Basic stem cell facts everyone should know

What are stem cells and what is their potential?

Stem cells are the cells from which all other cells originate. In a human embryo, a large portion of the embryo’s cells are stem cells. As the young child grows in her mother’s womb, most of these cells begin to differentiate and become heart, liver, kidneys and all of the 210 kinds of tissue found in a human body. Even though most of these cells become differentiated, all humans retain some stem cells. Stem cells are incredibly versatile cells that can be replicated indefinitely. These cells, with the correct chemical cue, can develop into specialized cells which the body might need. Most of the discussions about this type of research revolve around the use of stem cells from human embryos, often ignoring the successful research being done on adult stem cells and stem cells in the umbilical cord blood.

Since stem cells are so versatile and there are many diseases that result from the lack of or dysfunction of a single type of cell, there is hope within the medical community that some day cells can be reprogrammed to cure various diseases. Some of the diseases include Parkinson’s, diabetes, spinal cord injuries and heart disease.

Where do stem cells come from?

There are many sources for stem cells. In adults, stem cells can be found in numerous kinds of tissues and organs including bone marrow, blood, fat, skin, the liver and the brain. Another ethical source of stem cells is the blood found in umbilical cords and placentas after birth. Stem cells removed from these sources don’t harm the patient.

Despite the multiple sources of stem cells, most of the media’s attention is focused on embryonic stem cells. These are cells that would eventually become a child’s organs and tissues but are removed from a human embryo in the first week of life. When these cells are removed, a human embryo dies.

Advocates of embryonic stem cell research want to use embryos that have been frozen at fertility clinics as the main source of embryonic stem cells. These “leftover” embryos were conceived to bring about an in vitro fertilization pregnancy, but they were never implanted into a woman’s womb. When a woman gets pregnant with in-vitro fertilization and not all of the embryos are implanted, fertility clinics allow couples to destroy them, donate them to another couple or freeze them in case they want to give birth to another child at a later time. Most couples freeze their embryonic children.

Some scientists have gone a step further by creating embryos whose sole purpose is to be used for research while others hope to use cloning to create human embryos that can be killed for their stem cells

The ethics involved

One of the most important issues in the debate over stem cell research is the ethics involved. Taking the life of a human being at any stage in development for research is ethically wrong.

The embryos that are being destroyed are more than just tissue. These unborn children already have the genetic blueprint they will have for the rest of their lives. The stem cells taken from them would have eventually developed into, among other things, their heart, brain, liver and kidneys.

It is never ethically correct to sacrifice the life of one human to save another without their consent. This utilitarian thinking was the same kind of rationale used by Nazi scientists and during syphilis experiments on African-Americans in Tuskegee, Alabama. Medical advancement should continue but not at the expense of some members of the human family. Even death row inmates cannot be experimented on or have their organs removed without their consent.

Proponents of embryonic stem cell research often cite potentials of the research but usually fail to mention that a human life is killed every time stem cells are removed from an embryo. The possibilities for stem cell research are enormous; however, we should focus on the options that protect and acknowledge all human life.

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