A Look Into the Heated Stem Cell Research Ethical Debate

A Look into the Heated Stem Cell Research Ethical Debate

Abdullah Alalo

Metropolitan Community College

A Look into the Heated Stem Cell Research Ethical Debate

What would life be like if humans had the ability to regenerate damaged tissues or organs? What would it be like if we had no more chronic diseases that would slow us down? One field of research promises to provide the answers to these questions and a lot more. Stem cell research has been heavily slowed down by a very intense debate on whether it is ethical or not. Perhaps it is about time that both end of the argument consider a compromise that would assure the progress of this promising field without putting aside morals and ethics.

Stem cells are the parent cells of all cells in a human body. They develop from the division of the zygote (fertilized ovum) over five to seven days after fertilization has occurred.

Doctor Hossam Fadel, a clinical professor at the Medical College of Georgia, said in his article “Developments in stem cell research and therapeutic cloning: Islamic ethical positions, a review”, “The embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are the original cells from which all the 220 different types of cells that compose the human body develop”(2012, p.128). Stem cells are so unique because they have the ability to divide into each different cell in the grown human body, a property that most cells have lost in the grown adult. “The ability of ESCs and UCB stem cells to trans-differentiate opened the field of regenerative medicine, whereby the newly acquired cells can be made to replace and/or regenerate damaged cells”(2012, p.129). This property opens the door wide open to final cures to many diseases that are now simply incurable.

Stem cell research is so important because it has the key to producing all different kinds of cells that makes up a human. With stem cell research scientist can discover how to produce cells that will replace damaged cells because of a major accident, an infectious...