Question

We hear a lot about stem cell research in the news. What are stem cells, and why might a person with damage to the brain or spinal cord be very interested in the advancement of this field? What are some of the ethical issues related to stem cell research? Please do some research into stem cell research, then share the resources you used in your discussion post and your thoughts about it

Answer 1

Stem cells are cells that have not yet differentiated into specialized cells. Therefore these cells can be ‘programmed’ by researchers to differentiate into any cell type of their liking and can be used in disease therapy. Ethics of stem cells raise controversy in the area of cloning such as in the case of ‘Dolly the Sheep’. For more insights follow this resource https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2726839/

Answer 2

Stem cells are found in multicellular organism,they are undifferentiated in nature and can form other special cells or could divide in further stem cells by mitosis.The person with brain or spinal cord injury would be interested cause these cells could be used in future to cure the problem.Human embryonic stem cell (HESC) research is ethically and politically controversial because it involves the destruction of human embryos.The resource used was paper by B Lo named 'Ethical Issues in Stem Cell Research'.And according to me research in this field is important for development of mankind