Stem cell research is a complicated scientific and moral issue, and can impact the amount of technology used in stem cell research. It offers great promise for curing diseases and injuries, but also poses the threat of turning sacred human components into factory farm parts remember the scene in the Matrix movie when Neo 'woke up'. In 1998 scientists discovered how to isolate stem cells from human embryos and grow the cells in the laboratory. Scientists have created human embryos in test tubes solely to experiment on them.

The embryos used in these studies were created for infertility purposes through in vitro fertilization procedures and when they were no longer needed for that purpose, they were donated for research with the informed consent of the donor. They are not derived from eggs fertilized in a woman's body. The embryos from which human embryonic stem cells are derived are typically four or five days old. In vitro fertilization is an assisted reproduction technique and a type of technology used in stem cell research in which fertilization is accomplished outside the body.

The basic human fear behind stem cell research is misanthropy, which is a hatred or distrust of mankind. The basic question, just as in the case of nuclear research and other complex technologies, is whether man or womankind will do something evil with this knowledge. This can directly impact whether or not there will be advances made in the field of technology used in stem cell research.

The initiative was designed to by-pass the Bush administration, which enacted a policy in 2001 barring NIH grants for stem cell work involving the destruction of human embryos. The California effort will emphasize the type of research that the federal government does not fund -- new embryonic stem cell lines and embryonic stem cells derived through human cloning. Researchers can get their embryonic stem cells from leftover embryos at in vitro fertilization clinics, or from using the human cloning process.

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Scientists primarily work with two kinds of stem cells from animals and humans, when utilizing technology used in stem cell reasearch. These types of stem cells have different functions and characteristics:

• Embryonic stem cells and
• Adult stem cells.

Embryonic stem cells—Primitive undifferentiated cells from the embryo that have the potential to become a wide variety of specialized cell types.

Embryonic stem cell line—Embryonic stem cells, which have been cultured under in vitro conditions that allow proliferation without differentiation for months to years.

Adult stem cell—An undifferentiated cell found in a differentiated tissue that can renew itself and with certain limitations differentiate to yield all the specialized cell types of the tissue from which it originated.

If scientists can reliably direct the differentiation of embryonic stem cells into specific cell types, they may be able to use the resulting, differentiated cells to treat certain diseases at some point in the future. In order to develop treatments for diseases sush as Parkinson's disease, diabetes, and heart disease, scientists are intensively studying the fundamental properties of stem cells, which include:

1. Determining precisely how stem cells remain unspecialized and self renewing for many years; and
2. Identifying the signals that cause stem cells to become specialized cells

Stem cells are important for living organisms for many reasons. In the 3- to 5-day-old embryo, stem cells give rise to the multiple specialized cell types that make up the heart, lung, skin, and other tissues. In some adult tissues, such as bone marrow, muscle, and brain, adult stem cells generate replacements for cells that are lost through normal wear and tear, injury, or disease.

Scientists are trying to understand two fundamental properties of stem cells that relate to their long-term self renewal:

1. Why can embryonic stem cells proliferate for long periods of time in the laboratory without differentiating, but most adult stem cells cannot; and
2. What are the factors in living organisms that normally regulate stem cell proliferation and self-renewal?

Discovering the answers to these questions may make it possible to understand how cell proliferation is regulated during normal embryonic development or during the abnormal cell division that leads to cancer.

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Stem cells can give rise to specialized cells. When unspecialized stem cells give rise to specialized cells, the process is called differentiation. Scientists are just beginning to understand the signals inside and outside cells that trigger stem cell differentiation and hope to develop technology used in stem cell research to further advance this discovery. The internal signals are controlled by a cell's genes, which are interspersed across long strands of DNA, and carry coded instructions for all the structures and functions of a cell. The external signals for cell differentiation include chemicals secreted by other cells, physical contact with neighboring cells, and certain molecules in the microenvironment

Growing cells in the laboratory is done utilizing technology used in stem cell research and is known as cell culture involves isolating human embryonic stem cells by transferring the inner cell mass into a plastic laboratory culture dish that contains a nutrient broth known as culture medium. The cells divide and spread over the surface of the dish. The inner surface of the culture dish is typically coated with embryonic skin cells that have been treated so they will not divide. This coating layer of cells is called a feeder layer. The reason for having the treated cells in the bottom of the culture dish is to give the inner cell mass cells a sticky surface to which they can attach. Also, the feeder cells release nutrients into the culture medium.

Adult and embryonic stem cells differ in the number and type of differentiated cells types they can become. Embryonic stem cells can become all cell types of the body. Adult stem cells are generally limited to differentiating into different cell types of their tissue of origin. Large numbers of embryonic stem cells can be relatively easily grown in culture employing technology used in stem cell research, while adult stem cells are rare in mature tissues and methods for expanding their numbers in cell culture have not yet been worked out. This is an important distinction, as large numbers of cells are needed for stem cell replacement therapies.

A potential advantage of using stem cells from an adult is that the patient's own cells could be expanded in culture and then reintroduced into the patient. The use of the patient's own adult stem cells would mean that the cells would not be rejected by the immune system. This represents a significant advantage as immune rejection is a difficult problem that can only be circumvented with immunosuppressive drugs. Embryonic stem cells from a donor introduced into a patient could cause transplant rejection. However, whether the recipient would reject donor embryonic stem cells has not been determined in human experiments.

AAEA disagrees with President Obama's position of supporting federal funds for stem cell research. Embryos must be destroyed to obtain the stem cells.

AAEA agrees with President Bush's position regarding the use of federal funds for stem cell research.

President Bush's position: "As a result of private research, more than 60 genetically diverse stem cell lines already exist.  They were created from embryos that have already been destroyed, and they have the ability to regenerate themselves indefinitely, creating ongoing opportunities for research.  I have concluded that we should allow federal funds to be used for research on these existing stem cell lines, where the life and death decision has already been made. I also believe that great scientific progress can be made through aggressive federal funding of research on umbilical cord placenta, adult and animal stem cells which do not involve the same moral dilemma. This year, your government will spend $250 million on this important research."

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Source: National Institutes of Health