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Originally Posted by JeanieK You need to do a little more research. they need immature stems cells which can only be obtainbed from fetuses. and no one is advocating deliberately aborting babies for this purpose, they jsut want to use the fetuses that are being aborted anyway. . |
I have done a little homework on this as well when I was trying to form my own opinion on the ethics/politics/medical aspects of the subject. Actually stem cells can also be obtained from umbilical cord blood, the placenta, and adult cells. Cord blood "banks" are being started all over and research into harvesting stem cells from the placenta tisuse is relatively new. But both offer an alternative from using fetal tissue.
And some
are advocating killing the life they create in the lab just for the purpose of harvesting stem cells. Large numbers of embryonic stem cells can be grown in culture and harvested when they are just a few days old -- these are Pluripotent stem cells. They also are wanting to use embryos that have been "on ice" and are no longer wanted for implanting. They can also harvest the pluripotent stems cells from fetal tissue over 8 weeks old.
Adult stem cells are now used too -- bone marrow transplants are transferring human stem cells and this has been done for years. These adult stem cells are used to treat lukemia and lymphoma among others. But the adult stem cells may not be pluripotent as the embryonic stem cells would be -- in other words, embryonic stems cells can develop into any cell type whereas the adult stem cells may have limited cell types they can grow into. The adult stem cells do have an advantage though because a patient can have their own stem cells grown in culture and then put back in, without the risk of rejection.
There are so many facets to the question of stem cell research -- which is still legal, just restricted -- and the information is changing all the time as new research makes discoveries. It is difficult not to have some ethical concerns but at the same time who can turn their back on potential life-saving science? It is very exciting, interesting and just a little frightening all at the same time. I think taking it slow and keeping all life in balance will take some brilliant minds and caring hearts. I hope they make the most of cord blood and placental tissue for their stem cell sources.