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| Stem Cell Stickler(2) |
My main purpose is to be as informative as possible, but as this was a persuasive assignment, this paper does have a certain bias to it. Please keep that in mind and read with an open mind. |
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Say someone breaks his or her neck. A classical example of this is Christopher
Reeve, whose neck is broken from a horseback riding accident and is paralyzed
from the shoulders down. Since nerve cells do not undergo mitosis, any kind of
damage or break in them goes unrepaired forever, permanent damage. However, with
stem cell research, the patient can recover fully and live a normal life as if
his accident had never occurred. If a break in the spinal cord occurs, and a
person afford a stem cell process to be done, he or she would be injected with
the “blank” cells in his or her spinal cord. The cells will seek out the injury
site and change to a nerve cell. Once fully developed, the new nerve cells would
connect with the old ones and repair the damage. The patient would be completely
cured. With stem cells, there is no chance of rejection because there are no
proteins on the outside of the cell(the proteins also act as an ID badge for
cells). This is only one example of how stem cells can be used to help people live out more productive, longer, and happier lives. A person with a mentally degenerative disease is treated with stem cells and also a chemical treatment, but without the stem cells, the person would have no hope. Some diseases and conditions that are treated or curable with stem cells are: Leukemia, multiple sclerosis, brain cancer, diabetes, muscular dystrophy, heart attack(treatment) sickle-cell anemia, lymphoma, cancer(all others and previously mentioned), Parkinson’s Disease, cerebral palsy, San Fillipo disease, and many others that would otherwise leave the victims incompetent, immobile, and otherwise dysfunctional. With such unlimited possibilities as these, it is a wonder why the government would not fund it fully and unconditionally. This is one area of medical science that should have the backing of funds from the government. So, why does the government not support this program without question? Certain ethical problems have been brought up by those who feel strongly for or against the issue. One of the biggest issues brought up for debate is the belief that using and embryo would be killing a human being needlessly. This opinion is ill-based on many levels. Firstly, most embryonic stem cells come from sperm banks. When a woman gives some of her eggs to be fertilized in a sperm bank, she takes one or two eggs that have been fertilized out of many eggs she gave. The remaining eggs, fertilized, are placed in a freezer, where they die before they are able to be implanted into a womb to develop fully. It is in this case that embryos are donated to stem cell research. The eggs will become useless or die either way, so why not save another life already in progress? Another reason that the belief that using an embryo for research is killing a human being is invalid, is because human beings think. Human beings have a conscious and subconscious; they have feelings. Everything that people characterize as a human trait, a zygote, or fertilized egg(embryo), lacks. There is proof that it has no mind or personality or any of these things because the human mind is what holds them. And, if the author is not mistaken, a human mind is comprised of many cells with specific functions, which is exactly what a stem cell is not. They are alive in the sense that they reproduce, but they are at a stage where they are no more than a cockroach. And very few people have problems with killing a cockroach. The fetus issue is something entirely different. There is still debate on whether or not it is a thinking, feeling human being. However this melds into the debate of abortion, and that can be clearly debated. A fetus is a part of a woman’s body. It is the right of a woman to do with her body as she chooses. However, some people, pro-life activists, feel that their morals are the only ones people should abide by(a philosophy called absolutism), and those same people try and have the government enforce their morals on others by asking for a law to be made. Their reasoning for this is that stem cells can be found in other places, such as in the umbilical cord and in adults, but these cells are not nearly as effective as embryonic or fetal, and they are in less supply and weaker and harder to manipulate. It would cut the amount of procedures in half, and double the rejection rate. So many lives can be saved and drastically improved upon with this research, and they are quarrelling over a mass of cells that barely even has a form yet, let alone a personality? It makes no sense. If the reader will forgive the author’s cynical view, they fetuses are probably better off not coming into this messed up world anyway. There are many who want to condition the boundaries of stem cell research, as mentioned above. There are those who wish to harvest stem cells only from the umbilical cord or from an adult. Again, these stem cells are not as plentiful, nor are they as likely to develop into any type of cell. The chances are much slimmer, and much more work has to be done in order to get the stem cells to the patients to where it would be so expensive almost no one could afford it. President George W. Bush has given funding to stem cell research, but only, as he says, “I have concluded that we should allow federal funds to be used for research on these existing stem-cell lines, where the life-and-death decision has already been made“(Bush Speech). He means that if an abortion has already been performed, that research is legal and funded by the government. If an embryo is going to die in a sperm bank from nonuse, then that embryo can be legally used and legally funded for stem cell research. It also says that a person cannot abort their fetus for the simple purpose of donating it to stem cell research. This is absurd. If a person wished to donate an organ to research, they are more than welcome to, but not a fetus which is also a part of their body? Yes, this law was created to prohibit the selling of fetuses and embryo for the use of stem cell research, but again, the mother should have the right to do to her fetus what she wishes. Also, how many people sell their organs? If organs are not sold, what makes people think that fetuses will be? Speaking of laws, the government is supposed to be a representative of what the people think. Here are the results of a poll done by University of Pennsylvania National Annenberg Election Survey(survey). 
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[Annie Codwell,] |