Stem Cell Research

[Hutch18]

My high school son is doing a research paper on stem cell research. He goes to a public school. This paper is not limited to either “adult” or “embryonic” stem cell research, but will cover both. Please suggest sites to use that are in-line with the Catholic teaching on this subject. I think this can be a good teaching experience for him and his class-mates. Thank-you very much.

 

[1ke]

i suggest the EWTN Document Library, ewtn.com/vlibrary/search.asp (type in Stem Cell in the Keyword field and you will get 36 documents).

 

[Samuel63]

Excellent resource and topic. Our public schools and the students need to get the straight story on this topic. It is pretty simple. Embryonic stem cell research has not yielded benefits. Adult stem cells have yielded some good fruit.

Why is the medical industry so insistent on pouring $$$ into embryonic stem cell research after such dismal results? Are they wanting to firmly establish a reason to protect the use of babies for medical research?

 

[MikeSar]

Excellent resource and topic. Our public schools and the students need to get the straight story on this topic. It is pretty simple. Embryonic stem cell research has not yielded benefits. Adult stem cells have yielded some good fruit.

Why is the medical industry so insistent on pouring $$$ into embryonic stem cell research after such dismal results? Are they wanting to firmly establish a reason to protect the use of babies for medical research?

Very fine and to the point! Stem cell research has made profits for some and nothing for the rest. It produced less benefits, some meager questions, no answers, like the hype for DNA.
These are con artists in search of money by promising anything, like medical peddlers with miracle cures in the 1800s. Have we learnt to ask questions? And consult books written by experts, NOT employed by the company peddling the “miracle cure”?

 

[thistle]

Excellent resource and topic. Our public schools and the students need to get the straight story on this topic. It is pretty simple. Embryonic stem cell research has not yielded benefits. Adult stem cells have yielded some good fruit.

Why is the medical industry so insistent on pouring $$$ into embryonic stem cell research after such dismal results? Are they wanting to firmly establish a reason to protect the use of babies for medical research?

That is true which is why I fail to understand why such a push is being made for embryonic stem cell research. The medical benefits have come from adult stem cell research.

 

[musicality]

Just to be clear, I agree with the Catholic stance on stem cell research. I am not arguing for embryonic stem cell research, but I would like to point out a flaw in the assertions quoted below.

Excellent resource and topic. Our public schools and the students need to get the straight story on this topic. It is pretty simple. Embryonic stem cell research has not yielded benefits. Adult stem cells have yielded some good fruit.

Why is the medical industry so insistent on pouring $$$ into embryonic stem cell research after such dismal results? Are they wanting to firmly establish a reason to protect the use of babies for medical research?

The majority of funding for biomedical research comes from the federal level and incredible amounts of money were spent in developing medical solutions involving adult (somatic, multipotent, and rarely pluripotent) stem cells. Biomedical research really does not occur without federal funding through grants from the NIH or some other body of the government even if one is working for a private corporation. Until the ban on federal embryonic stem cell research funding was lifted in 2009, embryonic (pluripotent) stem cell research was essentially non-existent due to lack of funding.

I would suggest that the lack of advances in embryonic stem cell technology is a result of the lack of research rather than the lack of potential of the stem cells themselves.

On another note, this field research truly is in its infancy [insert obligatory no pun intended here] and it is truly unclear how long it will be before researchers are able to determine the feasibility of using stem cells for more radical and complex medical technologies.