Buddhists, however, refer to two teachings: the prohibition against harming others and the pursuit of knowledge. Therefore, some believers argue that stem cell research is in accordance to a request for knowledge, while other states that it violates the notion of harming others The Pew Forum. Different religion groups uphold their own unique beliefs on stem cell research, allowing an individual to develop his or her own personal perspective concerning the subject. However, it is also important to note that perhaps stem cells do not have to be taken from human embryos.
Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a priest of the diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts and a PhD graduate with a neuroscience degree from Yale, discusses the science and ethics of stem cell research, providing evidence for a solution. He argues the idea that stem cells can be extracted from fetuses, umbilical cords, placentas, bone marrow, and even cadavers. In other words, there are ways to use stem cells without extracting them from a human embryo.
He states that thousands of patients have been cured of their respective diseases with the use of umbilical cord stem cells, for example. These particular cases show evidence that embryonic stem cells do not necessarily have to be used. The belief that embryonic stem cells are the most promising is quite plausibly a myth.
Scientists must continue to use stem cells from alternate sources in the human body and religious advocates must keep an open mind, so as to allow scientific innovation and exploration to improve the health of society. Those who support the study of stem cells do not necessarily oppose religious beliefs, but rather they have their own unique viewpoints and above all else, support the probable cures that may exist for fatal diseases.
In contrast to the Christian faith, in which members believe that life begins at conception, supporters of stem cell research and biologists state that a human individual begins to develop at the primitive-streak formation, which appears fourteen days after embryonic development Lee, George.
There should also be more research conducted to improve the success of stem cells that are not taken from human embryos. Michael J. Cutting Through the Spin. Tad Tadeusz Pacholczyk. Lee, Patrick, and Robert P. Lyon, Lindsay. Murnaghan, Ian. Explore Stem Cells, The New English Bible. Reaves, Jessica. Showing that a blastocyst is a human being, or a person, requires further argument. Some try to base such an argument on the fact that human beings develop from embryo to fetus to child.
Every person was once an embryo, the argument goes, and there is no clear, non-arbitrary line between conception and adulthood that can tell us when personhood begins. Given the lack of such a line, we should regard the blastocyst as a person, as morally equivalent to a fully developed human being.
SCL : What is the flaw in this argument? MS : Consider an analogy: although every oak tree was once an acorn, it does not follow that acorns are oak trees, or that I should treat the loss of an acorn eaten by a squirrel in my front yard as the same kind of loss as the death of an oak tree felled by a storm. Despite their developmental continuity, acorns and oak trees differ. So do human embryos and human beings, and in the same way. Just as acorns are potential oaks, human embryos are potential human beings.
The distinction between a potential person and an actual one makes a moral difference. Sentient creatures make claims on us that nonsentient ones do not; beings capable of experience and consciousness make higher claims still. Human life develops by degrees. SCL : Yet there are people who disagree that life develops by degrees, and believe that a blastocyst is a person and, therefore, morally equivalent to a fully developed human being.
MS : Certainly some people hold this belief. But a reason to be skeptical of the notion that blastocysts are persons is to notice that many who invoke it do not embrace its full implications. President Bush is a case in point. In , he announced a policy that restricted federal funding to already existing stem cell lines, so that no taxpayer funds would encourage or support the destruction of embryos.
MS : If harvesting stem cells from a blastocyst were truly on a par with harvesting organs from a baby, then the morally responsible policy would be to ban it, not merely deny it federal funding.
If some doctors made a practice of killing children to get organs for transplantation, no one would take the position that the infanticide should be ineligible for federal funding but allowed to continue in the private sector.
In fact, if we were persuaded that embryonic stem cell research were tantamount to infanticide, we would not only ban it but treat it as a grisly form of murder and subject scientists who performed it to criminal punishment.
MS : Perhaps. But this does not explain why, if the president really considers embryos to be human beings, he has not at least called for such a ban, nor even called upon scientists to stop doing stem cell research that involves the destruction of embryos.
When the comment drew a flurry of critical press attention, the White House retreated. No, the president did not believe that destroying an embryo was murder. If embryonic stem cell research does constitute the deliberate taking of innocent human life, it is hard to see how it differs from murder. Chimeras mean organisms that contain cells or tissues from more than one organism. Ethics steps in when human and animal cells are combined to create chimeras.
For example, human stem cells may be transplanted into a mouse to check for certain functions human stem cells making pancreatic cells into a mouse for example for developing therapies for diabetics. Chimeras are important for advancing stem cell research to form actual therapeutic methods and targets. This is because the therapies developed with the stem cells need to be tried on animals before being tried on humans. Chimeras with human consciousness and the introduction of human stem cells into a non-human primate e.
Similarly, the organization also prohibits the introduction of any animal or human cells into a human blastocyst. Breeding of human-animal chimeras is also prohibited. Ananya Mandal is a doctor by profession, lecturer by vocation and a medical writer by passion. For her, health communication is not just writing complicated reviews for professionals but making medical knowledge understandable and available to the general public as well. Mandal, Ananya. Stem Cell Controversy. AZoLifeSciences interviews Dr.
Chiara De Gregorio about searching for musical rhythms in primates and finding their answer in the Madagascan rainforest. In this interview, we speak to Roy Smythe, CEO of SomaLogic, about their groundbreaking proteomics technology that can simultaneously measure 7, proteins. Accept Cookie Settings.
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