In the twenty-first century people have been in a serious debate over stem-cell research. Now scientists are looking at the fusion of animal and human cells. This new step in stem-cell research has people concerned that this is not ethical. At the same time some scientist are excited at the possibility of finding a way to reproduce human stem-cells without having to use human embryos and eggs. In Nature magazine the editor explores both sides of the argument. In the end, the fusion of animal and human cells has yet to meet provision that would make the process possible.
In the magazine the editor does not take a side on the argument, but gives information as to why people raise concern to this new undertaking in stem-cell research. The debate takes place at the United Kingdom as government officials look at the question, should there be more restrictions on the fusion of human and non-human cells? At the moment the UK has restrictions on combining animal eggs with animal and human nuclei. For scientists this “’nuclear programming’” would help find a way to eliminate the human egg for reproducing human stem-cells (pg. 2). The same types of restrictions take place in the United States and Canada. The reason behind their decision was they did not want the animal used for testing to have the possibility of passing on human traits to its offspring.
At the same time, in Chronicle of Higher Education scientists discovered ways that human stem-cell would not be beneficial if produced in animal cells. As the magazine mentioned, right now “human embryonic stem cells available to federally financed scientists contain an animal molecule that would be attacked by the human immune system” which has caused a major setback for acceptance for this new procedure (Brainard, 1). Still there are scientists who feel that the use of animal cells is useful. For example, according to James F. Battey Jr. scientists feel they can move around the risk by having the animal molecule removed from the human cell (Brainard, 1). Ultimately by having a successful way to extract human stem-cell for an animal cell will help find a cure for new disease.
I believe that human life begins at the start of conception and therefore was not thrilled of the idea of using human embryos to develop human stem-cells. After reading the information presented before me, I cannot say that I now would totally push out the idea of using animal eggs to produce human stem-cells. By having family members pass away from cancer and other diseases, if stem-cell research would eliminate these diseases then I would accept the use of stem-cell. Furthermore, animal eggs are more abundant than human eggs so by finding a way that will successfully produce human stem-cells without any complications would be ideal.
Sources
Brainard, Jeffery. “Stem Cells That Qualify for Federal Funds May Be Useless for Treatment, Study Says.” Chronicle of Higher Education. 51.22 (2005): 1. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=4&sid=4dabcdfb-1b5c-48e5-89b3-3753619e0039%40sessionmgr2.
“Avoiding a chimaera quagmire.” Nature. 445.1 (2007): 1. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v445/n7123/full/445001a.html
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1 comment:
Matilene,
Good job on your first post. I think you did a good job summarizing the articles, but perhaps you could have founded articles that were more opposed to one another. These articles are both about animal stem cell research, but they don't seem to be in dialog with one another in the way that the assignment asks.
Also, a couple of technical things about your post: the links at the end don't work! When you use the library's database you should probably give fuller bibliographic information because other people cannot access it by a simple URL. Also, whenever you use the name of a magazine or journal (like Nature) it should always be italicized.
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