STEM CELLS, ORGAN DONATION AND ORGAN FAILURE

Moreover, it is also effective because the time to obtain an organ donation from a human donor generally takes a long time, weeks at the least, if the patient is fortunate; contrastingly, creating an organ, or infusing stem cells in a patients body would merely takes a couple of weeks, probably even days for the patient to recover.

According to the NHS’s organ donation website, even deceased donors cannot meet the demands of the perpetually increasing transplant list. Additionally, we can see from Figure 6 that since 1999, the UK transplant list has gradually risen from 5396 cases of patients

needing an organ donation per year, 7963 cases as of 2009; as I mentioned earlier therapeutic cloning is effective as it essentially removes the problem of the waiting list is helpful towards mending organs which have become dysfunctional. The above graph has provided both valid and reliable data as it is data that the NHS themselves have obtained from patients within the UK’s hospitals.

I would say that the solution is valid; the reason why I say this is because the problem that I had identified in the beginning, has, been essentially answered. But I also feel that the solution may also have a low validity; once the biological processes are complete, the solution is extremely effective, however the initial steps of the solution are hard to repeat as was said by Thomas Okarma, chief executive of Geron Corporation (in the USA), who stated that at least ‘100 eggs’ are required, ‘if you're lucky’, to produce a stable egg, which would produce further stem cells. Regardless of the fact that stem cells can repair a damaged organ or become an organ, another drawback is that scientists are not yet capable of influencing stem cells to become particular organs; for this reason, I consider my solution, an answer for future and its generations.

THE ETHICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMICAL IMPLICATIONS:

Solving organ shortage can affect society as a whole. After a loved one has died, families tend to have tense relationships with one another; organ shortage results in many unwanted and unnecessary deaths each year, therefore using stem cells as a solution to our problem will benefit society and help save thousands of lives each year.

Stem cells as a ‘cure’ to organ shortage can also benefit businesses and the economy of a nation. Research into stem cells will not only solve the problem to the organ deficit, but also to life’s other question, for instance, how to slow down ageing.  An example of how economies can be benefited is the NHS introducing these therapies to subsidise the government’s economic issues.

Some people may object to ethical issues concerning the use of stem cells. Stem cells require research until they can be deemed completely safe, but scientists use animals to test their research on - many protestors object to this as animal cruelty. Another ethical issue is that many religious people see the exploitation of stem cells by scientists as trying to ‘play God’.

BENEFITS AND RISKS

BENEFITS

a)

A big problem that doctors come across, during transplants of other kinds, such as animal organ transplants, is rejection of foreign cells by the immune system, however, as I stated earlier, using a patient’s own stem cell means that there is no chance of rejection by the immune system. Adverse effects that would have occurred, had it been another person’s cells that were used, is reduced or even altogether stopped.

b)

An alternative use of stem cells is that they can be used to cure many diseases. An estimate states that around 100 million Americans may benefit from stem cell therapies. Cardiovascular diseases accounts for half of the deaths in developed countries; a majority of  cardiovascular diseases start with a myocardial infarction (heart attack), due to the death of muscles surrounding the heart; bone marrow or foetal liver stem cells can be used to regenerate the dead muscles surrounding the heart and can ultimately improve the levels of rich blood reaching the heart, thus preventing any further damages or diseases occurring. Furthermore, stem cells can also cure other detrimental diseases, for example type 1 diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. Scientists have been able to coerce stem cells into cells which are able to produce insulin; scientists have also been using genetic engineering methods to induce stem cells into becoming functional insulin producing cells. Parkinson’s disease is a well known disease that results from the death of dopamine secreting cells; modifying stem cells into dopamine neurons can be employed to treat Parkinson’s disease.

c)

A potential futuristic benefit is that according to studies there seems to be a link between ageing and stem cells. As people grow older, their body is able to produce less and less stem cells, this result in inflammation of the body, which many scientists identify as ‘ageing’; scientists have stated if they can manipulate stem cells then it would consequent in slowing down the process of ageing, thus increasing the length of how long people live. If scientists are successful, then it can bring about economic benefits to businesses that will be able to make millions of pounds or even to the government of a nation who can offer services in return for money which can stabilise the economy of the nation.

RISKS

a)  A risk to using stem cells as a solution is that greedy scientists or business people may provide stem cell therapy services for the sole purpose of money and not to help save lives. Moreover, knowledge on how to clone humans (stem cells can be used to clone organisms) in the future may lead to shocking consequences, even though the intention was good, as was with nuclear research. Alternatively an evil criminal may use cloning for his own petty gains, such as cloning himself to perplex police.

b) Another disadvantage is that many people from religious backgrounds object against stem cell researches because they feel that scientists who are using stem cells in this manner are trying to ‘play God’; the reason they feel this is because they think that God is the only who chooses when people die and the fact that scientists are looking for means to develop stem cells into age delaying treatments, is something which irritates them very much. Furthermore, the uses of animals, to test the effects of stem cells, aggravates the situation further; vivisection and testing on animals breaks the animals rights views of many people and is not something these people would advocate:

ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS

USING ANIMAL ORGANS

An alternative solution concerning this issue is the use of certain animals and their organs, which are closely related to the biology of human organs (known as xenotransplantation); for instance a pig heart is very similar to a human heart, therefore it will be able to collaborate with the human systems. The animal organs can make up for the shortage of donors or for the failure of an organ. Animal organs are transplanted in the same way as a human organ, whereby an organ is clinically inserted into the ideal location of the body. Further research into this field has allowed scientists in China to modify pig skin and bone marrow cells into ‘stem like’ cells, which can potentially form any type of body tissue. Moreover, rejection of an animal organ is highly likely to arise from the immune system, but scientists from Hammersmith, in London have succeeded in stalling the adverse reaction between the human immune system and foreign cells; consequently, the human body is oblivious of the foreign cells entering the body.

MAKING ORGAN DONATION COMPULSORY

Currently, the law in a majority of the nations of the world, allows people to choose to give an organ or not, after their death, but making it mandatory for people to give their organs after their deaths would open up another opportunity for scientists to make up the deficit of organs. It is estimated that around 1,000 people in the UK die avoidable deaths, whilst waiting for an organ transplant; according to MP David Borrow, if the government were to introduce a system whereby every citizen pledged to give their organs after death, then it would stop these avoidable deaths from occurring and would supply doctors with ample amounts of organs for organ transplant. Many optimists would say that if this same system was implemented in every major nation of the world then organ shortage would no longer be an issue.

VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF DATA

In the beginning of my report, where I described my problem, I used some statistics concerning organ shortage; these statistics were from Wikipedia.com. Many people would say that Wikipedia.com is a very valid source to get data and information from, yet at the same time it isn’t as reliable as you would expect. Another source that I used was the book: ‘Fundamentals of the stem cell debate: the scientific, religious, ethical, and political issues’, by Kristen R. Monroe, Ronald Baker Miller, Jerome S. Tobis; I used this source when I was elaborating  the beneficial effects of stem cells on diseases. Again, this book source would be deemed by many as valid in context to the problem that I explored; though people would be split between whether or not the book is reliable.

In my opinion I would say that Wikipedia.com is reliable, for instance the data that there are ’34 donors per million in Spain’ shows how Wikipedia.com facilitates in describing my and subsequently answering my problem. Nevertheless, Wikipedia.com is not valid because it is written by administrators who may be biased and use their opinions as facts; the information written on Wikipedia.com is not peer assessed, so there may be many flaws in the data given and people may not realise this.

The book ‘Fundamentals of the stem cell debate: the scientific, religious, ethical, and political issues’, in my opinion is extremely valid. The book assisted me in expressing the remedial effects of stem cells on many diseases, so it answered my problem partially. I would say that the book was quite reliable because it was written by more than one expert in the field of stem cells, hence mistakes would be minimised and similar information would have been produced by other people who are also professionals in the same field as people in similar fields have the same concept and ideas concerning an area of science.

BIBILIOGRAPHY

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