cell Research Debate

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Stem Cell Research – The Debate

INTRODUCTION:


Contemporary medical research and technologies have presented humankind with complex ethical questions and moral realities never conceived. These realities and quandaries necessitate cautious scrutiny and consideration as new therapies are developed to cure life-impeding acquired conditions and pitiless diseases such as spinal cord injury, burns, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and diabetes. Various organizations of government, faith, and of the medical and bioethics establishments are challenged to embrace an unprecedented life-altering technology that will potentially heal and alleviate all human forms of pain and suffering. This technology is stem-cell research.

The state of this contemporary medical research is languishing because the issue is swollen with hesitation regarding public funding, opposition from right-to-life advocates, matters of possible abuse that could lead to notorious cloning technology, and laws and law-creating that have not necessarily been interpreted to include stipulations regarding stem cell research or given permission to pursue this profound research under strict governmental guidelines. The questions of whether stem cell research is legally permissible, scientifically promising and ethically proper are divisive as the Pope at the Vatican to the policy-makers on Capitol Hill contemplate and define life, the quality of life and the sanctity of life in a rapidly shifting world.




STEM CELL RESEARCH OVERVIEW – WHAT ARE STEM CELLS?:

Stem Cells are considered “master cells” or “early cells capable of transforming into any kind of cell or tissue in the body” (Washington Post, May 2001). They possess the ability to divide indefinitely as isolated cultures. According to the report issues by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Institute for Civil Society in 1999, there are three different t...