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Opening the doors for stem cells
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President Obama made it clear that the advancement of science would play a major role in his administration when he signed an executive order lifting the restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
“When government fails to make investments, opportunities are missed,” Obama said. “Promising avenues go unexplored.”
Along with signing the executive order, Obama also issued a memorandum with the intent of restoring scientific integrity to the policy making process.
“Science and the scientific process must inform and guide decisions of my administration on a wide range of issues,” he said.
This is a far cry from the policies put in place by the Bush administration. According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, under past policies, researchers seeking federal funding for embryonic stem cell research were only allowed to use cell lines created before Aug. 9, 2001. Due to these restrictions, federal funding was limited to about 20 cell lines, thereby drastically hindering the potential for advancement in this field.
Julie Oxford, who is an associate professor in the Biology Department at Boise State, said now that the executive order has been signed, “We should see an increase in stem cell lines available to research, and an increase in the quality of stem cell lines available.”
Debate about embryonic stem cell research often comes down to ethics. Many who oppose the research believe a fertilized egg constitutes life. Others argue that an embryo is simply the potential for life.
The AAAS points out that, “In vitro fertilization clinics routinely create more human embryos than are needed over the course of a fertility treatment, and are therefore left with excess embryos that are often simply discarded.”
This means that embryos are destroyed regardless if they end up in a lab or a landfill. What good does it do to discard these cells when there is a possibility that they have the potential to increase the quality a person’s life.
Oxford explained that embryonic stem cell research seeks to answer a multitude of questions such as, “How do pluripotent cells (cells that are able to develop into other different cell types) differentiate into specialized cells?” and “How can stem cells be used to treat individuals with diabetes, heart disease, blindness, arthritis and many other conditions?”
A report released by the National Institutes of Health stated that currently in America more than half a million people have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, between 250,000 to 400,000 people suffer from spinal cord injuries and more than 23 million have some form of diabetes.
The NIH also stated that, “To date, it is impossible to predict which stem cells or which methods for manipulating the cells, will best meet the needs of basic research and clinical applications. The answers clearly lie in conducing more research.”
As Obama pointed out in his speech, “Medical miracles do not simply happen by accident.”
Although it could take years, if not decades, to see the results of this research, studying these cells could bring us closer to a potential cure for a number of diseases and ultimately provide us with a better understanding of what makes us who we are.
TRAVIS MURPHY
Arbiter Journalist
