Literature Review 1
Introduction
Religion and morality, versus technological and health care advances.The controversy of stem cell research is an ongoing issue in our society that regards human embryo use. This topic has been publicly debated by many religious groups and scientists along with healthcare professionals. Embryonic stem cell research involves stem cells to be taken out of the embryo, destroying it in the process. This brings up ethical concerns; if destroying the embryo is worth stem cell research/ transplantation. The purpose of this literature review is gain further knowledge on the benefits of stem cell research, the ethical concerns of stem cell research, and other uses of stem cells.
Firstly, several authors and researchers have a positive outlook on stem cell research and how it benefits society. A major benefit of these stem cells is the ability to regenerate important tissues in the body such as blood vessels and skin (Cabot, T., 2013). This can help multiple people such as cancer patients, car crash victims, people with diseases, and our ageing generation. Specifically a research experiment was done on a little boy by scientist Anthony Atala. Atala took healthy cells from a little boy who had a broken bladder. He then took these cells to a lab and fed these cells with various proteins and nutrients, allowing the cells to grow and multiple. Anthony then took these newly created cells and placed them into a biodegradable skin (collagen) balloon, allowing the cells to take shape of a bladder. This newly created bladder was then placed back into the boy, allowing him to be healthy once again (Cabot, T., 2013). Similarly, it was discovered that transferring genes to the nucleus of adult cells through a virus allows that cell to turn into many other cells (the same as embryonic stem cells) (Gravitz, L., 2009). These newly created cells are called IPS cells. This is a positive advancement because it can replace the embryonic stem cells that are being used to avoid any ethical issues and concerns. It differs from other experiments and other research that is being conducted because it doesn't go against religious beliefs to help others. Another benefit is how stem cells can help treat blindness. This is done by taking embryonic stem cells and placing them into the eye to regenerate eye cells (Lok, C., 2012). Furthermore using these stem cells with eyes can teach society more about diseases in the eye, such as Macular Degeneration, Glaucoma and Retinitis Pigmentosa (Sasai, Y., 2012). Knowledge gained from these diseases in the eye can even lead researchers to successfully make an eyeball out of cells (Sasai, Y., 2012).
Secondly, others tend to look at stem cell research in a negative way, raising moral, ethical, religious and safety issues. As previously stated, to obtain embryonic stem cells the embryo is destroyed in the process. This can be a moral concern because that you could potentially be destroying a human life (Shevde, N., 2012). Roman Catholics, Protestants, and the Orthodox religion for example believe that human life begins at the embryo stage even if it has not yet developed (Shevde, N., 2012). Additionally, when stem cells are taken out of early embryonic cells (and not initially destroyed) the cell will permanently be altered so it will never form into a human life (Hug, K. 2011, March 23). These different ideologies cause great controversy, and affect government funding on research companies.
The idea of cloning also comes into consideration when talking about stem cell research. Researcher and author Meghen Rosen states how cloning is an unnatural and unsafe process. If people resort to cloning, humans will lose their diversity of genes (Rosen, M., 2013). People would then see identical traits and there would be no differences in appearance, genes, etc. In the future if we did resort to cloning human beings, everyone would also be susceptible to the same diseases which would be a huge risk (Rosen, M., 2013). Cloning can also cause abnormalities and have high risks of failure, so it would be unethical doing this to human beings knowing there is not a high success rate (Rosen, M., 2013). Additionally, stem cells can be used for transplantation purposes. This is because the stem cells can be injected into the organ that is being transplanted with hopes that it will not be rejected. The problem with this, is that all organs are composed of complex cells. If the organ with the stem cells do not have enough similar cells that match the patient, the patient's body will trigger an immune system response and reject the organ (Slezak, M. 2013). Due to the high risks with transplantation's with stem cells, this has only been experimented on mice. This displays the ethics of testing transplantation in humans, because of the high risks. These risks are closely related to cloning using stem cells and the dangers of replicating genes.
The following primary research will support secondary research by showing opinions on the ethics of stem cell research, and how it will impact our society in the future.
Introduction
Religion and morality, versus technological and health care advances.The controversy of stem cell research is an ongoing issue in our society that regards human embryo use. This topic has been publicly debated by many religious groups and scientists along with healthcare professionals. Embryonic stem cell research involves stem cells to be taken out of the embryo, destroying it in the process. This brings up ethical concerns; if destroying the embryo is worth stem cell research/ transplantation. The purpose of this literature review is gain further knowledge on the benefits of stem cell research, the ethical concerns of stem cell research, and other uses of stem cells.
Firstly, several authors and researchers have a positive outlook on stem cell research and how it benefits society. A major benefit of these stem cells is the ability to regenerate important tissues in the body such as blood vessels and skin (Cabot, T., 2013). This can help multiple people such as cancer patients, car crash victims, people with diseases, and our ageing generation. Specifically a research experiment was done on a little boy by scientist Anthony Atala. Atala took healthy cells from a little boy who had a broken bladder. He then took these cells to a lab and fed these cells with various proteins and nutrients, allowing the cells to grow and multiple. Anthony then took these newly created cells and placed them into a biodegradable skin (collagen) balloon, allowing the cells to take shape of a bladder. This newly created bladder was then placed back into the boy, allowing him to be healthy once again (Cabot, T., 2013). Similarly, it was discovered that transferring genes to the nucleus of adult cells through a virus allows that cell to turn into many other cells (the same as embryonic stem cells) (Gravitz, L., 2009). These newly created cells are called IPS cells. This is a positive advancement because it can replace the embryonic stem cells that are being used to avoid any ethical issues and concerns. It differs from other experiments and other research that is being conducted because it doesn't go against religious beliefs to help others. Another benefit is how stem cells can help treat blindness. This is done by taking embryonic stem cells and placing them into the eye to regenerate eye cells (Lok, C., 2012). Furthermore using these stem cells with eyes can teach society more about diseases in the eye, such as Macular Degeneration, Glaucoma and Retinitis Pigmentosa (Sasai, Y., 2012). Knowledge gained from these diseases in the eye can even lead researchers to successfully make an eyeball out of cells (Sasai, Y., 2012).
Secondly, others tend to look at stem cell research in a negative way, raising moral, ethical, religious and safety issues. As previously stated, to obtain embryonic stem cells the embryo is destroyed in the process. This can be a moral concern because that you could potentially be destroying a human life (Shevde, N., 2012). Roman Catholics, Protestants, and the Orthodox religion for example believe that human life begins at the embryo stage even if it has not yet developed (Shevde, N., 2012). Additionally, when stem cells are taken out of early embryonic cells (and not initially destroyed) the cell will permanently be altered so it will never form into a human life (Hug, K. 2011, March 23). These different ideologies cause great controversy, and affect government funding on research companies.
The idea of cloning also comes into consideration when talking about stem cell research. Researcher and author Meghen Rosen states how cloning is an unnatural and unsafe process. If people resort to cloning, humans will lose their diversity of genes (Rosen, M., 2013). People would then see identical traits and there would be no differences in appearance, genes, etc. In the future if we did resort to cloning human beings, everyone would also be susceptible to the same diseases which would be a huge risk (Rosen, M., 2013). Cloning can also cause abnormalities and have high risks of failure, so it would be unethical doing this to human beings knowing there is not a high success rate (Rosen, M., 2013). Additionally, stem cells can be used for transplantation purposes. This is because the stem cells can be injected into the organ that is being transplanted with hopes that it will not be rejected. The problem with this, is that all organs are composed of complex cells. If the organ with the stem cells do not have enough similar cells that match the patient, the patient's body will trigger an immune system response and reject the organ (Slezak, M. 2013). Due to the high risks with transplantation's with stem cells, this has only been experimented on mice. This displays the ethics of testing transplantation in humans, because of the high risks. These risks are closely related to cloning using stem cells and the dangers of replicating genes.
The following primary research will support secondary research by showing opinions on the ethics of stem cell research, and how it will impact our society in the future.