Blog #4 (Health/Disease)

“UK medics lead Europe’s first embryonic stem cell trial”  -Fergus Walsh

Amber Kocher

Doctors in London have started the first clinical trial using embryonic stem cells for the first time in Europe.  They are using these cells on patients with an incurable disease called Stargardt’s macular dystrophy, which causes sight loss over time.  The trial is used to find out whether these replacement retinal cells, derived from the stem cells, are safe and effective to use.  The trial is partnered with an American company that had already started treating with these cells in California.  There are other companies in the United States that have, and are continuing to use stem cell research with things such as spinal injuries.  There are people who support this trials saying that embryonic stem cell research and therapy has huge potential, not just in the treatment of blindness, but also things like cancer, and heart disease.  This study is the first of its kind in Europe, and experts believe it can lead the way for other studies and research and can significantly add to the knowledge on stem cell research and therapies, therefore only advancing the field further.

After reading this article, I researched what exactly stem cell research is, and got the basics of what the cells are and where they come from.  There are three different types of stem cells, they come from adults, which are usually from bone marrow, they can come from the umbilical cord, and then the come from embryos themselves, which are the cells used in this study.  Embryonic stem cell research is controversial, because it involves a human fetus and the fetus doesn’t live.  Some people view it as murder.  Doctors and scientists argue that the fetus is at such an early stage and it doesn’t even have human features.  The cells are taken when the embryo is referred to as a blastocyst, so it’s very early in the development of a fetus.  The possibilities and promise that come from stem cell research are quite large, and could help some serious issues and diseases in the medical world, that don’t have cures yet.  The problem is whether it’s ethical.  These studies and clinical trials could make leaps and bounds in the medical world, and as the knowledge continues to grow, other countries may start to use this knowledge.  The issue of ethics is that the cost is technically a human life in the cases of embryonic study.  People who are against this have raised concerns about raising embryos just for science, and that you are weighing the value of one life against another.  I think there is great potential in this field of study, but I don’t know if it could ever be something completely successful with such heavy issues of ethics and what is right and wrong.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15017664