In the United States, today adults have a thirty-nine percent chance of being diagnosed with cancer at some point in their life. Some of them will fight and beat it, but some may not be as fortunate due to of the lack of viable cures for cancer in the United States. The cure for this horrible disease could be hiding in the smallest unit of life, the cell. To be more specific stem cells are the cells that may provide an option for not only cancer patients but also have many more applications to different diseases and injuries. To me stem cells are very exciting because of the wide array of applications that they have. I am currently a biology major and have been fascinated by stem cells and what they can do since learning about them in my first college level biology class during my junior year of high school. Some people however look past the potential of stem cells because they have moral concerns with the way that some of the stem cells are collected. There are two types of stem cells, one being adult stem cells found across the body, and the other being embryonic stem cells which must be collected from a human embryo. There is no moral dilemma regarding the adult stem cells, the dilemma is over the stem cells collected from embryos because it is thought that harvesting those cells from an embryo is killing a human. Legislation has been passed making it illegal to destroy and embryo older than two weeks old because at that point is when it is first considered a being. Even with these moral issues stem cells are an extremely exciting topic in the world of science due to their possible ability to cure diseases. They also have many other clinical uses such as treating burn victims and helping with the process of organ transplants.  

Stem cells are cells that have not been specialized to perform a certain task yet, once that cell is specialized into a certain type of cell it can only perform the tasks of that cell, but stem cells can be turned into any type of cell it needs to be transformed into. This is called pluripotency; a pluripotent stem cell is a cell that can transform into any type of cell in the body. James Bobrow MD states in an article that “Stem cell research holds the prospect of relief from suffering for groups of people who have acute and chronic conditions that may become less onerous and life-threatening if the missing substrates and enzymes are replaced by cells that replace the abnormal DNA.” (Bobrow, 2005) This source explains that the cause of some disease is in fact a malfunction in the DNA itself in which case that cell can be replaced with a stem cell without that genetic malfunction that codes for that specific disease. He also states that if certain digestive enzymes are missing then that can lead to muscular diseases like Forbes disease. Forbes disease is a muscle disorder where muscles do not get the proper nutrients because the enzymes required to break down the larger food molecules are absent causing the molecules to be too large to be absorbed by the muscular tissue. Stem cells can also help major burn victims. They can use stem cells to create new skin tissue where the burn is instead of grafting skin onto that spot. In a study conducted by Jenny D Horch on whether firefighters would participate in a clinical stem cell trial if they were severely burned on the job, she states “Our results showed that nearly three quarters of participants believed they would participate in a future stem cell clinical trial if given an opportunity.” (Horch Jenny D, 2016) This shows that most firefighters would take a chance to use stem cells to cure any significant burn they have over other techniques such as skin grafting. Since stem cells are so versatile, in that they can transform into whatever they need to be, the potential uses for them in the field of medicine are endless. 

Stem cells can be used in many ways which means I will have to cover many different angles in my argument. I will provide an overview on stem cells, and follow that with realistic applications for stem cells. I believe that Stem Cell research is very important to the world of medicine and therefore I will defend it against the many ethical questions raised against it. Many of those questions have answers which science has provided. Embryonic Stem Cells no longer need to be used after the introduction of other methods for harvesting stem cells from adults. Stem Cell research is necessary today and it is becoming more acceptable in the eye of the American public. I will defend my stance by using many articles that show the applications in the medical field that stem cells already have. I will then explain why some people have problems with Stem Cell research and I will refute some of those arguments through logic, and science. 

Stem cells are very important to the world of medicine however they do not come without controversy. Restrictions and bans have been placed on the research throughout its existence. I think stem cell research is necessary in the field of medicine, and will eventually provide cures to many fatal diseases. The versatility of stem cells is what makes them so exciting, and the reason that I believe they will be the cure to these fatal diseases. The Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego California conducted an experiment on mice with stem cells. In this study researchers, have been able to regenerate tissue in mice and lengthened their life span by using stem cells (Leslie, 2016). This debate requires one to have a certain level of scientific literacy. By scientific literacy I mean a level of education in science to where they can make an informed decision on where they stand on this issue ethically. It is easier to break down the issue ethically if you have a general knowledge of the science behind the issue being discussed. An article published in The New Atlantis states “The tantalizing possibility of cures for a wide range of diseases — and the ethical imperative to undertake research in pursuit of these cures — grew out of our scientific knowledge of the pluripotent property of embryonic stem cells, and their promise as a source of cellular and regenerative therapies. Equally important, however, was the contribution of the science of embryology for informing our reasoning about the moral status of the embryo itself.” (Witherspoon Council, 2012). This quote essentially states that knowledge in the field of embryology helped make the ethical decision by defining when in fact an embryo is alive. Knowledge in the field of cells is what led to stem cell research in the first place. Researchers knew that stem cells specialized to become different types of cells and it was this fact that led researchers to attempt to cure diseases with them.  A New York times article states “As many as 4,500 clinical trials involving stem cells are underway in the United States to treat patients with heart disease, blindness, Parkinson’s, H.I.V., diabetes, blood cancers and spinal cord injuries, among other conditions.” (Weintraub, 2014) This means that the stem cell research is already helping patients through test trials of potential treatments. 

The first possible disease that stem cells can potentially cure is Parkinson’s disease. Per an article on the website “Parkinson’s News Today” Stem Cell treatments are ready to move to clinical trials. The article states “Stem cell therapy, which many people living with Parkinson’s disease have long pinned hope on as a potential treatment or even a cure, is finally advancing to clinical trial stage.” (Moore, 2016). This means that the research has advanced enough for researchers to attempt to use Stem Cells therapy on actual Parkinson’s patients. This is a big step in legitimizing the healing ability of stem cells. This must be a massive relief for the Parkinson’s community after holding out hope for so long, they finally have something close to an answer through stem cells.

Cancer is another disease that is seemingly uncurbable, for years many attempts have been made to find a cure but nothing has seemed to work consistently. Fortunately, stem cells have potential to cure cancer. For cancer patients with Leukemia and other blood related cancer high doses of chemotherapy can kill the cancer cells, but it also kills the supply of stem cells in the bone marrow. Stem cells are collected from the patient or a donor and after the chemotherapy they are injected into the bloodstream. According to Cancer research UK “Stem cell transplant means that you can have higher doses of treatment. So, there may be more chance of curing the cancer than with standard chemotherapy.” (Cancer Research UK, 2016). The significance of this is that Stem Cells are now a necessary part of cancer treatments. If we were to stop funding stem cell research this treatment would go away, or not advance as research advances. This shows how valuable stem cells can be and how in some fields they already are irreplaceable. 

Similar to how a cancer patient is weak after chemotherapy organ transplant recipients are weak from the heavy immunosuppressive drugs that they take. In an organ transplant it is typical that the recipient’s immune system will reject the new organ because it isn’t made of the patients own cells. The immunosuppressive drugs suppress the immune system to the point where it will no longer reject the organ, however this makes the recipient much more susceptible to illness. With this weakened immune system something as simple as the flu can put the recipient in the hospital. The good news is that there is new technology that eliminates the need for those heavy drugs, and involves stem cells. According to an article in the Boston Globe a company called Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Technology is on the verge of discovering a breakthrough procedure. The article states “The trick is that Harvard Apparatus infuses the transplant tissue with a patient’s own stem cells before surgery, fooling the body into believing the new organ is actually its own.” (Borchers, 2013). The company takes the organ and washes all of the cells from the donor off of it, and they are just left with the scaffold of the organ. They then place the patients stem cells over the scaffold and they specialize into the cells of that organ. The new organ is then transplanted into the recipient and the recipient’s immune system will not reject the organ because it is made out of the patient’s cells. This can lead to shorter wait lists to receive an organ transplant, or even none if research can find a way to create the organ entirely out of the patients own stem cells.

Stem Cells are also making an impact in the world of sports by helping pitchers who tear their Ulnar Collateral Ligament heal faster. The UCL is a ligament in the elbow that gets put under a lot of torque during the throwing motion of a pitcher. When this is torn, it requires an operation called Tommy John surgery this usually sidelines the player for an entire season. However, some players have opted to inject Stem Cells into the ligament hoping that those will regenerate tissue and in turn strengthen the ligament again. One of those players is Garrett Richards of the LA Angels, he underwent the stem cell treatment for his UCL. He was one of the first to go public with the announcement of the surgery. According to an article on Quartz.com “Probably the Angels’ best starting pitcher, Richards will take the mound on April 5, and all eyes will be on his right throwing arm—and on his face, to see if it is registering any pain.” (Wolfson, 2017) This quote shows the importance of this procedure, and the significance of this therapy in the baseball world if it happens to work. 

There is an undeniable ethical question raised by Stem Cell research. Some people claim that it is unethical because of the killing of an embryo which they consider a human. The largest ethical controversy over stem cell research is the fact that in order to develop a line of stem cells you must destroy the embryo and some people see this as killing a human. Religion plays a role in this as well, some religions are against abortion, and believe that from the moment of fertilization that embryo is a person and therefore has all the rights of a person. That would mean that any destruction of that embryo is murder. This issue however, is in the works of being resolved. Technology has emerged that makes it possible to turn a normal adult human cell back into a Stem Cell. These are called Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (Abort73.com, 2009). A video made by Johns Hopkins Medical School goes into further detail of the importance of this breakthrough. Federal funding for stem cell research has increased drastically since this discovery because there is no ethical concern over this type of stem cell research (Sugarman, Matthews, 2012) An article in the New York Times quoted the scientist who made this discovery, Shinya Yamanaka, when he said “When I saw the embryo, I suddenly realized there was such a small difference between it and my daughters. I thought, we can't keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way... There is no way now to get around some use of embryos. But my goal is to avoid using them.” (Fackler, 2007).  This quote shows how even some researchers have moral dilemmas with using embryos for research, however out of this moral controversy came one of the largest breakthroughs in Stem Cell research. Another reason that some people are opposed to it is the fact that Stem Cell research is a slow-moving process. In 2012 the Michael J Fox Foundation pulled most of their funding from Stem Cell research because it was not at the stage to where it could help Parkinson’s patients immediately (Weintraub, 2014). This means that even a large foundation that funds research for Parkinson’s was upset with the slow process of Stem Cell research. Even with all of the ethical questions it seems that people don’t quite understand that Stem Cell research and Abortion do not go hand in hand. Abortion is legal in the United states, and widely accepted across the country, I for one am neither for it or against it. I think that Abortion differs from case to case and in some instances, it is understandable and acceptable, and in others it is taking a life making it wasteful and unnecessary. In an article published by Elizabeth Harman she argues that if Abortion is permissible in the USA then Embryonic Stem Cell research should be permissible because a fetus that is killed in abortion has more of a moral status than an embryo. She also argues that Stem Cell research involves the death of a less significant being, so if Abortion is allowed then Stem Cell research should be as well (Harman, 2007). In an article published by “The Atlantic” a similar study was performed, it stated “Like abortion, embryonic stem cell research terminates the embryo. But only 22 percent of Americans think embryonic stem cell research is morally wrong — a plurality aren't convinced it's even a moral issue at all.” (Ohlheiser, 2013). This shows that only six years after the first article was published America’s view on Stem Cell research shifted. More people are finding it ethical and even a portion don’t see the ethical problem at all. Legislation has also been passed to make embryonic stem cell research more ethical. Fourteen days after an egg is fertilized a small line called the primitive streak is visible in the embryo, this is where the embryo would divide into two if it were to turn into twins. It is said that destroying an embryo before this point is ethical because it cannot be a being if it is not known whether it will be one or multiple beings. The legislation passed makes it illegal to keep the embryo alive after this point in time (Huget, 2016). Laws, and public opinion continue to shift in favor of stem cell research, and this shows that the decline in ethical concern over stem cell research in the United States correlates with the advancements in research. 

Stem Cell research is a great advancement in modern society. The applications in the world of modern medicine are seemingly endless which is what makes this research so exciting. The ethical concerns raised over stem cells are out shadowed by the large potential of them. The more that is known about stem cells the more accepting the public is of the research. Perhaps the only reason you need to be openly accepting of Stem Cell research is that it gives hope to those millions dying from Cancer, Parkinson’s, and other diseases that Stem Cells can potentially cure. Each one of the 4,500 new clinical trials gave not only the patients hope of surviving but also gave their families something to hope for in a dark time. This is why researchers work tirelessly in the labs attempting to perfect a cure to one of the many diseases that plague modern society. I feel like it is ridiculous to stop this groundbreaking research on the shaky grounds of saying it is not moral. The morality of this issue has been addressed every way and every one of these ways can be disproven. Imagine the joy of receiving a treatment to an otherwise uncurbable disease, and having hope that you will survive, that’s why this research is important. 
