Patients with “extensive burns, leukemia, and other blood disorders” are currently being treated with Stem-Cells (“What are the potential applications for Stem Cell Research”). The process has been in use since the 1970s, with bone marrow transplants, although back then it was not as safe and innovated at it is today. With more research, technological advances, and scientific breakthrough’s patients have a fighting chance against life threatening diseases that have plague humankind. Even though the process is considered medically sound, the treatment has faced some ethical backlash for its use of embryonic stem-cells; which have the “ability to replace damaged cells”, and can be used to cure, what have been known as, ‘incurable’ diseases (“What
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Embryonic stem cells are acquired from in vitro, which is Latin for in glass, fertilized eggs. At first mouse embryos were used as the initial test for embryonic stem cells, but after advancements in the research scientists began to move towards using human embryos. All eggs and sperm used for human embryonic development are donated for research with consent of the donors. After acquiring the eggs and sperm, the eggs get fertilized in vitro and after 3-5 days are used for stem cell research. Human embryonic stem cells are created by transferring cells from a preimplantation-stage embryo, which means that the embryo has not yet implanted in the wall of the uterus, into a laboratory dish that “contains a nutrient broth, known as culture medium” (“Stem Cell Research”). Afterwards the stem cells divide and spread over the surface of the dish. At the early stages of the human embryo research, the laboratory dish was coated with a layer of cells, called a feeder layer, that provided the embryo with a sticky surface to attach to. The feeder layer was originally composed of mouse cells, but due to the “risk of viruses or other macromolecules in the mouse cells” being transmitted the feeder layer was done with, and scientists had to come up with a new way to grow embryonic stem cells (“Stem Cell Information”). The process of producing an “embryonic stem cell line is somewhat inefficient” because cells from the preimplantation- stage that are put in the laboratory dish can become specialized (“Stem Cell Information”). However, there are some cells that continue to divide and multiply until they crowd the dish. These cells are then “removed and plated into fresh culture dishes”; “the process of re-plating the cells is repeated many times”, and after the process is repeated for more than six months the cells are then considered an embryonic stem cell line, which yield millions of stem
Embryonic stem cells are acquired from in vitro, which is Latin for in glass, fertilized eggs. At first mouse embryos were used as the initial test for embryonic stem cells, but after advancements in the research scientists began to move towards using human embryos. All eggs and sperm used for human embryonic development are donated for research with consent of the donors. After acquiring the eggs and sperm, the eggs get fertilized in vitro and after 3-5 days are used for stem cell research. Human embryonic stem cells are created by transferring cells from a preimplantation-stage embryo, which means that the embryo has not yet implanted in the wall of the uterus, into a laboratory dish that “contains a nutrient broth, known as culture medium” (“Stem Cell Research”). Afterwards the stem cells divide and spread over the surface of the dish. At the early stages of the human embryo research, the laboratory dish was coated with a layer of cells, called a feeder layer, that provided the embryo with a sticky surface to attach to. The feeder layer was originally composed of mouse cells, but due to the “risk of viruses or other macromolecules in the mouse cells” being transmitted the feeder layer was done with, and scientists had to come up with a new way to grow embryonic stem cells (“Stem Cell Information”). The process of producing an “embryonic stem cell line is somewhat inefficient” because cells from the preimplantation- stage that are put in the laboratory dish can become specialized (“Stem Cell Information”). However, there are some cells that continue to divide and multiply until they crowd the dish. These cells are then “removed and plated into fresh culture dishes”; “the process of re-plating the cells is repeated many times”, and after the process is repeated for more than six months the cells are then considered an embryonic stem cell line, which yield millions of stem