Artikel Kesehatan Invaluable Embryonic Stem-Cells Research Embryonic Stem Cells (ESCs) Research is back in the news again.

Unfortunately, it is under the political and religious pressure. ESCis moving at a slower pace at the expense of, as stated by theWhite House, millions of people who suffer from life destroyingdiseases. Unlike abortion, the purpose of ESC research is to curep otential diseases and disabilities such as Parkinsons disease,diabetes, Alzheimers , stroke, and spinal cord injuries.Despite its good intentions, ESC research was consideredmanipulation and destruction of a life form; as Pope John Paul IIclea rly stated, embryonic research is morally unacceptable.This ongoing debate is one of the most controversial topics doesnot seem to be ending any time soon, but ti me is running out forthose suffering from the diseases. While some are lying in bed,others are in wheelchairs waiting in hope that one day they willhave a chanc e to live their lives with more certainty. To them,ESC research is a possible ho pe, and hope is sometimes allexpecting patients have. The Invaluable Embryo There are various ways to obtain stem cells: blood cells(extracted from the umbi lical cord blood, after a baby is born),bone marrow donation (from existing huma n beings), and the ESCsfrom the fertility clinics. Among those, ESC is the mostq uestionable and objectionable by various parties because ofethic issues involved . Is Embryo A Life Form? It is not the advance technology that has made ESC researchcontroversial, but be cause we each hold different value systems.These belief systems then transcend i nto measuring sticks either visible or invisible ones.Why should we support embry onic stem cells research? Theanswer is straightforward. These embryos are flexib le and havemore potential than the adult stem cells, according to theNational In stitutes of Health (NIH), Embryonic stem cells canbecome all cell types of the bo dy because they are pluripotent.Adult stem cells are generally limited to differ entiating intodifferent cell types of their tissue of origin, once introducedinto the human body, it has the ability to repair the damagedtissues; scientists hop e that one day, they could use stem cells asa promising avenue to cure the dying patients.Conflicts arise when two people interact with each other trying tomeas ure up with their own sets of measuring sticks. Often times,we impose our views towards counterparts and fail to look atissues from a larger standpoint. Physici ans, for example, had toadopt the Catholic Churchs view on life. According to Ric hardDoerflinger, the Deputy Directory of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,physicians are bond by the code of e thic stated in theDeclaration of Geneva, practicing physicians had to swear I willm aintain the utmost respect for human life, from the time ofconception and No exper iment should be conducted where thereis a prior reason to believe that death or disabling injury willoccur What is Life? So, what is life? Lets take a look at Aristotles epigenesis andpreformation theori es. His theories had a great influence in our society. Although Aristotles belief a form of an animal emergesgradually from a re latively formless egg according to Dr.Campbell, Reece, and Mitchell, authors of B iology, has beencompletely discarded by modern biology. However, Aristotlesconcep t on preformation for something is preformed in thezygote is credited with having a profound influence on popularopinion in this area. Similarly, the Catholic chu rches alsorecognize that each human being is created by God at themoment of conc eption or fertilization.Scientists, on the other hand, have a different view on what islife, they argue that ESCs are pluripotent, ESCs hold thepossibility of dev eloping into any organ of the body, yet,according to National Institutes of Heal th (NIH), [ESCs] aretypically four or five days old and are a hollow microscopic ball ofcells called the blastocyst. In addition to that, Dr. RichardMaurice in hi s article titled Key Ethical Issues in EmbryonicStem Cell Research published for t

he Department of theParliamentary Library in Australa, the probability of IVFembr yos developing into full-term successful births is low. Thereis a high rate of f etal loss in early embryos-up to 73 percent inpre-implantation embryos. Thus, I d o agree with Dr. Richard,[E]mbryos do not have the psychological, physiological, emotional,intellectual properties that we tend to centrally associate withperson hood.Of course, one must not under mind the Catholic churchesefforts trying to re serve the dignity that of a human. Theintention of the Catholic churches was to prevent human beingsfrom becoming subject matter for science, much like whathapp ened during the holocaust in the World War II. Nonetheless,I found it hard to su pport Pope John Paul II, Human embryosobtained in vitro are human beings Because I am side with Dr. Richard, Embryos, particularly the very early pre-implantationblastocystsdo nothave consciousness, individuality, the abilityto reason, or the ability to form cour ses of action in life and tochoose between them. Whose view of life: Taking lives or saving lives? Proponents have raised a philosophical question if it is moral forone to save li fe; you have to destroy another, or whether anexisting living life has more intr insic value than that of a cell. Iwould like to touch on the eudaimonism; the in famous and thewell-known relationship between virtue and rightness philosophypro posed by Aristotle.I personally believe life has its purpose, and the entire sys tem isin circular form birth, growth, mature, decease, and eventuallyreturn back to the earth, the whole cycle then, repeats itself. Tocomplete this cycle, many living organisms were involved along theprocess. Some may live for a full cycle , many dont, just asdepicted by Aristotle that some things were done for their ow nsake, and some things were done for the sake of other things.Many of the artific ially created embryos from the laboratoryhave the potential to save lives that al ready demonstrate physicaltraits as human beings. Instead of supporting the life savingtechnology that benefits many, opponents, particularly thereligious party made it clear that by harvesting embryonic stemcells is by all means killing ot her human beings, and stated theirposition that they will not make compromise no r be tolerated onstem cell research regardless that the lifesaving science hasgr eat potential to save lives. I dont see it as morally acceptableto dispose of ESC s instead of using it for saving lives and possiblykeeping the dignity of those who suffer. Living Well: A Hope for the Hopeless Life is all about making choices. Our ability to make choices allowsothers to ho ld us responsible for those decisions. In order toachieve something; we have to give up something. Thats theopportunity costs we are facing and cannot avoid; the best we cando is just simply make the best choice.Now ESCs research is moving a t a slower pace due to lack offederal funding. Many celebrities including Nancy Reagan, MichaelJ. Fox and the deceased Christopher Reeves are the bestspokespers ons and supporters for the future of ESC funding. InSeptember 2005, there will b e a roll call vote on a bill to providefederal funding for ESCs. If President Bu sh vetoes this bill, thefate and the future of ESC research will be in the hands of theHouse and Senates. Without two thirds of the House and Senatesto enact th e bill, it will be just like those discarded embryos,never had a chance to see t he light.While people pray for the unborn, and the Vatican prays to stopthis res earch, people suffer. Alex Kassorla, for example, the 7- year-old-girl who suffe red a spinal cord injury at age 3 is sittingon the wheel chair, and among those to promote stem cellresearch. ESC research will help to stop the suffering of th eliving and of the many unborn generations who follow us into life.Lets not let o ur generations down.Footnotes1. According to the National Institute of Health (N IH), embryonic stem cells are derived from embryos that developfrom eggs that have been fertilized in vitr oin an in vitrofertilization (IVF) clinicand then donated for researchpurposes wit h informed consent of the donors. They are notderived from eggs fertilized in a womans body are typicallyfour or five days old and are a hollow microscopic ball

of cells called the blastocyst. Blastocyst is 5-6 days after fertilization, the egg develops intothe cell ball pictured in the image, which is called blastocyst bydevelopmental biologists. At the depicte d stage the ball is hollow,consisting of an envelope of cells, surrounding the i nner cell mass(ICM) from which the embryonic stem cells are gathered.2. Accordin g to National Institutes of Health (NIH), pluripotent includes three structures: the trophoblast, which is the layer ofcells that surr ounds the blastocyst; the blastocoel, which is thehollow cavity inside the blast ocyst; and the inner cell mass.3. Aristotles epigenesis recognized the organism was not yetformed in the fertilized egg, but that it aro se as a consequenceof profound changes in shape and form during the course ofemb ryogenesis. 4. According to Campbell, Reece, and Mitchelle, preformation is a homunculus inside the head of a human sperm.According to one version of the p reformation idea, a spermcontains a preformed, miniature infant, which simply gr ows in sizeduring embryonic development. This engraving was made in 1694.5. Eudaimonism : Actions are not pointless; they have an aim, agoal. Every action aims at some good some things are done fortheir own sake (ends in themselves) and some things are done forthe sake of other things (means to other ends). References: Buckley W. Don. Morally Healthy Cells. 155:7 August 2005. Textfrom Wilson Web. 1 September 2005. Campbell, A. Neil, Reece, B.Jane. Mitchell, G. Lawrence. Biolog y. 5ed. Benjamin/Cummings:CA, 1999. Chaves, Paul. Feinstein, Schwarzenegger Back CellStudy. Page image from WashingtonPost.com. 23 August, 2005. .23 August, 200 5. CNN News: Pope condemns human embryocloning. 29 August, 2000. 20 August 2005. . (17 paragraphs).Doerflinger M. Richard. U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops 2 9September 2004. . (pp. 13) Dr. Richard, Maurice. Key Ethical