...Martinez SOC120: Introduction to Ethics & Social Responsibility Ashley Arends September 10, 2012 Stalemate Scientific research has come a long way since the first use of human embryos to treat and prevent diseases. The polio vaccine was invented in the 1950’s from the use of human fetal kidney cells, fetuses in uteri were used to develop techniques like amniocenteses and improving knowledge about congenital heart disease in the 1970’s, and in the 1980’s the transplantation of fetal tissue into adults to help with serious conditions like, diabetes or Parkinson’s (Gold, 2004). While there has always been concern and controversy over the use of human embryonic cells, today the debate is ethical. This ethical debate lies within the destruction of human embryos in order to use them for medical research. This paper will talk about how two different theories; utilitarianism and relativism view this ethical issue and the problem it presents, as well as my personal views on use of embryonic stem cell research. The theory of utilitarianism determines what is best by looking at the results of an act. According to Mosser (2010, section 1.7), “utilitarianism argues that, given a set of choices, the act we should choose is that which produces the best results for the greatest number affected by that choice.” When looking at the use of embryonic stem cells for research, utilitarianism looks at the end result. Embryonic stem cells have the potential to save lives...
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...Zac Braun Stem Cell Research Free Write In todays world of medicine, stem cell research is considered to be the most modern of all forthcoming forms of therapy, when in fact it is not. Stem cells were discovered in 1961 by Dr. James Till and Ernest McCulloch who both worked at the Ontario cancer institute at the time. The existence of stem cells and their ability to essentially transform into any other type of cell in the human body was an incredible first step in the long since developed and debated topic of stem cell therapy. Stem cells were immediately suggested as a cure all for diseases originally thought to be incurable and chronic illness; none more notorious than Cancer. Since their discovery, stem cells have made an appearance in every area of human life from politics to medical treatment with regular stops at religion and moral ethics in between. Prior to any controversy, however, the potential of stem cells still had to be unveiled. Stem cells, in a nutshell, are a remarkably blank form of human or any eukaryotic cell. They have the ability to take on any sequence of DNA and become the respective encrypted cell. These stem cells are found almost in every living tissue, the only difference between a stem cell and a regular functioning cell is their ability to renew themselves through cell division and that they can be induced to become any other form of tissue. In example, a stem cell found in the liver can divide and become a brain cell. Stem cells are found...
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...Stem Cells: Past, Present, and Future Timothy T. Botts DeVry University: Online FALA10 Sec N Professor Jackie Sexson Stem cells are a difficult topic to breach without heated words arising on both sides of the debate. Research Legislation on stem cells has a long history, but in the United States, it is quite young. It seems with the change in the political powers of America comes a change in the views of stem cell research and its legislation. The NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 was signed into law by President Clinton. It was through this Act that in vitro fertilization (IVF) research was congressionally sanctioned without prior approval of the Ethics Advisory Board. President Clinton decided still to create a 19 member committee to oversee the ethical dimensions of this research. The committee was called the NIH Human Embryo Research Panel. This committee came back in September of 94’ and their decision was that government spending should be allotted and that human embryos could be specifically created for research. President Clinton decided not to take the panel’s suggestion and enacted an executive directive prohibiting federal funding on research to support the creation of human embryos used exclusively for research purposes. President Clinton mandated that federal funds can only be applied to research using human stem cells derived from frozen embryos that were created for purposes of infertility treatment and were in excess of clinical need or from fetal tissue...
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...Embryonic Stem Cell Research: The Next Best Thing Have you ever gone to the doctor when you are not feeling well? The doctor probably gave you some good advice and maybe a pill and you felt better in about a week. This happens every day all over the country every day. But what happens when good advice and a pill will not help this time? A diagnosis of organ failure, spinal cord injury, and diabetes, Parkinson’s disease or Huntington’s disease is life altering. After the shock wears off you might start researching different therapies and come across something called stem cell research. Stem cell research has been around since the 1970’s but has gotten a lot of attention in the last several years. It has even risen to the level of Presidential campaigns: Senator John Kerry (D) made embryonic stem cell research a major theme in his 2004 run for President. The controversial issue comes in when the discussion turns toward embryonic stem cell versus adult stem cells. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells found throughout the body in tissue and organs. Undifferentiated cell are cells that have not specialized. They are there to repair and maintain the tissue or organ where they are found. Stem cells are also found in in the cord blood in the umbilical cord of newborns. The last place is embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are very special because they are pluripotent; they are capable of becoming any cell in the body as opposed to an adult stem cell that is limited...
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...Stem Cell Research Of the several forms of biotechnology, one is stem cell research. “To describe stem cells at the simplest of terms, they are raw materials of the body; cells from which all other cells with specialized functions are generated.” ( 2013. Stem Cells: What they are and what they do. ) “Embryonic stem cells are the fundamental building blocks for some of 260 kinds of cells within the body and can turn into anything: heart, muscle, brain, skin, blood.” (Hollowell, Kelly. 2002.)”Human embryonic stem cells are interesting to researchers because their pluripotency allows these cells to differ into any type of body tissue. There is a insufficient amount of advantages of stem cell research, this being one, but the many disadvantages outweigh the somewhat positivity.“ ( 2010. Disadvantages of Embryonic Stem Cells.) Embryonic stem cells come from embryos that are three to five days old. ( 2013. Stem Cells: What they are and what they do.) Human embryonic stem cells first came abroad in 1998 from embryos donated by couples no longer having the desire to use them for their own infertility treatments. From there on out, hES cell research has evolved into an ethical controversy. In the US, for example, a sizable amount have objected to the fact that five-day-old human embryos are destroyed in this process ( Hyun, Insoo. 2010. The Journal of Clinical Investigation). There are advantages that come from stem cell research, such as potential treatment...
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...Maffei Stem Cell Research Essay Majority of the general population knows or has heard something in reference to stem cell research, weather it is from magazine articles or news, at some point in our daily lives we’ve heard the term “Stem Cell Research.” Stem cells due to their controversial nature, has seen numerous changes in the legislation governing its research and the types of stem cells – weather it is fetal, cord, embryonic, etc... – The legislation affecting stem cells can determine where the U.S. stands on this ground breaking research. According to Lanza, A simple definition for stem cells is as follows “a stem cell is a cell that has the potential to develop into a number of different types of cells in the body.” (2011). Basically, stem cells are the base of all organs and tissues in the human body, a master cell of some sort. Stems cell, also have the potential be the backbone of many medical breakthroughs in centuries to come, from age prevention to helping with disabilities such as blindness, inability to walk, etc... As mention earlier in this paper there are many types of stem cells, but for purpose of this paper I shall focus on adult & embryonic stem cells. An adult stem cell is an undifferentiated cell that is found amongst differentiated cells in an organ or tissue that processes the ability to renew itself, as well as differentiate into other specialized cell types. By their nature, adult stem cells aren’t as controversial as embryonic stem cells...
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...Brewington Professor Maria Zaccaria Introduction to Ethics April 27, 2015 Outline THESIS: Is the use of stem cells favorable for healing and or curing human diseases more favorable for healing and or curing diseases more significant than the ethical concerns and arguments? I. What are stem cells? A) An unspecialized cell that can generate to one or more different types of specialized cells regenerated as blood or nerve cells. B) Stem cells are present in embryos and in tissues of adult organisms. II. How are stem cells used? A) Scientific Research B) Potential disease and treatment and or cures C) In vitro fertilization D) Cloning and Genetic Engineering III. Ethical concerns regarding stems cells. A) Scientific research perspective B) Political/Moral Ethics perspective C) Religious/Utilitarianism perspective IV. Conclusion | Stem Cells Risk or Benefit Since the introduction of DNA, scientists have researched many ways to treat and extinguish disease. One interesting way is through the use of stem cells. To get better understanding of stem cells, they are defined as non-specific biological cells capable of differentiating into specialized cells. Stems cells have a unique quality of developing and duplicating cells through the process of cell division. The distinctiveness of stem cells is that they are unspecialized, meaning no specific...
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...February 2015 The consequences of Human Embryonic Stem cell Research To say there are a few topics or ideas out there which cause both scientific and moral arguments is an understatement. Arguably, one of the most divisive scientific advances of the twentieth century and likely an advance with the most potential to improve the wellbeing of mankind; is met with an equal amount of derision and moral objection. The human embryo is nothing more than a mass of stem cells, or cells without specific function, yet. The embryo isn’t likely to have feelings or sense of awareness, but it is how every human starts life and if given roughly 14 days in the womb, would develop the beginnings of a heart, brain and...
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...Research paper on Stem Cell Research Legislation and the related legal issues: What is the history of Stem Cell Research Legislation in the United States? How does it compare to comparable statutes in the rest of the world? In this paper talk about what the current legislative state of affairs is and where the law on stem cells in the United States should go in the future and why. Make sure you use ample research and cited sources to support your arguments but make sure to state your own opinion on the issues as well. Stem Cell Research TJ AS OF: 2/4/2009--Introduced. Stem Cell Research Improvement Act of 2009 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct and support research that utilizes human embryonic stem cells, regardless of the date on which the stem cells were derived from a human embryo. Limits such research to stem cells that meet the following requirements: (1) the stem cells were derived from human embryos donated from in vitro fertilization clinics, were created for the purposes of fertility treatment, and were in excess of the needs of the individuals seeking such treatment; (2) prior to donation, it was determined that the embryos would never be implanted in a woman and would otherwise be discarded; and (3) the individuals seeking fertility treatment donated the embryos with written informed consent and received no financial or other inducements. Requires the Director of the National Institutes of...
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...Stem Cell Research and the Utilitarian Principle Human Embryonic Stem Cell (HESC) Research offers hope in alleviating suffering from debilitating diseases and possibly death. HESC are characterized by their ability to self-renew and different into different types of cells (pluri-potency). The main goal of HESC Research is to identify which mechanism governs cell differentiation, and then turn the HESC into the specific cells types which may be used to treat various illnesses. The restorative benefits of HESC are strong factors in favor of the research. Despite the promise of HESC Research, many still oppose it because harvesting of HESC ultimately leads to the destruction of the human embryo. For many this constitutes a destruction of a potential human which is in conflict with religious and moral views in our society (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2008). The crux of the matter is thus; if viewed only in terms of consequences, one could argue that it is almost certain the potential health benefits of HESC outweigh the loss of embryos. However those in opposition of the research argue that it is morally impermissible to intentionally kill innocent human beings. The premise of their argument against destruction of the embryos is that embryos are human beings; but there is much debate about when human life actually begins. Utilitarianism and science are uniquely suited to each other in that the ‘greatest happiness’ principle of utilitarianism is similar...
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...humans (Hall et al., 1993). Recently the American Society for Reproductive Medicine declared that human cloning by artificial embryo splitting was an ethical procedure to increase the number of implantable human blastocysts used in certain infertility treatments (ASRM, 2000). However, embryo splitting can produce only a limited number of cloned individuals as the early embryo can be separated only a limited number of times, and the procedure is not able to produce a ‘‘clone’’ of an adult that already exists. The other method for producing cloned humans, nuclear transfer, does not suffer from these limitations, and the rest of this article will focus on human cloning achieved via this technique. Nuclear transfer (or more specifically somatic cell nuclear transfer) is a conceptually simple procedure. The J. A. Byrne ¡ J. B. Gurdon ( ) Wellcome CRC Institute, Tennis Court Road Cambridge CB2 1QR and Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK e-mail: j.gurdon/welc.cam.ac.uk Fax: π44 1223 334185 U. S....
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...Cohen and Herbert Boyer developed recombinant DNA technology that revealed genetically engineered DNA molecules can be cloned in foreign cells. Their experiment displayed that the gene for frog ribosomal...
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...Unit 9 Final Project HU – 245 - 10 Professor Ronald Wade Erin Broker 8/30/2009 Kaplan University Unit 9 Final Project Introduction Ethics is the area of study that deals with morality and how we make decisions about how we behave as individuals and how our actions reflect our values and conduct towards one another. This class focused on two viewpoints that helped us define morality and how to apply it in new ways of thinking and reasoning when dealing with issues in our lives: consequential reasoning and non-consequential reasoning. Through an evaluation of my collected works, I will attempt to show an improvement in the areas of analytical skill building, knowledge acquisition, and practical application that are the key objectives of this class. The objective of these three skill areas was to help us better understand how to think ethically and to understand why others think the way they do and how to come to a better understanding of a difference of opinions on various subjects. Analytical Skills Analytical skill building helps to improve your critical reading, writing and thinking skills. In unit 2 Case Study B, I evaluated a situation where an employee was upset with his employer’s treatment of its employees. In analyzing the situation, I was able to come to an understanding of how best the company should respect Mr. Lopez’s rights and moral dignity as an employee by using consequential reasoning: A company should take whatever steps necessary to...
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...Renaissance man is someone who has enough expertise in STEM fields and humanities that he can innovate and link his innovations to the society. What makes a Renaissance man distinct is that they can link their innovations and these innovations do not just mean science, but also create sociological revolutions. And the Renaissance man is the one and only type of scientist who can achieve high quality disruptive innovation. During my time at high school, I have tried to become a renaissance man like Da Vinci as I struggled to get a full understanding of life sciences and social sciences, so that I can innovate well and in addition to that link my innovations to real...
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...in areas such as the personal search of meaning, ethical guidance, sense of belonging and ritual meaning. These areas have specifically impacted on individuals. The primarily contribution would be the personal search for meaning. A person examines for a better understanding of key questions in life. These questions of life include a human’s origin, purpose and destiny. People will look at religions at times of many diverse situations where they want to discover the answers to their questions particularly during times of personal trauma or crisis. E.g. someone who might be struggling with family problems. Moreover another area of contribution is ethical guidance. Ethics involve moral decision making in which an individual agrees to act in a particular manner. Religion compromises an individual a system of ethics that will guide the person in behaving appropriately. It advises a person how to treat or turn to themselves and the people surrounding them in the environment. Ethical guidance...
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