Magic from Human Regenerative Technologies--Stem Cells

Many people suffer from chronic diseases and problems due to injury from accidents or ailments. Some problems, such as measles and cancer, can be cured or put into remission with time, medicine, or treatments. Other ailments, such as high blood pressure, failing kidneys, and cystic fibrosis, cannot be cured and require continuous use of medications or organ transplants. Many people are in need of organ transplants (113,075 in the U.S., with only about 1,000 donors per month giving organs or tissues to transplant) (UNOS, 2012). In addition, for those who receive transplants, there is a need to continuously receive antirejection medications to keep their bodies from rejecting the new organs. It seems that, for many, there is no cure to failing health conditions. In this article, the author explores the possible uses of stem cells to aid in mending the human body, and analyzes the ethics associated with this technology. The medical community is using the term regenerative medicine and tissue engineering more and more because of the negativism some attach to stem cell research. (Contains 5 figures.)