The Importance Of Stem Cell Research

Since the turn of the century, the scientific community has invested a copious amount of money toward a potentially groundbreaking area of study, stem cell research. Stem cells are unspecialized cell found predominantly in embryos and adult body tissue that have the potential to take on the role of another cell. The discovery of human embryonic stem cells in the late 1990’s and paved a new road for regenerative medicine. The often-misconstrued stance of the Catholic Church regarding stem cell research has shined a negatively misinformed light on the Church and its followers.
Stem cells are defined as “undifferentiated” cells, meaning their purpose is yet to be decided by the body. This is in contrary to the vast majority of cells in our bodies that are “differentiated” meaning their purpose is defined. These special cells are reserved cells that can take on any other form serving as the building blocks for cell construction and re-construction. The research of these …show more content…
These cells are produced by everyone and can be found predominantly in the bone marrow. Until recently, it was thought that these stem cells could only be used in the location in which they were found. We now know that these adult cells can be used anywhere in the body, and scientists have also found that we can revert cells back to their stem cell state. The last known source of stem cells is located in the brain and cerebral tissue. The neural stem cells come from the neural system of the fetus where they are collected and sent to organizations such as “The National Industrial Base of Stem Cell Technology” to be cultured and developed. Here the cells are separated through in-vitro and purified under a controlled environment. This is one of the newest and most common methods of using stem cells. This treatment has been administered to thousands of patients and it is extremely rare that the cells have been rejected or developed into