Stem Cell Research: Debate of the Century
Life is a complicated journey, and society does not make it an easier. Disagreements are like a gateway drug. In this case it's a gateway to bigger more dangerous things like assault and murder. When people have differing opinions on topics, things are born from within ones-self. This creature is called a martyr. People willing to die for what they believe in and that can cause a problem. Heavy set debates arise from disagreements. A top topic that is an ongoing argument is that over stem cell research. The pro-life side and the pro-research side: both of which have plausible facts to back them up.
Stem cells are derived from discarded human female eggs. When women wanted to preserve their reproductive eggs they would freeze them at a lab, just to keep their option of having more kids down the road open.
A colony of embryonic stem cells, from the H9 cell...
English: Embryonic Stem Cells. (A) shows hESCs. (B...
Mouse embryonic stem cells. More lab photosWhen they go unused they are tagged as "surplus eggs." So scientists take these "surplused" eggs and perform experiments on them. These medical experiments being performed could potentially treat a wide range of chronic illnesses such as cancer, and Alzheimer's.
There are two types of stem cells. Pluripotent Cells (can form over 200 cell types) and Multipotent Cells (partially differentiated but can form a limited number of other tissues) Moreover, there are six different types of stem cell sources. Two registering the Pluripotent advantage, while two form multipotent advantages, and 2 being multi-beneficial. Embryonic (deriving from human blastocysts) and induced Pluripotent stem (cells from adult tissues reprogrammed to pluripotency) are the Pluripotent advantage type: while fetal stem cells (cells from gonads of aborted fetuses) and adult stem cells (cells from adult tissues) are the Multipotent advantage. While the multi-beneficial are called Umbilical cord stem cells (cells from the umbilical cord...