Edward L. Miller, The Future of Medicine

The Future of Medicine

by Edward L. Miller Why is it in today’s society that people take the most minor things for granted and paint them as completely irrelevant? For example, the ability to use your brain, arms, or even legs never really comes to the average person’s mind until it’s far too late. Despite the fact, what if there was a way to restore or even improve those abilities and give a needed second chance to those who had lost out at first, even incorporating those who have suffered from inheritable or naturally found deadly diseases. A single type of cell not fully discovered until 1961 may hold the answers and future answers to some of the most perplexing medical and medicine related questions mankind has ever seen, and the room for potential seems to be exponential. However, there is an underlying issue that interferes with the progress and research that goes into it, and that would be the question of morality of the cell’s usage and collection for these tests and research. The cells in question are stem cells; research has proven that they are a greater alternative and a more “naturalistic” method of how we as humanity approach current and future medicine and medical treatment. The implications of stem cells in the medical and scientific field have made their standing and have shown both physicians and researchers that stem cells are here to stay. Stem cells provide patients and researchers a higher quality response or desired affect needed for treatment either therapeutic or regenerative compared to their counterparts of older methods and treatments. A perfect example of this treatment in action would be best represented by a patient suffering from diabetes, stroke, arthritis, heart failure, and spinal cord lesions. All of these diseases are caused by the loss or loss of function of one or limited cell types, which all can benefit from stem cells and their properties (Wert, 2003). The research gathered from developmental biology has given stem cells a new light and purpose in just how important these cells are to the treatment of diseases and inheritable traits that leads to an improved patient’s quality of life while being less invasive on the human body than other treatments. With that stem cells are also the only know cell lineage that can reprogram itself in order to become a different lineage further improving the task of therapeutic medicine by letting the body heal itself only using itself (Lachmann, 2001). The versatility of treatment that stem cells can provide leads to a greater and improved future quality of life for patients suffering from a range of diseases and genetic factors. Furthering the understanding of what stem cells can do, scientists and medical researchers have noticed the versatility of these cells are their abilities to become another type of cell without any other encouragement or modification to initiate a response. What has also been discovered is that there are a variety of stem cells found within the human body, each taking on a different role when formed naturally. Mainly there are two types of stem cells: adult stem cells and embryonic or pluripotent stem cells. However, there is an advantage in using embryonic stem cells since embryonic stem cells are the ones capable of taking on the form of any other cell (institute). Unlike adult which has partial coding from where it was formed either in the bones, liver, umbilical cord (Wert, 2003). When collected early in the cells’ development these cells can be altered into becoming a certain cell type that either a researcher or physician needs in order to help a patient or develop a possible cure to another. An example of this would be researchers isolating stem cells for tissue research on the liver, kidneys, and other vital organs which is now providing the basis for ongoing preclinical and clinical trials of tissue and organ regeneration (Institute for Stem Cell Biology, n.d). With the potential of each

type of cell and its implications in the medical field, it has proven itself as a useful tool in combating not only diseases but being highly efficient in its utilization for patient care and treatment. There are several ways and methods of how stem cells are gathered, utilized, and prepared for medical treatment and research. As discussed in the previous paragraph there are two main types of stem cells and their implications in today’s medicine and medical studies but how are they collected? And where are they found? First off, adult stem cells, are the most proliferate type of stem cell that is constantly being made in your circulating blood, bone marrow, muscle, and fat as you grow; secondly these cells differ in a wide array of applications including osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and adipocytes. Why this is important is because this suggests that there is an even broader approach to therapeutic treatment that can be directly utilized from a grown adult. Third these types of cells exert potent paracrine effects which enhance the body’s natural ability to initiate tissue repair causing repair of affected tissue to increase ten-fold (Leventhal, 2012). The collection of these stem cells, however, is also not as easy for the embryonic cell lineage, since for those to be collected they need to come from human embryos or fetal humans in order to use the embryonic cell line for treatment. Both stem cell lineages come from the human themselves but each at different stages of life which characterizes each’s abilities in what that specific cell type can and cannot do. However, due to this still infant field of study and research there is still a lot unknown or fully proven in how many type of stem cells there actually are and better ways of collection and utilization for future patient care and treatment (Mummery, et al. 2010). Knowing where and why these stem cells come from can help bring a better light of understanding to the general public about the importance of this type of research and its implications for future medicine and quality of life for those who truly need it. In future hopes of making this cell type become the basis and standard for all future medical research and possible treatment. Does the good outweigh the bad? Those against the use and continual research of stem cells and their overall affects say there is a fine line between morality and humility when it comes to medical and scientific research. The main argument is about the use of the embryonic line of stem cells and its implications in the death of a human embryo which corelates to the death of an innocent life being morally and ethically wrong, since it entails the usage of a dead undeveloped human being used for scientific and medical research and treatment of others. This gives rise to another issue where are people okay with knowing the fact that their potential lifesaving cure is coming from a destroyed human life all for the name of science and humanity’s advancement for better life (Nature Publishing Group, n.d.). A recent survey amongst Mid-State Technical College students shows that out of the 26 respondents 15.4% say that the use of embryonic stem cells is morally wrong no matter the implications, while 38.5% say that it depended to the situation at hand and for what treatment while at what cost to the embryo and to the human. Another opinion on the fact in that same survey, 11.5% of respondents say that there should be no funding going towards the research at all while 61.5% are unsure and would need the full facts before deciding. Showing the morality in such a damning question of kill or not to kill when it comes to stem cells. Furthering the implications would be the morality of having another person’s either embryotic linage or even adult lineage being injected into you and the morals again of taking life to save a life and its repercussions for both humanity and society (Nature Publishing Group, n.d.). The usage and involvement of both embryonic, adult and any type of life sustaining cell that is deemed a living force by independence, to use a life for a life is both morally and ethically wrong in the field of medicine.

Stem cells, both embryonic and adult have their implications in the medical and scientific fields. Both proving that they can both provide an exceptional quality of life improvement in their versatility, adaptability, and cell lineage to differentiate into any needed or desired cell in order to help the quality of life for a patient or patients in the future. To aid in treatment of notorious diseases and inheritable traits in humans and to serve as the future basis for medical treatment and subject of research. Even though the collection process of each type might be drastically different and both having their moral issues with one being morally wrong for the implications of having to kill a life to save a life and the other of the issues of sheer acceptance of the known fact that this life saving treatment could have been made with a life that didn’t get a chance of its own. Without these cells and without this current research instead of pushing humanity forward and providing a future for our loved ones it might just be hampered by the necessity of human emotions and morality. As for the now, people are starting to see the quality-of-life improvement that many have waited decades for, and to see this research carried out not only helps out medicine advance forward but helps humanity and society move forward.

References

Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. (n.d.). Research. Institute for Stem Cell Biologyand Regenerative Medicine. Retrieved November 1, 2021, from https://med.stanford.edu/stemcell/research.html. Lachmann, P. (2001, March). Stem Cell Research--why is it regarded as a threat? an investigation of the economic and ethical arguments made against research with human embryonic stem cells. EMBO reports. Retrieved November 1, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1083849/. Leventhal, A., Chen, G., Negro, A., & Boehm, M. (2012, April). The benefits and risks of Stem Cell Technology. Oral diseases., from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.go/pmc/articles/PMC3752464/. Mummery, C., Wilmut, S. I., Stolpe, A. van de, & Roelen, B. A. J. (2010, November 18). Origins and types of stem cells. Stem Cells. Retrieved November 1, 2021, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B978012381535410005X?via%3Di hub. Nature Publishing Group. (n.d.). Shaky arguments against Stem Cells. Nature News. Retrieved November 1, 2021, from https://www.nature.com/articles/nn0407-393. Wert, G. D., & Mummery, C. (2003, April 1). Human embryonic stem cells: research, ethics and policy . Oxford Academy . Retrieved November 1, 2021, from https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/18/4/672/596542.