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Potential medical applications of human stem cells (Spinal Cord
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Stem Cell
Therapy
Positives
STEM cells have immense regenerative and specialization potential which makes them valuable for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, injuries or damages to tissues and diseases such as diabetes (e.g; stem cells can be engineered to be transformed into pancreatic cells that can produce insulin solving a chain of problems)
STEM cell research also has the ability to detect birth defects as well as opens up new avenues.
STEM cell research also minimises transplant rejection and aids in better drug testing. Limbs and organs could be grown in a lab from stem cells and then used in transplants or to help treat illnesses.
Scientists and doctors will be able to test millions of potential drugs and medicine, without the use of animals or human testers. This necessitates a process of simulating the effect the drug has on a specific population of cells. This would tell if the drug is useful or has any problems.
Stem cell research also benefits the study of development stages that cannot be studied directly in a human embryo, which sometimes are linked with major clinical consequences such as birth defects, pregnancy-loss and infertility. A more comprehensive understanding of normal development will ultimately allow the prevention or treatment of abnormal human development.
Negatives
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The use of embryonic stem cells for research involves the destruction of blastocysts formed from laboratory-fertilized human eggs. For those people who believe that life begins at conception, the blastocyst is a human life and to destroy it is immoral and unacceptable.
Harvesting embryotic stem cells is a long debated issue as some consider embryos to be living (ethical issues) breaking moral codes. A disadvantage of most adult stem cells is that they are pre-specialized, for instance, blood stem cells make only blood, and brain stem cells make only brain cells.
Stem cells, although being able to deduce and diagnose certain illnesses, may not be able to cure them Embryonic stem cell transplants are mostly rejected. Stem cell research in the first place in expensive and requires huge amounts of funding. Stem cell therapy can have some side-effects; nausea, vomiting
Like any other new technology, it is also completely unknown what the long-term effects of such an interference with nature could materialize.
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