Stem Cell Research - Sclerosis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Stem Cell Research - Sclerosis - Essay Example Fox and the hundreds of thousands of others who fight such ailments will not have to do so. Unfortunately, as is the case with everything else in life, this situation too proves to show a lack of 100% certainty. We as human beings just tend to find ourselves without the luxury of having that. In return, it is left up to instinct and brainpower to guide us towards answers to problems. The purpose of this essay is to give a brief summation of what stem cell research is as well as what it means for the scientific community and what they hope to accomplish. Also the verbal battle it has caused to ensue between entities ranging from a scientific lab to the White House, and going all the way to Rome and the Vatican. It is with this kind of heated verbal exchange that real reform can result. According to the official resource for the National Institute of Health, stem cells and their importance are described as: "Stem cells have two important characteristics that distinguish them from other types of cells. First, they are unspecialized cells that renew themselves for long periods through cell division. The second is that under certain physiologic or experimental conditions, they can be induced to become cells with special functions such as the beating cells of the heart muscle or the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas," It goes on to say, "Scientists primarily work with two kinds of stem cells from animals and humans: embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells, which have different functions and characteristics that will be explained in this document. Scientists discovered ways to obtain or derive stem cells from early mouse embryos more than 20 years ago. Many years of detailed study of the biology of mouse stem cells led to the discovery, in 1998, of how to isolate stem cells from human embryos and grow the cells in the laboratory. These are called human embryonic stem cells. The embryos used in these studies were created for infertility purposes through in vitr o fertilization procedures and when they were no longer needed for that purpose, they were donated for research with the informed consent of the donor". Based on the information provided in these quotes, it can strongly be assessed that these stem cells do in fact play a major role in assisting healthcare systems in finding cures. As this is an issue which greatly impacts the overall human society, greater knowledge of stem cells, as well as what they can do, is imperative in the process of coming to clear, and concise decisions for how best to proceed forward in the matter. As discussed earlier, this research is hoped to be the magical key in terms of finding a cure of such ailments as Parkinson's disease. To best understand the benefits of stem cell research, it is also necessary to understand the possible cause and long term symptoms of the ailments which it may help to alleviate, such as Parkinson's disease. The official resource for the National Institute of Health addresses this as well. Based on their perspective, Parkinson's disease (PD) is a very common neurodegenerative disorder that affects more than 2% of the population over 65 years of age. PD is caused by a progressive degeneration and loss of dopamine (DA)-producing neurons, which leads to tremor, rigidity, and hyperkinesias (abnormally decreased mobility). It is thought that PD may be the first disease to be amenable to treatment