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Embryonic Stem Cell Research: the Next Best Thing

In: English and Literature

Submitted By jhinson
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Embryonic Stem Cell Research: The Next Best Thing Have you ever gone to the doctor when you are not feeling well? The doctor probably gave you some good advice and maybe a pill and you felt better in about a week. This happens every day all over the country every day. But what happens when good advice and a pill will not help this time? A diagnosis of organ failure, spinal cord injury, and diabetes, Parkinson’s disease or Huntington’s disease is life altering. After the shock wears off you might start researching different therapies and come across something called stem cell research.
Stem cell research has been around since the 1970’s but has gotten a lot of attention in the last several years. It has even risen to the level of Presidential campaigns: Senator John Kerry (D) made embryonic stem cell research a major theme in his 2004 run for President. The controversial issue comes in when the discussion turns toward embryonic stem cell versus adult stem cells. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells found throughout the body in tissue and organs. Undifferentiated cell are cells that have not specialized. They are there to repair and maintain the tissue or organ where they are found. Stem cells are also found in in the cord blood in the umbilical cord of newborns. The last place is embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are very special because they are pluripotent; they are capable of becoming any cell in the body as opposed to an adult stem cell that is limited by where they are in the body. They are collected form the blastocyst, a fertilized egg that has divided into a small cluster of about 200 cells. At this stage the cells are all the same and are undifferentiated to form and function. If these blastocysts were allowed to continue to divided and differentiate they would start to specialize; i.e., blood cells, bone cells, skin cells, heart cells.

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