Stem Cell Ethics Synthesis and Evolution

-

 Stem Cell Ethics Synthesis and Evolution

     Life begets life. Our current biological understanding of life is that a living entity must be able to reproduce in some fashion -- be able to create a new and similar individual of its own ilk. This is true for all forms of life be they bacterial, frogs, trees, doves, or humans. There is an innate biological intent within all living beings to replicate. The natural course of this process, barring the intervention of humans into the replication process of living things, produces much waste of potential life.

     In nature not all tree seeds produce trees, not all animal conceptions create new animals, and not all human ovum result in children. In a natural state, nature reabsorbs and reuses the germs of life, as is demonstrated by most tree and plant seeds being broken down into constituent elements and reused by nature. The observed intent of nature is not for all embryos to become autonomous beings, most are reused for other purposes. Such is the situation we find ourselves in regarding the reuse of discarded human embryos and development of pluripotent cells. Should human decree intervene once it is established that the intent for reuse of these cells is not to produce an adult of the same kind, but rather to modify the state of cells to a condition in which they might be beneficially reused -- akin to the concept of natural reuse? The current ethical debates surrounding stem cells completely obfuscate this quandary.

     The paper by the Ethics Committee of American Society for Reproductive Medicine (2013) spoke to topics that ranged across multiple facets including acceptable disposal, timing, and reuse of unused ova and cells, informed consent and adequacy of its procurement, moral exceptions to use, acceptable profit ethics, developmental boundaries, the preference of alternates to stem cells. Barker and de Beaufort (2013) further added to the discussion the debate surrounding the topics of when does an embryo become "human" and would underdeveloped areas of the world suffer disadvantage. Lysaght & Campbell (2013) reaffirmed and added further context to issues mentioned above and included laments regarding how faulty regulation has caused an unacceptable hindrance to research and applications. No affirmable resolution could be found among the authors we read this week regarding the debate as which would be best to use, adult stem cells or embryonic stem cells. Poulos (2018) believes the answer to this concern lies somewhere in the depths of the interactions between regulation, ethics, and practical knowledge.

     A serious question of worth must be made regarding all of the unproductive energy, time, and resources being put into these ethically based debates. I believe we are on the cusp of a new horizon in molecular cellular control that rests firmly outside of the public squawk we have had to tolerate. The coming viability and use of synthetic life (Ebrahimkhani & Levin, 2021; Gibson et al., 2010; Gowrishankar, 2010) will create a paradigm shift in the biological landscape that will make stem cell use obsolete overnight. This transformation will leave many of those whose discordant religion has become the art of rhetoric in a state of cognitive dissonance -- not even able to recognize that a foundational change has occurred and that their squabble is now pointless.

References

Barker, R. A., & de Beaufort, I. (2013). Scientific and Ethical Issues Related to Stem Cell Research and Interventions in Neurodegenerative Disorders of the Brain. Progress in Neurobiology, 110, 63–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pneurobio.2013.04.003

Ebrahimkhani, M. R., & Levin, M. (2021). Synthetic Living Machines: A New Window on Life. IScience, 24(5). https://doi-org.ezproxy.umgc.edu/10.1016/j.isci.2021.102505

Ethics Committee of American Society for Reproductive Medicine (2013). Donating Embryos for Human Embryonic Stem Cell (hESC) Research: a committee opinion. Fertility and sterility, 100(4), 935–939. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2013.08.038

Gibson, D. G., Glass, J. I., Lartigue, C., Noskov, V. N., Chuang, R.-Y., Algire, M. A., Benders, G. A., Montague, M. G., Ma, L., Moodie, M. M., Merryman, C., Vashee, S., Krishnakumar, R., Assad-Garcia, N., Andrews-Pfannkoch, C., Denisova, E. A., Young, L., Qi, Z.-Q., Segall-Shapiro, T. H., … Venter, J. C. (2010). Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome. Science, 329(5987), 52–56. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1190719

Gowrishankar, J. (2010). Craig Venter, and the Claim for 'Synthetic Life'. Current Science (00113891), 99(2), 152. Retrieved on January 29, 2023 from https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/99/02/0152.pdf

Lysaght, T., & Campbell, A. V. (2013). Broadening the Scope of Debates around Stem Cell Research. Bioethics, 27(5), 251–256. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2012.01963.x

Poulos, J. (2018). The Limited Application of Stem Cells in Medicine: A Review. Stem cell Research & Therapy, 9(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13287-017-0735-7

Popular posts from this blog

"I Wish You Bluebirds in the Spring"

-
"I Wish You Bluebirds in the Spring" (NatalieColeMusic. 2022)      I still remember the bright sunlight filtering through the thick canopy of leaves highlighting the plush greenery of the forest grove I lived in. At this time in my life, from the ages of four to eight, I was a forest dweller who rose early in the morning to play all day in the woods hoping to chance upon a rare but delicious puffball mushroom to take home for our supper, or to climb to new heights in limbs above. It was on many of these early mornings when the dew still clung to all the vegetation that the smell of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) permanently embedded itself in my memory, and likely made changes to my young body that possibly caused the number of calcium and hormone related maladies (Lundholm, 1997; Wang et al., 2022) I experienced in later life, like multiple ruptured cervical disks and vertebral spurs in my neck. I wandered through the chemically wetted foliage not realizing that a...
Read more

One Take Regarding the Ethical Affect of Culture and Religion on Biotechnology

-
One Take Regarding the Ethical Affect of Culture and Religion on Biotechnology   I don't do religion. This is no put down to anyone who does follow some religious doctrine or another, that is their choice and their life. One cannot coin me as an atheist either, as I do believe that there is a cosmic fabric of some sort that holds this whole state of affairs together. I was convinced of this twice. The first time I traveled "up the tube" at the age of 21 (Manfred Mann's Earth Band, 1976), a result of consuming the wrong natural edible fungi (Iowa State University, 2020; pfaf.org, 2023), I was kicked back through the tube with a solid thunk and a reasonable impression to always make sure to know absolutely which plant to harvest. The second time, after contracting H1N1 and lying on the edge of death in the ICU, I sat on the edge of existence and was given a choice of joining the other-world or returning to the here and now. Understand please that this was a year after l...
Read more

Evermore Incorporation's[1] Perpetual Longevity Product: Ethical SWOT Analysis

-
  Evermore Incorporation's[1] Perpetual Longevity Product:  Ethical SWOT Analysis Evermore Incorporation stands proud among its competitors as a lionhearted biotechnology venture blazing exciting trails into new and fresh domains. We are well on our way to finalizing the development of a breakthrough prolongevity product that can extend vibrant, high quality human life for hundreds of years, perhaps even a millennia, at a price affordable to most income levels. All phase II trials have have shown valid cellular regenerative efficacy and we are now set to begin phase III trials in early April of next year. Before we embark on this last trial stage it is important that we do our best to limit potential risk for the company on release of successful phase III results. To accomplish this we must not only understand the mindset of our target customers, but also comprehend the overarching attitudes of the general populace, including the thoughts and attitudes for and against extendin...
Read more