Stem Cell Research Pros And Cons

The benefits of stem cell research have been an ongoing debate for many years. Before deciding which side of the debate you’ll take, take time to consider a few things; If stem cell research lead to discovering the cure for cancer, would you be opposed to saving lives of people living with cancer? Would you support stem cell research if it meant a cure for a loved one? What if you needed the cure and stem cells were the answer? Stem cell research is still young in age and there much more to learn. Uncharted territory can seem scary at first, but if you take the time to understand the endless medical advances that can come from stem cell research, you’ll see the benefits outweigh the risk. What is a stem cell, anyway? A stem cell is an immature

Topping the list is the generation of human cells and tissues to be used for cell based therapies. Cell based therapy tells the stem cell to differentiate or change into the specific cell type in need of repair and offer a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat disease or damage. Let’s take a look at a specific disease and put all the pieces to the stem cell puzzle together. Type one diabetes for example, the type one diabetic’s body suddenly asks itself to kill off all beta cells (insulin producing cells). Without beta cells, no longer produces insulin, and without insulin, the body cannot break down sugar into energy. Sugar levels in the blood will continue to rise until you reach coma or death. However, if stem cells were differentiated or changed into insulin producing beta cells and transplanted into the pancreas of a diabetic they would be cured! On October 19th 2014 Harvard stem cell researchers announced that they had made a giant leap forward in the quest to find a truly effective treatment for type one diabetes, a condition that affects an estimated three million Americans expense of about $15 billion annually. With human embryonic stem cells as a starting point, the scientists are for the first time able to produce human insulin-producing beta cells equivalent in most every way to normally functioning beta