What if you had to have an organ replaced and you could do so instantly without waiting on a donor? What if you had a disease that doctors diagnosed? Instead of prescribing medicine or even conducting chemotherapy, the doctors would simply replace the affected body part. That would be awesome! Hospitals would then be able to focus more on preventive medicine rather than on treatment. If a cloned stem cell process existed for human beings, it would be similar to taking your car to a garage. In fact, that would be promising if biotechnology lives up to expectations and labs could manipulate the building block cells to re-grow or produce organs of the human body. However, it does put scientists and researchers in the precarious position of playing God, a position that most would like to avoid.
The article, “Cloned Human Stem Cells, with a Twist” suggests that cloning has the capacity to create stem cells that are genetically matched to the cell donor. In other words, they cannot only replace cells but grow the cloned cells to replace organs for a particular donor or even a sibling of that donor. For instance, diseases such as cancer kill or destroy red and white blood cells, and platelet cells. Similarly, the treatment kills these cells too. However, by using stem cells the need to provide treatment that is dangerous to humans will not be necessary. Albeit, many research laboratories harvest and store stem cells at what they determine is the correct temperature to regenerate cells and support patient recovery. Although storage at the “correct” temperature by different labs is successful but not consistent, the storage process is still considered experimental. Researchers have also been successful with cloning in other mammals, but not humans. Ethical and moral arguments as well as legal challenges are significant reasons why stem cell research and usage are so closely screened and monitored by the FDA.  |
| Human embryonic stem cells used to kill cancer cells |
Live you may…die you must! It would be great if the human stem cell cloning process were successful. These cells can be made available for use in therapies because they will not trigger a reaction from the immune system. Cloned cells would also be useful in research. They would allow scientists to study cells from people with specific diseases. Moreover, you or I would be able to get our cells stored in case of disease or serious injury. Would this give the rich and famous lots of power to prolong life amidst deformities? Probably! Because a procedure like this would not be cheap. How would the average person fare? Will this create more of a divide between the rich and poor?
Who knows?! Would stem cell cloning have prolonged Steve Jobs’ life? What about the average Joe with cancer of the kidneys? This process may be highly improbable but very possible in the near future. If this innovative technology comes to fruition, there may not be a need for triple bypass surgery when the building blocks can replenish cells and regenerate a new heart. Wouldn’t that be neat? Then again, many believe this process is immoral and unethical. The future is so unpredictable…
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/38776/?p1=MstRcnt
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