Chemistry and Biotechnology
1. What specific topic did you choose to research and evaluate? I decided to conduct research on stem cells for medical use.
2. List the resources that you used in your research of your topic.
http://www.ama-assn.org//ama/pub/physician-resources/medical-science/genetics-molecular-medicine/related-policy-topics/stem-cell-research/basics-stem-cell-research.page http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/pages/basics6.aspx
3. Describe, in a few paragraphs, the biotechnology that you researched. How is it currently being used and/or what are the hopes for its use in the future?
Stem cell research is a fairly new study which has gained a large amount of popularity lately. Stem cells are cells that have the potential to become specialized into different types of cells within the body. What this can do is help replace damaged cells with healthy new cells since stem cells are able to adapt to what is needed. The research going on is to discover how this can be used medically to help cure major diseases out there in the world.
There are many ways to acquire stem cells. The most popular form is through the umbilical cord from the birth process. The other way to acquire this is through the bone marrow and from blood. Some other minor methods include germ cells or organs of an aborted fetus, embryos made by in vitro fertilization and mature adult tissue cells reprogrammed to behave like stem cells. Most commonly however, stem cells are acquired through bone marrow and umbilical cords.
4. Describe the positive aspects of this biotechnology, being as specific as possible.
The positive outcomes of this can include a wide variety of possibilities. This has the potential to create multiple cures for diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, vision/hearing loss and much more. Also, if a soldier was to be wounded with a burn or fatal injury, stem cells may be able to repair these problems and help lower casualty and death rates in our military. In addition, with how convenient bone marrow can be found (seeing as every person has it), this can help those people, who are in need of stem cells, easily acquire it on such short notice.
5. Describe the negative aspects of this biotechnology, being as specific as possible.
There is currently not enough research on stem cells to fully determine their potential as to what they can do. This is bad on both ends of the spectrum. If stem cells were to be proven useless, this would be considered a waste of time and money. If they prove to be extremely powerful and can transform into any cell possible, there may be talk that this kind of technology can be overwhelming. Overwhelming in the sense that what if these stem cells are powerful enough to make a brand new human being? What if people use these stem cells on themselves to make themselves look 21 years old until they die or remodel certain aspects of their body to make it so it fits their desire? It will be a sense of cheating out life by just getting the easy way out of a lot of issues. 6. Based on your research, what is your conclusion about whether or not this biotechnology should be used? Be sure to explain your answer.
After conducting my own research I believe stem cells should have more research put into them to discover their complete potential. If proven to be used for medical reasons such as to cure certain diseases, this should definitely be implemented into the medical field (assuming there are no major side effects). This can be a huge advancement in the medical field and may be a breakthrough in saving many lives of dying individuals. I do believe that regardless of its potential, whether stem cells prove to be useful or useless, they should be kept away from the public and should only be kept in medical facilities and only used for medical purposes. I would not feel comfortable having people running around the streets with stem cells in their back pocket not knowing what they can do with them.
