If you’ve heard of stem cell research, you know that it is an important area of policy in United States politics. Stem cells are cells that are very basic and primal and can grow through cell division into many different types of specialized cells.
Three types of stem cells are currently undergoing major research in the United States. Adult stem cells are found in adult tissues and can only be used for some applications; they are limited in what specializations they can go into because they have already matured. A second type is the cord blood stem cell, which is found in umbilical cords, and have really only recently been studied and seen to be useful, so we do not know much about their applications. The third type, and the most heatedly-debated one, is the embryonic stem cell. Embryonic stem cell research studies cells from human embryos.
The goal of all three of these forms of research is to develop new treatments in fields like tissue regeneration and disease-fighting, which we can effectively do if we can create specialized cells at will to do what we need. With further research into stem cell treatment, we could much more effectively fight diseases such as leukemia, other cancers, Parkinson’s disease, and issues like muscle damage.
Current policy from Presidents Clinton and Bush only permits funding for currently existing lines of stem cells. The problem is that in order to be able to use embryonic stem cells, the embryo being used must effectively be destroyed. (In recent research, scientists have shown that lines can be created without destroying an embryo, but this is still in the development process.) Fortunately, there are currently 60-odd stem cell lines that were created before these policies were put in place. However, we need more funding and more stem cell lines in order to effectively study these stem cells.
There is a moral question raised, of course, about whether it is immoral to destroy a human embryo to achieve this result. No one wants potential human lives to be destroyed. However, there are two reasons why we should continue embryonic stem cell research: first, the benefits far outweigh the costs—being able to cure deadly diseases that are otherwise untreatable is priceless; and second, the embryos that are used for this research are generally received from places such as in vitro fertilization clinics that would have otherwise thrown out these embryos—in other words, the embryos would have been destroyed anyway, so we may as well make use of them. In order to help cure diseases like AIDS and cancer, we need to fight for the funding necessary to do this, and step up to the plate and deliver for stem cell research that can save lives.
Editor’s Note: “Elephant’s Peanut Gallery” and “Liberal Bias” run biweekly and are opinion columns granted by the Editorial Board to the College Republicans and the College Democrats.
