Political Forum - View Single Post - Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Southpaw · #2 (**permalink**) 07-18-2008, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Jovial One

Not true. The adult stem cells are nowhere near as adaptive as the embryonic stem cells. No where near.

That's horse hockey.

PART 1

http://www.stemcellresearch.org/facts/treatments.htm

Quote:

Adult Stem Cells

Cancers:
1. Brain Cancer
2. Retinoblastoma
3. Ovarian Cancer
4. Skin Cancer: Merkel Cell Carcinoma
5. Testicular Cancer
6. Tumors abdominal organs Lymphoma
7. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
8. Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
9. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
10. Acute Myelogenous Leukemia
11. Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia
12. Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia
13. Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia
14. Cancer of the lymph nodes: Angioimmunoblastic Lymphadenopathy
15. Multiple Myeloma
16. Myelodysplasia
17. Breast Cancer
18. Neuroblastoma
19. Renal Cell Carcinoma
20. Various Solid Tumors
21. Soft Tissue Sarcoma
22. Ewing’s Sarcoma
23. Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia
24. Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis
25. POEMS syndrome
26. Myelofibrosis

Auto-Immune Diseases
27. Diabetes Type I (Juvenile)
28. Systemic Lupus
29. Sjogren’s Syndrome
30. Myasthenia
31. Autoimmune Cytopenia
32. Scleromyxedema
33. Scleroderma
34. Crohn’s Disease
35. Behcet’s Disease
36. Rheumatoid Arthritis
37. Juvenile Arthritis
38. Multiple Sclerosis
39. Polychondritis
40. Systemic Vasculitis
41. Alopecia Universalis
42. Buerger’s Disease

Cardiovascular
43. Acute Heart Damage
44. Chronic Coronary Artery Disease

Ocular
45. Corneal regeneration

Immunodeficiencies
46. Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome
47. X-linked Lymphoproliferative Syndrome
48. X-linked Hyper immunoglobulin M Syndrome

Neural Degenerative Diseases and Injuries
49. Parkinson’s Disease
50. Spinal Cord Injury
51. Stroke Damage

Anemias and Other Blood Conditions
52. Sickle Cell Anemia
53. Sideroblastic Anemia
54. Aplastic Anemia
55. Red Cell Aplasia
56. Amegakaryocytic Thrombocytopenia
57. Thalassemia
58. Primary Amyloidosis
59. Diamond Blackfan Anemia
60. Fanconi’s Anemia
61. Chronic Epstein-Barr Infection

Wounds and Injuries
62. Limb Gangrene
63. Surface Wound Healing
64. Jawbone Replacement
65. Skull Bone Repair

Other Metabolic Disorders
66. Hurler’s Syndrome
67. Osteogenesis Imperfecta
68. Krabbe Leukodystrophy
69. Osteopetrosis
70. Cerebral X-Linked Adrenoleukodystrophy

Liver Disease
71. Chronic Liver Failure
72. Liver Cirrhosis

Bladder Disease
73. End-Stage Bladder Disease

Embryonic Stem Cells

NONE

http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/basics6.asp

Quote:

To realize the promise of novel cell-based therapies for such pervasive and debilitating diseases, scientists must be able to easily and reproducibly manipulate stem cells so that they possess the necessary characteristics for successful differentiation, transplantation and engraftment. The following is a list of steps in successful cell-based treatments that scientists will have to learn to precisely control to bring such treatments to the clinic. To be useful for transplant purposes, stem cells must be reproducibly made to:

* Proliferate extensively and generate sufficient quantities of tissue.
* Differentiate into the desired cell type(s).
* Survive in the recipient after transplant.
* Integrate into the surrounding tissue after transplant.
* Function appropriately for the duration of the recipient's life.
* Avoid harming the recipient in any way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_cell

Quote:

After nearly ten years of research[12], there are no approved treatments or human trials using embryonic stem cells. ES cells, being totipotent cells, require specific signals for correct differentiation - if injected directly into another body, ES cells will differentiate into many different types of cells, causing a teratoma. Differentiating ES cells into usable cells while avoiding transplant rejection are just a few of the hurdles that embryonic stem cell researchers still face.[13] Many nations currently have moratoria on either ES cell research or the production of new ES cell lines. Because of their combined abilities of unlimited expansion and pluripotency, embryonic stem cells remain a theoretically potential source for regenerative medicine and tissue replacement after injury or disease.

Quote:

Adult stem cell treatments have been successfully used for many years to treat leukemia and related bone/blood cancers through bone marrow transplants.[20] Adult stem cells are also used in veterinary medicine to treat tendon and ligament injuries in horses.[21] The use of adult stem cells in research and therapy is not as controversial as embryonic stem cells, because the production of adult stem cells does not require the destruction of an embryo. Additionally, because in some instances adult stem cells can be obtained from the intended recipient, (an autograft) the risk of rejection is essentially non-existent in these situations. Consequently, more US government funding is being provided for adult stem cell research.[22]

http://www.stemcellresearchfacts.com/media_myths.html

Quote:

As widespread interest in stem cell research increases, so do the number of news articles and reports. It is an unfortunate fact that several misconceptions and distortions have taken hold within the secular media. Ten such “Media Myths” are addressed below.

Myth 1. Stem cells can only come from embryos.
In fact stem cells can be taken from umbilical cords, the placenta, amniotic fluid, adult tissues and organs such as bone marrow, fat from liposuction, regions of the nose, and even from cadavers up to 20 hours after death.

Myth 2. Christians are against stem cell research.
There are four categories of stem cells: embryonic stem cells, embryonic germ cells, umbilical cord stem cells, and adult stem cells. Given that germ cells can come from miscarriages that involve no deliberate interruption of pregnancy, Christians in general oppose the use of only one of these four categories, i.e., embryonic stem cells. In other words, most Christians approve of three of the four possible types of stem cell research.

Myth 3. Embryonic stem cell research has the greatest promise.
Up to now, no human being has ever been cured of a disease using embryonic stem cells. Adult stem cells, on the other hand, have already cured thousands. For example, bone marrow cells from the hipbone have repaired scar tissue on the heart after heart attacks. Research using adult cells is 20-30 years ahead of embryonic stem cells and holds greater promise. This is in part because stem cells are part of the natural repair mechanisms of an adult body, while embryonic stem cells do not belong in an adult body (where they are likely to form tumors, and to be rejected as foreign tissue by the recipient). Rather, embryonic stem cells really belong only within in the specialized microenvironment of a rapidly growing embryo, which is a radically different setting from an adult body.

Myth 4. Embryonic stem cell research is against the law.
In reality, there is no law or regulation against destroying human embryos for research purposes. While President Bush has banned the use of federal funding to support research on embryonic stem cell lines created after August 2001, it is not illegal. Anyone using private funds is free to pursue it.

Myth 5. President Bush created new restrictions to federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
The 1996 Dickey Amendment prohibited the use of federal funds for research that would involve the destruction of human embryos. Bush’s decision to permit research on embryonic stem cell lines created before a certain date thus relaxes this restriction from the Clinton era.

Myth 10. Because frozen embryos may one day end up being discarded by somebody, that makes it allowable, even laudable, to violate and destroy those embryos.
The moral analysis of what we may permissibly do with an embryo doesn’t depend on its otherwise “going to waste,” nor on the incidental fact that those embryos are “trapped” in liquid nitrogen. Consider a radical case in which a group of children are permanently trapped in a schoolhouse through no fault of their own; that would not make it morally acceptable to send in a remote control robotic device which would harvest organs from those children and cause their demise.