Question

what ethical issues surround embryonic stem-cell research? should the president have limited federal stem-cell research? Are other alternatives such as adult stem cell and placenta as effective? why or why not?

Answer 1

1.Embryonic stem cell lines can be derived from the inner cell mass of the 5- to 7-d-old blastocyst. However, human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research is ethically controversial because it involves the destruction of human embryos.

The ethical issues are:

A) On one side of the spectrum are the ‘conceptionalist’ view (‘the embryo is a person’) and the ‘strong’ version of the potentiality‐argument (‘because of the potential of the embryo to develop into a person, it ought to be considered as a person’).

B) Frozen embryos donation:

Many Infertile couple who underwent successful IVF with frozen embryos will not give comsent for research of remaining embryos.

Under federal regulations adopted by government, waiver of consent that is deidentifying materials that cant be linked to donor. So there is no breach of confidentiality.

C) Informed consent:

Many couples and gamete donors may not agree as they think that their embryos and ganetes are wasted for research. Or they may encounter public disapproval and embarrassment.

2.The president obama signs an executive order reversing federal opposition to embryonic Stem Cell research in 2009

Dickey-Wicker Amendment was "ambiguous" and that the National Institutes of Health had "reasonably concluded" that although federal funds could not be used to directly destroy an embryo, the amendment does not prohibit funding a research project using embryonic stem cells. This is an important distinction under the law, because for federal funds to be used directly to support the destruction of embryos."

3.The use of adult stem cells, typically derived from bone marrow, but also from other tissues, is ethically non-controversial but their differentiation potential is more limited than that of the embryonic stem cells. Since human cord blood, umbilical cord, placenta and amnion are normally discarded at birth, they provide an easily accessible alternative source of stem cells.

Adult stem cell treatments have been used for many years to successfully treat leukemia and related bone/blood cancers utilizing bone marrow transplants.

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are cells that have been engineered in the lab by converting tissue-specific cells, such as skin cells, into cells that behave like embryonic stem cells. IPS cells are critical tools to help scientists learn more about normal development and disease onset and progression, and they are also useful for developing and testing new drugs and therapies.

While iPS cells share many of the same characteristics of embryonic stem cells, including the ability to give rise to all the cell types in the body, they aren’t exactly the same. Scientists are exploring what these differences are and what they mean. For one thing, the first iPS cells were produced by using viruses to insert extra copies of genes into tissue-specific cells. Researchers are experimenting with many alternative ways to create iPS cells so that they can ultimately be used as a source of cells or tissues for medical treatments.

As of now embryonic stem cells stands out as they can form any lineage cells, whereas stem cells from placenta, hematopoietic can form only of one lineage.