Topic > Stem Cells – The Ideal of Medicine

The famous scientist William J. Mayo (1928) once said “The purpose of medicine is to prevent disease and prolong life, the ideal of medicine is to eliminate the need for a doctor. “With the help of the technologies available and under development today we are closer than ever to achieving this goal. Stem cells are mainly of two types, adult stem cells, present in small quantities in many organs such as bone marrow, fat and skin. A problem with this type of stem cell is that they do not have the same ability to become different specialized cells, for example bone marrow cells cannot create nerve cells (Westphal, 2003). The other source of stem cells most used today is the embryonic stem cell, taken from five-day-old blastocysts. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayThese stem cells, although much more controversial for many people, because they derive from an embryo which is what ultimately becomes a human beings are more useful in many more circumstances due to their ability to become any specialized cell (Westphal, 2003; Callahan, 2005; New scientists, 2017; Stem cells can be used to conduct developmental research, to find treatments to prevent diseases, to regrow organs, and to treat existing diseases. About 1 million people in the United States suffer from Parkinson's, a disease that kills brain cells making movement difficult for many patients (Florida Hospital, n.d.). A study was conducted on monkeys suffering from Parkinson's in which money was injected with dopamine-producing brain cells derived from stem cells and the result of the experiment was that 40-55% of the monkeys moved more effectively and the effects of the injection lasted for two years (Thompson, 2017). Type one diabetes, which accounts for 5% of all diabetes diagnosed today in the United States (Stanford Children's Health, e.), is becoming increasingly prevalent among children in today's society, and the disease itself acts through the immune system T cells attack the cells of the pancreas causing a decrease in insulin, responsible for controlling blood sugar. Patients with type one diabetes typically must rely on insulin throughout their lives. A study conducted in Brazil gave stem cell infusions to fifteen people which caused the cells to produce new immune cells that did not lower the number of insulin attacking the pancreas (Aldhous, 2007). In Conclusion Stem cell research, although controversial, has many positive benefits for our society and is ultimately necessary to treat and reduce suffering from diseases that may become preventable in our lifetime..