Embryonic Stem Cell Argumentative Essay
Guiao, Iris Joy M.
09/02/13
ENGLCOM Writing Component
C36
Embryonic Stem Cell: Threat to Life and Humanity
Every year, about 7.9 million infants are born with serious birth defects, which is about 6% of infants born worldwide. In the United States alone, there are more than 4.4 million to 7.7 million of people with developmental disabilities and about 60% of their population’s deaths were due to degenerative diseases. These figures explain the outpour of comments and criticisms as well as hopes and controversies with the introduction of stem cell therapy, a treatment which promises to provide a cure to these diseases by introducing a stem cell into the damaged tissue or organ of the body.
Each part of a person’s body is composed of different …show more content…
cells with specialized jobs.
Those having the same function goes together to form tissues and later, organs. What sets stem cells apart from these cells in the body is that it has the ability to replicate and transform itself into a specific type of cell needed to repair or replace cells of damaged tissues or organs of the body whereas other cells could only reproduce their own type.
Stem cells can be found at several parts of the body. Thus, there are various types of stem cell therapies depending on where the stem cell to be used in the treatment was obtained. Two of the most popular type of stem cells are the adult stem cells, which is now becoming widely used, and the embryonic stem cells, which gave rise to lots of controversies. Adult stem cells can be found in almost every adult tissue of the body, but current therapies regularly uses blood adult stem cells, acquired from the
bone marrow or the umbilical cord blood, and neural adult stem cells, acquired from the central nervous system. These types of adult stem cells are taken from children or adults without harming nor hurting them. On the other hand, embryonic stem cells are obtained from embryos which are only 3-5 days old. The removal of the stem cell from the embryo would end the life which has just been conceived. Despite this, many researchers still claim that this type of stem cells are best suited for stem cell …show more content…
treatments mainly because they are at a very early stage of development which makes them flexible in terms of their ability to morph into a wide variety of mature cell types that can function as muscles, bones, neurons and any other part of the body in place of damaged ones, much like an embryo developing into a fetus. Such information has imposed much hope of cure for people who are suffering from congenital, developmental and degenerative diseases. However, the use of embryonic stem cells are unethical, ineffective and unnecessary.
Since the idea of using embryonic stem cells was conceived, a lot of moral concerns were raised because such practice of experimenting on a human embryo is unethical. In order to counter this, scientists came up with two types of laboratory prepared embryos from which stem cells could be obtained. The first one is through in vitro fertilization where instead of having the union of the sperm and egg cell inside the woman’s body, it is done in a petri dish. The second one is by cloning an embryo which, again, has imposed another ethical issue. Cloning has been a concern since “Dolly” the lamb was cloned and the same reasons why it was not followed by another cloned organism before still applies today; it will compromise individualities (Farnsworth, 2001).
Even the Church greatly opposes this, stating “We declare the means by which mortal
life is created to be divinely appointed”. By allowing the continuous use of cloned embryos for Embryonic Stem Cell research and treatment we are only inching humanity closer to cloning humans as well.
But regardless whether embryos are obtained through in vitro fertilization or by cloning, they are to be destroyed in the process of acquiring the stem cell. Embryos do not merely hold a “potential for life” as others would believe.
Life starts the moment a sperm cell joins with an egg cell in the process called fertilization (Moore, 1988, p. 2).
An embryo develops from a zygote formed after the union of a sperm cell and an egg cell. Therefore, by destroying an embryo, one is taking away a life. There is no question there whether it is ethical or not because killing an innocent being could never be moral.
It is very wrong to value embryos less than infants or adults. Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk
(2007) asserted that “all of us, at all stages along the continuum, possess the same dignity and worth as humans,” so even that embryo’s life deserves the same respect that children or adults expect to get. Besides, each person was ones an embryo as well.
Aside from being unethical, another big controversy regarding the use of embryonic stem cells refers to their effectiveness. For more than a decade now that scientists, as well as biotechnological companies, have been studying and experimenting on embryonic stem cells, their promise of successful results has not yet occurred. In fact, instead of positive results, this type of stem cell showed a great chance of being rejected by the body even if it was obtained from a cloned
embryo.
Once the cell is injected to the body, it might be recognized as a foreign object which the immune system would attack (Murnaghan, 2012). When a stem cell suffers this immune rejection, it would not be able to bring the supposed treatment that it should.
Embryonic Stem Cells are also feared to have the possibility of developing into a tumor mass. In a report released by a US research team about Parkinson’s disease, patients injected with embryonic stem cells are at high risk of forming cancerous cells.
Similarly, in the journal entitled “Nature Medicine”, Steven Goldman and his colleagues at the University of Rochester Medical Centre in New York wrote that after some time, the embryo cells they injected to the brain of a rat started to divide in such a way that it showed potentials of forming into a tumor.
More than being unethical and ineffective, embryonic stem cells are also unnecessary now that treatments using adult stem cells have continuously produced promising results. According to Rep. Chris Smith and nine other pro-life members of the
U.S. House of Representatives in a speech on the House floor in 2009, “Adult stem cells from various sources have already been shown to cure or mitigate leukemia, type
1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus, sickle cell anemia, and dozens more.” The Family
Research Council (FRC) supported this statement by the representatives through the various accounts of individuals in their website who were cured or at least helped by adult stem cell treatment.
What makes embryonic stem cells more unnecessary is the fact that another type of stem cell, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), was discovered. iPS is made out of an adult stem cell which is genetically programmed to act like an embryonic stem cell. These non-embryonic but embryo-like stem cells are also pluripotent, similar to an embryonic stem cell, but unlike such cells, it would not harm its donor. Although the iPS is still being studied further, it promises a better alternative than the embryonic
stem cells because both have equal potentials as pluripotent cells but the first one is ethical while the latter is clearly not.
Despite all of these, researchers still stand by their claim that, innately, embryonic stem cells are versatile and pluripotent, which means they could change and mature into any type of cell. Therefore, they are the best type of stem cell to be used to treat a number of diseases which were believed to be incurable before, such as
Alzheimer’s Disease, spinal cord injuries, heart disease and cancer. To a certain extent, they are correct. But, while the effectiveness of embryonic stem cells with regards to curing such diseases are yet to be proven, adult stem cells has already produced a good number of successful cases. One such case is that of Ryan Schneider who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was just 2 years old. At Duke University,
Schneider underwent an adult stem cell therapy using stem cells taken from his umbilical cord blood which her mother had stored at Cord Blood Registry when he was born. His symptoms disappeared a year after the treatment.
The opposing view may also claim that the destruction of a single embryo may be justified since it would cure and save the lives of a good number of sick people.
However, this is completely wrong because, again, the use of embryonic stem cells has not been proven to yield successful results. There is no point in ending an innocent’s life even if it means saving a hundred especially if the cure is uncertain. “The end does not justify the means”; even if their intention in killing an embryo is to prolong the lives of a good number of people suffering from congenital, developmental and degenerative diseases, even if it is just a single embryo, a life is still a life. It is something which must be respected; something which no one could and should take away from anyone. If the
main concern that people have is the promised cure brought by the embryonic stem cells to sick people, then they should consider adult stem cells instead since it could also save and prolong lives with assurance and without sacrificing another’s life.
In general, there are no objections regarding stem cell therapy itself. In fact, it provides much hope for the continuous advancement of medicine and treatment of diseases which were thought to be incurable before. However, what the people should be concerned about is the source of these stem cells. Embryonic stem cells may promise that they can do wonders, but keep in mind that these “wonders”, for more than a decade now, has not yet been proven. Moreover, the use of embryonic stem cells is unethical and unnecessary which is why people must turn their attention to another alternative called adult stem cells which are proven to bring cure without compromising the life of an unborn. If people would insist on using embryonic stem cells, they are not only killing an innocent life and putting their own life at risk but they are also imposing a threat to humanity because “embryonic stem cell research is the threshold of cloning”.
(Abboud, n.d.)
References
Abboud, Amin (n.d.). The Stem Cell Debate. Retrieved August 29, 2013, from http://www.australasianbioethics.org/Media/stemcells-3.pdf Asuncion, Arthur (2006). Embryonic Stem Cell Research Is Unethical. Retrieved August
27, 2013, from http://www.ics.uci.edu/~asuncion/stem_cells.htm
DelVecchio, Rick (2007). California researcher sees continued need for embryonic stem cells. Retrieved August 29, 2013, from http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0706942.htm Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2013). The Cells in Your Body. Retrieved August
27, 2013, from http://sciencenetlinks.com/student-teacher-sheets/cells-your-body/
Farnsworth, Joseph (2000). To Clone or not to Clone: The Ethical Question. Retrieved
August 27, 2013, from http://thefarnsworths.com/science/cloning.htm
Gilbert, Kathleen (2009). Destroying Human Embryos Not Only Unethical, but
Unnecessary: Congressmen. Retrieved August 29, 2013, from http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive//ldn/2009/mar/09030606 Kleinfeld, S., Prentice, D. & Saunders, B. (2006). Adult Stem Cell Success Stories.
Retrieved August 29, 2013, from http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=is06h01
Lobo, I. & Zhaurova, K. (2008). Birth defects: causes and statistics. Retrieved August
27, 2013, from http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/birth-defects-causes-andstatistics-863
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (2013). Stem cells: What they are and what they do. Retrieved August 25, 2013, from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stem-cells/CA00081 Moore, K. (1988). Essentials of Human Embryology (p. 2). Toronto: B.C. Decker Inc
Morstad, D. (2012). How Prevalent Are Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in the
United States. Retrieved August 27, 2013, from http://bethesdainstitute.org/document.doc?id=413 Murnaghan, Ian (2012). Immunological Challenges for Stem Cells. Retrieved August 27,
2013, from http://www.explorestemcells.co.uk/immunologicalchallengesstemcells.html Sumanas, Inc. (n.d.). Human Embryonic Stem Cells. Retrieved August 25, 2013, from http://www.sumanasinc.com/scienceinfocus/sif_stemcells.html White, Hilary (2006). Study: Human Embryonic Stem Cells May Cause Brain Tumours.
Retrieved August 27, 2013, from
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive/ldn/2006/oct/06102309
09/02/13
ENGLCOM Writing Component
C36
Embryonic Stem Cell: Threat to Life and Humanity
Every year, about 7.9 million infants are born with serious birth defects, which is about 6% of infants born worldwide. In the United States alone, there are more than 4.4 million to 7.7 million of people with developmental disabilities and about 60% of their population’s deaths were due to degenerative diseases. These figures explain the outpour of comments and criticisms as well as hopes and controversies with the introduction of stem cell therapy, a treatment which promises to provide a cure to these diseases by introducing a stem cell into the damaged tissue or organ of the body.
Each part of a person’s body is composed of different …show more content…
cells with specialized jobs.
Those having the same function goes together to form tissues and later, organs. What sets stem cells apart from these cells in the body is that it has the ability to replicate and transform itself into a specific type of cell needed to repair or replace cells of damaged tissues or organs of the body whereas other cells could only reproduce their own type.
Stem cells can be found at several parts of the body. Thus, there are various types of stem cell therapies depending on where the stem cell to be used in the treatment was obtained. Two of the most popular type of stem cells are the adult stem cells, which is now becoming widely used, and the embryonic stem cells, which gave rise to lots of controversies. Adult stem cells can be found in almost every adult tissue of the body, but current therapies regularly uses blood adult stem cells, acquired from the
bone marrow or the umbilical cord blood, and neural adult stem cells, acquired from the central nervous system. These types of adult stem cells are taken from children or adults without harming nor hurting them. On the other hand, embryonic stem cells are obtained from embryos which are only 3-5 days old. The removal of the stem cell from the embryo would end the life which has just been conceived. Despite this, many researchers still claim that this type of stem cells are best suited for stem cell …show more content…
treatments mainly because they are at a very early stage of development which makes them flexible in terms of their ability to morph into a wide variety of mature cell types that can function as muscles, bones, neurons and any other part of the body in place of damaged ones, much like an embryo developing into a fetus. Such information has imposed much hope of cure for people who are suffering from congenital, developmental and degenerative diseases. However, the use of embryonic stem cells are unethical, ineffective and unnecessary.
Since the idea of using embryonic stem cells was conceived, a lot of moral concerns were raised because such practice of experimenting on a human embryo is unethical. In order to counter this, scientists came up with two types of laboratory prepared embryos from which stem cells could be obtained. The first one is through in vitro fertilization where instead of having the union of the sperm and egg cell inside the woman’s body, it is done in a petri dish. The second one is by cloning an embryo which, again, has imposed another ethical issue. Cloning has been a concern since “Dolly” the lamb was cloned and the same reasons why it was not followed by another cloned organism before still applies today; it will compromise individualities (Farnsworth, 2001).
Even the Church greatly opposes this, stating “We declare the means by which mortal
life is created to be divinely appointed”. By allowing the continuous use of cloned embryos for Embryonic Stem Cell research and treatment we are only inching humanity closer to cloning humans as well.
But regardless whether embryos are obtained through in vitro fertilization or by cloning, they are to be destroyed in the process of acquiring the stem cell. Embryos do not merely hold a “potential for life” as others would believe.
Life starts the moment a sperm cell joins with an egg cell in the process called fertilization (Moore, 1988, p. 2).
An embryo develops from a zygote formed after the union of a sperm cell and an egg cell. Therefore, by destroying an embryo, one is taking away a life. There is no question there whether it is ethical or not because killing an innocent being could never be moral.
It is very wrong to value embryos less than infants or adults. Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk
(2007) asserted that “all of us, at all stages along the continuum, possess the same dignity and worth as humans,” so even that embryo’s life deserves the same respect that children or adults expect to get. Besides, each person was ones an embryo as well.
Aside from being unethical, another big controversy regarding the use of embryonic stem cells refers to their effectiveness. For more than a decade now that scientists, as well as biotechnological companies, have been studying and experimenting on embryonic stem cells, their promise of successful results has not yet occurred. In fact, instead of positive results, this type of stem cell showed a great chance of being rejected by the body even if it was obtained from a cloned
embryo.
Once the cell is injected to the body, it might be recognized as a foreign object which the immune system would attack (Murnaghan, 2012). When a stem cell suffers this immune rejection, it would not be able to bring the supposed treatment that it should.
Embryonic Stem Cells are also feared to have the possibility of developing into a tumor mass. In a report released by a US research team about Parkinson’s disease, patients injected with embryonic stem cells are at high risk of forming cancerous cells.
Similarly, in the journal entitled “Nature Medicine”, Steven Goldman and his colleagues at the University of Rochester Medical Centre in New York wrote that after some time, the embryo cells they injected to the brain of a rat started to divide in such a way that it showed potentials of forming into a tumor.
More than being unethical and ineffective, embryonic stem cells are also unnecessary now that treatments using adult stem cells have continuously produced promising results. According to Rep. Chris Smith and nine other pro-life members of the
U.S. House of Representatives in a speech on the House floor in 2009, “Adult stem cells from various sources have already been shown to cure or mitigate leukemia, type
1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus, sickle cell anemia, and dozens more.” The Family
Research Council (FRC) supported this statement by the representatives through the various accounts of individuals in their website who were cured or at least helped by adult stem cell treatment.
What makes embryonic stem cells more unnecessary is the fact that another type of stem cell, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), was discovered. iPS is made out of an adult stem cell which is genetically programmed to act like an embryonic stem cell. These non-embryonic but embryo-like stem cells are also pluripotent, similar to an embryonic stem cell, but unlike such cells, it would not harm its donor. Although the iPS is still being studied further, it promises a better alternative than the embryonic
stem cells because both have equal potentials as pluripotent cells but the first one is ethical while the latter is clearly not.
Despite all of these, researchers still stand by their claim that, innately, embryonic stem cells are versatile and pluripotent, which means they could change and mature into any type of cell. Therefore, they are the best type of stem cell to be used to treat a number of diseases which were believed to be incurable before, such as
Alzheimer’s Disease, spinal cord injuries, heart disease and cancer. To a certain extent, they are correct. But, while the effectiveness of embryonic stem cells with regards to curing such diseases are yet to be proven, adult stem cells has already produced a good number of successful cases. One such case is that of Ryan Schneider who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was just 2 years old. At Duke University,
Schneider underwent an adult stem cell therapy using stem cells taken from his umbilical cord blood which her mother had stored at Cord Blood Registry when he was born. His symptoms disappeared a year after the treatment.
The opposing view may also claim that the destruction of a single embryo may be justified since it would cure and save the lives of a good number of sick people.
However, this is completely wrong because, again, the use of embryonic stem cells has not been proven to yield successful results. There is no point in ending an innocent’s life even if it means saving a hundred especially if the cure is uncertain. “The end does not justify the means”; even if their intention in killing an embryo is to prolong the lives of a good number of people suffering from congenital, developmental and degenerative diseases, even if it is just a single embryo, a life is still a life. It is something which must be respected; something which no one could and should take away from anyone. If the
main concern that people have is the promised cure brought by the embryonic stem cells to sick people, then they should consider adult stem cells instead since it could also save and prolong lives with assurance and without sacrificing another’s life.
In general, there are no objections regarding stem cell therapy itself. In fact, it provides much hope for the continuous advancement of medicine and treatment of diseases which were thought to be incurable before. However, what the people should be concerned about is the source of these stem cells. Embryonic stem cells may promise that they can do wonders, but keep in mind that these “wonders”, for more than a decade now, has not yet been proven. Moreover, the use of embryonic stem cells is unethical and unnecessary which is why people must turn their attention to another alternative called adult stem cells which are proven to bring cure without compromising the life of an unborn. If people would insist on using embryonic stem cells, they are not only killing an innocent life and putting their own life at risk but they are also imposing a threat to humanity because “embryonic stem cell research is the threshold of cloning”.
(Abboud, n.d.)
References
Abboud, Amin (n.d.). The Stem Cell Debate. Retrieved August 29, 2013, from http://www.australasianbioethics.org/Media/stemcells-3.pdf Asuncion, Arthur (2006). Embryonic Stem Cell Research Is Unethical. Retrieved August
27, 2013, from http://www.ics.uci.edu/~asuncion/stem_cells.htm
DelVecchio, Rick (2007). California researcher sees continued need for embryonic stem cells. Retrieved August 29, 2013, from http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0706942.htm Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2013). The Cells in Your Body. Retrieved August
27, 2013, from http://sciencenetlinks.com/student-teacher-sheets/cells-your-body/
Farnsworth, Joseph (2000). To Clone or not to Clone: The Ethical Question. Retrieved
August 27, 2013, from http://thefarnsworths.com/science/cloning.htm
Gilbert, Kathleen (2009). Destroying Human Embryos Not Only Unethical, but
Unnecessary: Congressmen. Retrieved August 29, 2013, from http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive//ldn/2009/mar/09030606 Kleinfeld, S., Prentice, D. & Saunders, B. (2006). Adult Stem Cell Success Stories.
Retrieved August 29, 2013, from http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=is06h01
Lobo, I. & Zhaurova, K. (2008). Birth defects: causes and statistics. Retrieved August
27, 2013, from http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/birth-defects-causes-andstatistics-863
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (2013). Stem cells: What they are and what they do. Retrieved August 25, 2013, from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stem-cells/CA00081 Moore, K. (1988). Essentials of Human Embryology (p. 2). Toronto: B.C. Decker Inc
Morstad, D. (2012). How Prevalent Are Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in the
United States. Retrieved August 27, 2013, from http://bethesdainstitute.org/document.doc?id=413 Murnaghan, Ian (2012). Immunological Challenges for Stem Cells. Retrieved August 27,
2013, from http://www.explorestemcells.co.uk/immunologicalchallengesstemcells.html Sumanas, Inc. (n.d.). Human Embryonic Stem Cells. Retrieved August 25, 2013, from http://www.sumanasinc.com/scienceinfocus/sif_stemcells.html White, Hilary (2006). Study: Human Embryonic Stem Cells May Cause Brain Tumours.
Retrieved August 27, 2013, from
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive/ldn/2006/oct/06102309