Stem Cell Research: An Issue in American Culture

Stem Cell Research : An issue in American Culture

In 2004 , following the death of former United States President Ronald Reagan from the degenerative Alzheimer 's disease , a campaign led by Nancy Reagan and her family was launched to persuade President Bush to alleviate the US government-imposed restrictions on stem cell research While other countries such as Britain , Japan and Korea have embarked on and are now engaged in stem cell research , harvesting of stem cells from embryos remains to be a debatable issue in the United States . The future of stem cell

research in the American culture remains to be uncertain in that several sides and concerns are being considered foremost of which is the moral issue on the research . Supporters of the research spearheaded by member of the scientific community and others , like the Reagan family , see the research as a means of finding ways to treat and cure human diseases . Religious groups , on the other hand , like the Roman Catholic Church and several other conservative protestant churches belong to the other side of the debate as they see stem cell research as a means of exploiting helpless lives of human embryos

What are Stem Cells

Stem cells are unspecialized type of human or animal cells that can produce mature specialized body cells such as blood cells , heart cells and brain cells , and at the same time replicate themselves "Stem Cells " 2004 . Stem cells can repair or replace damaged body tissues because stem cells are less likely than other foreign cells to be rejected by the immune system when implanted in the body "Stem Cells 2004 . They are primarily categorized into embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells

Embryonic stem cells can be extracted from a blastocyst or a very young embryo , about four to five days old and comprised of 200 to 250 cells Embryonic cells can develop to into any of the 220 cell types of the human body given the necessary stimuli . Otherwise , these embryonic cells continue to divide and the new cells retain the ability to develop into any mature cell type

Stem Cell Research page_ 2

The abilities to replicate itself and to develop into any mature cell type make the embryonic cell a potential cure to a number of diseases and injuries

Adult stem cells can be extracted from the tissues of both adult and children without inflicting harm or death to the subject . Adult stem cells function to replenish dying cells and regenerate damaged tissues "Stem Cells " 2004 . Most researchers , however , agree that there are limited uses of adult stem cells such that unlike embryonic stem cells that can develop into any of the 220 types of cells , adult stem cells can only be used to produce some of these 220 human cells

Potentials of the Stem Cell

Medical researchers are interested in studying and pursuing their research on stem cell because of its potential to help improve human health including that of around 128 million Americans suffering from various diseases . While...