Stem Cells

Oh the Healing Possibilities

What if Superman was able to walk again? Christopher Reeves was the actor we all knew as Superman. A few years ago he had a horse-back riding accident which left him paralyzed from the neck down. His spinal cord was severed and there was nothing doctors could do to help him but, there might be hope for him after all. There is a great new field of research in which scientists are trying to find ways to solve these types of problems along with many others. Research in the use of stem cells holds limitless possibilities in the medical field. Stem cells are the cells in our bodies that are in their primitive form. These cells have not yet become the type of cell they are destined to be, whether it be nervous tissue or another. However, even though stem cell research is a great new field, its progress is being limited by moral concerns and ethical questions. In order to let medicine reach its full potential, stem cell research should be legalized in throughout the 50 states. Knowledge of these cells would save countless lives and should not go un-tapped.

Knowledge about stem cells is quite limited as of the present day. There has not been that many experiments done considering the amount that could be carried out if only it was legal. Research with stem cells is very hard to complete since it is outlawed in 48 of the 50 United States. Only California and New Jersey allow such research to be carried out within their borders. In order for any advancement to be made, people would have to except this kind of research as a much needed action and which has to be done. Also, as of right now, only 60 lines of stem cells are available for research globally.

Most of these 60 lines are also held by foreign nations which make it extremely difficult for any laboratory in the United States to acquire any sample to experiment with. Some people share such views as the President of the United States, George Bush, that the amount of stem cells available will be sufficient for research. This idea, however, is not held by many scientists and biochemists alike. A reaction taken from an article from Dr. Sanjay Gupta expresses the feelings of one biochemist of the University of Pennsylvania. "I think we're going to really have a problem here in fulfilling what George Bush promised, and that is that what is out there is enough." said Arthur Caplan. It seems to be very clear that the availability of these stem cells is the reason knowledge is limited on the subject. This amount of cells would be able to increase greatly if only all 50 states legalized the research. Without this research, the United States will surely be passed up by other countries in the medical field. Despite the fact the U.S. wants to be ahead of other nations, many American citizens could be cured of their ailments and their lives would be able to be saved.

The possibilities with the use of stem cells seem to be almost endless. So many good things could come out of using these ideas in modern medicine such as a cure for eltzhymers and diabetes. The fundamental idea behind stem cells is that one would be able to use these cells to create any type of cell that is needed. A doctor would be able to use this technique to cure some ailments that were previously considered incurable. Diseases and injuries such as paralysis could be cured by simply re-growing certain types of cells. This also means that any tissue would be able to me duplicated using ones own DNA. This great advantage could mean the end to having transplanted organs rejected

by the body which would increase survival chances of patients. If someone experienced problems such as heart or liver failure, doctors would simply be able to form a new organ using stem cells from the patient's body. A great testament to this idea comes from Dr. John McDonald who is the current nerve doctor for Christopher Reeve. Dr. Mcdonald is the director of the Spinal Cord Injury Unit at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (Cohen 1). He has had good luck in experimenting with rats and stem cells. In the experiment he would take rats with paralyzing spine injuries and inject a certain type of stem cell into the rat. The results he received where absolutely amazing. He was able to get the rats hind legs to function again over a short period of time. His patient, Christopher Reeves, is well aware of this evidence of stem cell success and is quite infuriated by it. A quote taken from Elizabeth Cohen's article on the subject captures Reeve's thoughts quite well. "Never before has there been such a powerful tool, such a resource that can give so much hope. And to have it just sitting here right in front of us, ready to while all this debate rages on, is really, really frustrating," he said. It is easy to see why people in his situation can be so frustrated considering the rest of their lives depend on this research and people still argue