Various technologies and innovations enable constant development and improvement within the medical sphere. As a result, healthcare professionals utilize sophisticated treatment or diagnostics interventions, while patients benefit from the higher productivity and efficiency of new methods. The use of stem cells is a promising approach because it can cope with treating diabetes and Parkinson’s disease as well as understanding genetic illness. Even though stem cells can help address the health conditions that were recently considered incurable, this method is not widely accepted. The rationale behind this statement is that stem cell-based therapy is associated with a few significant ethical challenges that can outweigh all the potential benefits. Thus, the analysis of scholarly articles demonstrates that the leading ethical concerns include the destruction of a human embryo, an increased probability of tumor growth and metastasis, and the creation of genetically engineered human embryos.
Firstly, the leading argument against the use of stem cell-based therapy is the fact that it leads to the destruction of a human embryo. The intervention under analysis implies removing embryotic stem cells (ESCs) from human embryos and subjecting them to particular manipulations (Zakrzewski et al., 2019). This approach allows for achieving the significant benefits that have been presented above. However, an important issue is associated with the fact that the isolation of ESCs makes the embryo destroyed, and the essential aspect is that this embryo could have become a human under particular conditions (Zakrzewski et al., 2019). Even though a patient does not suffer any immediate or physical harm, the intervention implies potentially negative consequences for the organism’s future. That is why many scientists join a discussion regarding whether it is ethical to rely on the selected therapy.
Secondly, stem cell-based therapy can result in more immediate problems. For example, the application of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can lead to tumor growth and metastasis development (Volarevic et al., 2018). These harmful outcomes are attributed to “unwanted differentiation of the transplanted MSCs and their potential to suppress anti-tumor immune response and generate new blood vessels” (Volarevic et al., 2018). It is worth admitting that these health problems can emerge as side-effects of effective treatment of autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases (Volarevic et al., 2018). This finding again supports the idea that stem cell-based therapy is a controversial phenomenon.
Thirdly, another ethical challenge is associated with the fact that genetically engineered people can be created. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) offer unlimited potential that can be used in human reproductive cloning (Volarevic et al., 2018). In turn, this fact denotes that scholars can engineer human embryos to impact what people are likely to be born in the future. Even though this opportunity can help people cure significant diseases, a question arises as to whether people have the moral right to intervene in this area.
In conclusion, the research paper has demonstrated that stem cell-based therapy is a controversial issue because it implies significant advantages and leads to important ethical issues. In particular, this intervention can destroy a human embryo, increase the probability of tumor growth and metastasis, and create genetically engineered human embryos. Each of these issues results in negative consequences that essentially limit the positive aspects of the therapy under consideration. That is why it is challenging to offer a unanimous assessment of the intervention. However, a suitable recommendation is to invest in a more in-depth analysis of stem cell-based therapy to gain a better understanding of the intervention.
References
Volarevic, V., Markovic, B. S., Gazdic, M., Volarevic, A., Jovicic, N., Arsenijevic, N., Armstrong, L., Djonov, V., Lako, M., & Stojkovic, M. (2018). Ethical and safety issues of stem cell-based therapy. International Journal of Medical Sciences, 15(1), 36-45. Web.
Zakrzewski, W., Dobrzynski, M., Szymonowicz, M., & Rybak, Z. (2019). Stem cells: Past, present, and future. Stem Cell Research & Therapy, 10(68). Web.