Research Question: How has stem cell research impacted the treatment of serious disease and injury in the field of medicine?
Answer/thesis/claim: Stem cell research and its applications are important for many areas in the field of medicine, including treatments for serious illnesses and injuries, prevention of some genetic disorders, and development of more efficient drugs.
Reason 1: There is pressing need for treatments of neurodegenerative diseases.
Warrant: Stem cells have been found to be particularly effective in regenerating nerve cells of the brain.
Evidence 1: Stem cell replacement therapy has shown symptomatic improvement by regenerating dopamine-producing nerve cells in patients with Parkinson’s.
Warrant: cell replacement therapy replaces the loss in electrical signaling cause by neural degeneration.
Evidence 2: Stem cells seem to be able to restore the white matter of the brain, which is destroyed in such diseases as multiple sclerosis.
Warrant: Stem cells show success in human trials with virtually no side effects.
Evidence 3: Alzheimer’s is characterized the destruction of neuronal circuitry from a build up of plaques and tangles that form.
Warrant: Stem cell therapy offers the possibility of reversing such plaques and tangles and regeneration neuronal connections.
Reason 2: Research is important to determine which stem cells are best suited for which treatment.
Evidence 4: Umbilical cord blood stem cells have been effective in the treatment of certain cancers, such as Leukemia and Aplastic Anemia.
Warrant: New research is finding that cord stem cells do not need to be as perfectly matched to the patient.
Evidence 5: Transplantation using human embryonic stem cells now offers new and promising treatments for spinal cord injury.
Warrant: These stem cell treatments have the potential to improve injuries previously considered irreversible.
Evidence 6: Adult stem cells administered by way of intravenous infusions are being tested on their ability to restore damaged heart tissue in patients after a heart attack.
Warrant: This therapy is a formulation of adult stem cells derived from the bone marrow of healthy adult donors.
Reason 3: Stem cells could provide a new way of testing drugs for positive results and for dangerous side effects.
Evidence 7: Stem cell testing has the potential of decreasing the time it takes to get new and safer drugs to market.
Warrant: Testing stem cells could decrease cost.
Evidence 8: Testing the safety of drugs in lab animals is notoriously unreliable.
Warrant: Animal drug testing would be eliminated.
Evidence 9: Stem cell drug testing amounts to human drug trials conducted in a dish.
Warrant: Stem cells that are sick can be tested with new drug therapies.
Reason 4: Stem cell research is important for understanding genetic disease processes and development of better therapies.
Evidence 10: Cerebral palsy patients show mild to large significant improvement after being treated with umbilical cord stem cells.
Warrant: Stem Cell treatment can aid in correcting genetic disorders.
Evidence11: Cord meseschymal stem cells can be beneficial in regenerating the pancreas and restoring normal insulin release in diabetes patients.
Warrant: Stem cells travel to parts of the body that are damaged
Evidence 12: Cord stem cells could be used to rebuild the lungs of those who suffer with cystic fibrosis.
Warrant: A potential role for stem cell therapy and lung repair
Objection 1: With regards to stem cell research, arguments often arise that researchers and doctors should not play God, and should not mess with human life.
Refutation 1: Stem cell research can potentially help treat a range of medical problems. It could lead humanity closer to better treatments and possibly cure a number of diseases.
Objection 2: Ethical issues of scientific work on aborted fetuses did not justify the possible benefits.
Refutation 2: Since 2007, scientists have moved on to use more ethical methods for stem cell research. The use and development of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) has eliminated research being done using aborted fetuses and have lead to new solutions making those on both sides of the debate happier.
Objection 3: The side effects of embryonic stem cell therapy are quite severe: it tends to produce tumors and malignant carcinomas, cause transplant rejection, and form the wrong kinds of cells.
Refutation 3: Adult stem cells, which are more widely used in stem cell treatments, and which are transplanted immediately after their removal and concentration for therapeutic purposes, do not increase the risk of tumors unless the patient already has cancer.
Objection 4: Performing research on embryonic stem cells is effectively destroying life, and it should therefore be avoided.
Refutation 4: Using frozen human embryos that would otherwise be discarded is ethically acceptable given the potential that stem cells hold.
Objection 5: Many argue that stem cell research in the future will inevitably lead scientists to the knowledge and practice of cloning human beings.
Refutation 5: Therapeutic cloning is the procedure that scientists are most interested in as they can manipulate the chemical environment of cells that are taken directly from the patient and then used to grow tissues that are a perfect genetic match for the patient.
Qualifiers: Stem cell research and the proper application of the stem cells available to study is important in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, genetic disorders, and in the testing of improved pharmaceutical treatments in most cases.
