Who are we to play God - Dissertation Example

The wonders of the universe and the miracle of life are becoming more known to our civilization now, more so than at any other point in human history. Developments in scientific reasoning and testing have allowed us to determine the underlying theory of many concepts. Technology has made this more efficient and facilitated some of the discoveries that have been made. In particular, one of the fields, which have been called into question due to a combination of religion, ethics, and politics, is in the field of biological engineering and manipulation.

This is due to our high technological advancement in being able to accomplish meticulous processes as well as understanding the theory underlying complex biological processes. Stem cell research has been of high debate in this topic. Progressive society dictates that this is a normal step in treating medical disorders and learning more about how to manipulate biological mechanisms, however at what point does the progressive nature of science override our morality and ethics? Although stem cell research has the possibility of sparking a new revolution in biomedical research, it is still important to recognize that there is a line where science and ethics meet, acknowledging that it is not a line that needs to be crossed.

Stem cell research is a look into the future where diseases will be eradicated and a new biological science will develop, however there is controversy dealing with: the pros of research, the negative stigmata and ethical concerns of research, and the future of stem cell research as far as the benefits it can bring. Stem cells are a specific form of cell, which can be encoded to perform almost any function of a cell in the human body. They are hard to harvest due to the fact that as adults, there are very limited quantities of stem cells in the body because they have already differentiated, that is changed into the cell they were needed to function as.

For scientists, finding an adequate supply of stem cells was vital in order to keep the research alive therefore they turned to embryos. Embryos have extremely high counts of stem cells, especially in the early stages. This is due to the fact that as an embryo, the growth is occurring at an accelerated rate. Differentiation of different layers and the formation of all the different organ systems in the body requires a large supply of stem cells in order to serve their function in each of the different systems.

The one drawback to the method of harvesting stem cells from human embryos is that usually the infant will not survive or there will be permanent biological damage, which could influence the biological development of the infant in a maladaptive way. Therefore, researchers turned to abortion clinics in order to use aborted fetuses to harvest these cells. This is why the topic of stem cell research is so closely tied to that of the debate of Roe vs. Wade, the argument of prochoice and prolife. Stem cell research in the United States has been extremely restricted by the government.

There are only specific institutions and sites where this research can be conducted; federal funding of these projects is also limited. This stigma on stem cell research is having repercussions in the medical and biological research fields. Some scientists devote their life work to that of stem cell research, but are unable to pursue the research adequately here in the United States. Therefore, they leave the United States in order to pursue their research in countries where there are not as many restrictions on stem cell research.

As a result, there is an increasingly dangerous hemorrhage in the scientific community as they leave to study in other countries. In addition, private companies have tried to take advantage of this situation by providing funding in these biomedical applications to keep scientists here (Brainard 22-25). However, there are movements in legislature, both state and federal, which are pushing for fewer limitations in stem cell researc