Bits of Biology: 2012

Beth Taylor gave birth to triplets prematurely. One of them was Cora Beth Taylor, who was the only one of the three to show signs of prematurity. When she was only 18 months old, she was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. This disease weakens muscle tone and is caused before birth. There is no cure for the disease. Her parents found out that stem cells can help Cora, but stem cells treatment is illegal in America. So they traveled to China so Cora could have surgery. The hospital would use stem cells from donor umbilical cord blood to treat her. After 8 stem cell transfusions, Cora made a quick recovery. She was able to walk by herself and even do sit ups. Because of stem cells, Cora can live her life normally. I hope that Cora's story will inspire Americans to allow embryonic stem cell research here.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Article For Stem Cell Research Report/Nick Huber

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/02/health/main6735628.shtml

Stem Cell Research Article Summary
Nick Huber
Block 4
Con Group

The article describes how in 2010 a patient who had broken his ankle, and would not heal after many surgeries, but was healed after he was injected with Adult Stem Cells from his own bone marrow. Dr. Thomas Einhorn was the doctor who instituted the idea to use this treatment on this patient because of an article he had read from France about success in use of this treatment using Adult Stem Cells. It tells of how it is not similar to embryonic stem cells because these stems cells usually come from the bone marrow in our bodies, and how over two dozen studies for other treatments have been conducted using these stem cells which had a successful outcome in all treatments which shows that there is a wide range of conditions that Adult Stem Cells could treat. This treatment has also helped researchers produce beating hearts, ears and bladders which is what provoked the government to invest, which they have and still are today, hundreds of millions of dollars in this form of research. Researchers have said that they are going to study this form of treatment on people who suffer from heart attacks, sclerosis, and diabetes. They had also stated that they were successfully able to restore sight to a man who lost his vision to a chemical accident. Some doctors and professors are calling this a life saving treatment because some of the major achievements that Adult Stem Cells have gotten are that these stem cells have helped hundreds to thousands of people overcome things such as leukemia, lymphoma, and other blood conditions. For Example, using Adult Stem Cells were tested on a patient who suffered from multiple and frequent heart attacks, but when injected with stem cells it showed to pump blood through the arteries, even though this isn’t something that has proven to stop all other heart attacks but extensive and expensive surgery was not needed to treat the patient, just a simple and relatively cheap injection. Many doctors have seen this as a life saving and life changing treatment and they hope that in a short few years this will be a form of treatment for other diseases because even now using Adult Stem Cells have cured over 70 different diseases.

Charlie Schefft Stem Cell Argument

Charlie Schefft

Alright I think I finally got it to work. Sorry this is so late, I thought that we had to publish this onto our journals in moodle. Hahaha, anyway here it is.

These are my article websites:
http://stemcells.wisc.edu/
http://www.embryonicstemcellresearch.org/embryonic-stem-cell-research-can-save-lives-2.html

These articles talk about the importance of embryonic stem cells and why we need to be using them. The second article explains how embryonic stem cells can be transformed into any cell in the body and be used to cure many fatal diseases such as type 1 diabetes and cancer. I learned from these articles that we can't let religious influences, and beliefs stop embryonic stem cell research and development. It is evil to let sick, dying patients suffer from life-taking diseases when they don't have to be. If embryonic stem cell research was funded, we would be able to find cures for these diseases and give them to everyone who needs them. If people could get over their personal beliefs of why they think embryonic stem cells are soo bad, then we could do this, and save millions of lives all over the world.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Stem Cell Argument- Josh Reichman block 2

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/23/health/stem-cell-research-breakthrough/index.html?iref=storysearch

In this article, there are two women, each with macular degeneration, an eye disease that affects millions of Americans and for which there is no cure. After being injected with human embryonic stem cells, they both had much improved results in eyesight. This marked the first time these cells have helped someone.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Kasia Fisher Stem Cell Con, Block 3

http://www.aproundtable.org/tps30info/stemcellresearch.html

First of all, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry that this is coming in so late. I was sick all the way through Sunday and I'm afraid this slipped my mind! Also I apologize for missing the debate which I had been really looking forward to, and I am sorry to hear that it did not go so well!:( Well anyways, here's my paragraph: (and a paper will be coming soon.)

My article is an article that shows ten falsehoods about Embryonic Stem Cell Research. While reading this article, I had to keep in mind that it was a little dated because it states that embryonic stem cells have never cured anyone, when in fact they now have. But the gist of this article was very good. It pointed out all the basic flaws and inhumanities of embryonic stem cell treatment. One part of this article particularly stands out to me; in number ten the author says, "If Mother Nature sends a tsunami that claims thousands of human lives, that does not make it morally permissible for me to take a machine gun and shoot into a stadium filled with thousands of people." I think this is a very good point that demonstrates how natural selection should be what chooses the fate of the embryonic cells, not man. That statement illustrates the fact that each cell is a possible being, and with this kind of research, scientists would be killing off potential babies.
This article also talks about the importance about Adult Stem Cells, and how they are more humane healers. It also talks about how Adult Stem Cells have cured thousands of people. So they are a tried and tested method that are more morally correct than Embryonic Stem Cells are.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Megan Ries Block 4 pro embryonic

http://www.allaboutpopularissues.org/pros-and-cons-of-stem-cell-research.htm

http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/

The first article that I read gave me information of embryonic and adult stem cells. It showed me pros and cons of both sides, which was helpful because in order to be able to defend yourself, it is useful to know what the other side might be saying. The article kind of leaned towards adult stem cells as being better, so I got to see how the other side could be thinking for our debate. I also researched answers to some of the problems brought up that can prepare me for the debate as a result of this article. My second link is a website rather than an article, but I wanted to include it because it was extremely useful and I used it for almost all of my information about stem cells. The layout was kind of tricky to navigate on but once you got past that, it had a multitude of information on the subject, including things like where you can get embryonic stem cells, that will certinley help when it comes to the debate.

Cons of Embryotic Stem Cells. Kati Ethridge, block 2

Embryotic Stem Cells Are a Dead End

Although embryotic stem cell research may seem like a miracle, scientists and researchers keep diving into huge potholes. For starters, the human body attacks all foreign cells, even cells that are helping you (i.e. the stem cells). Therefore, patients who have undergone stem cell treatment may have to live the rest of their lives on a dangerous immunosuppressant drug. Dr. Bernadine Healy, former director of the Nation Institute of Health, agrees that embryotic stem cell research is obsolete. Along with the danger of living with a suppressed immune system, the embryotic cells also have a nasty habit of causing large tumors called teratomas. Teratomas, although they are benign, they can grow larger than a football. They have also been reported to contain teeth, hair, bone, and in extremely rare cases, they can contain complex organs such as eyes, arms, torsos, and other limbs.

http://www.fumento.com/biotech/greatstemcell.html

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Tommy Sato (Bell 3) Embryonic Stem Cells PROS

http://www.ehow.com/about_5527138_pros-embryonic-stem-cell-research.html

This article discusses about how the embryonic stem cells are looked upon religious and political perspectives. Religious viewers mainly like the idea of embryonic stem cells, but Catholics and Christians do not fond embryonic stem cells. Not many people who fall under this category do not mind about these cells, but religious viewers do. Embryonic stem cells are also considered more useful compared to adult stem cells, since embryonic stem cell are more reliable than adult stem cells.and adult stem cells are not as reliable. Embryonic stem cells have stronger, reliability due to the flexibility of using the embryonic stem cell on any part of the human body.

Katherine Schott Stem Cell Con Block 3

As science grows, many new types of discoveries are made. One is stem cell research. The controversy between the two types (adult and embryonic) stand with the ones thought on the killing of a unborn child. It is stated with in this link under Testimonials, that the patient who underwent fetal stem cell treatment (in partnership with embryonic). She only came back with a slight improvement yet not completely. It is also said, for example, that sexual diseases can be treated. Yet while looking for this to be confirmed, nothing was found. From this so called fact, how can one trust a medical treatment facility that gives part truths. Along with the slight improvements the pricing for various treatments range anywhere from $7,500- $35,000, this is extremely pricey form something that has not fully been proven to be able to help or cure a certain disease or complication.

http://www.placidway.com/profile/768/EmCell-Clinic

Cons Of Stem Cell Research- Megan Riehle-Block 2

My article starts off with with the people who make policies on stem cell research. It then goes into the funding and development of stem cells under President Bush. In this section it also tells of the Republican parties policies on stem cells. Later it states in the text that the Bush administration spent around $294 million on embryonic stem cell research. The article then goes into the Obama administrations plan for embryonic stem cell research. It said that is was estimated that they would spend around $562 million on the research. It also discusses the judgements on the lawfulness of the stem cell research. It goes over the process of the bills making it legal and giving it grants. It also tells of these bills having trouble passing through the supreme court .

http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/appendix-d-stem-cell-research-funding-policy-and-law#bush

Alina Syed- Block 2- Pro

http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/basics3.asp

This article I read was about what embryonic stem cells were and the differences between them and adult stem cells. The also shared how embryonic stem cells were made. It said that embryonic cells are derived from the embryo, hence its name. Then the cell is fertalized and donated for research. Embryonic cells are not fertellized in a women's body. They also talk about the different tests they do on the embryonic stem cells like exhibiting the properties of the cell which is called characterization. On the website the also have different articles about adult stem cells and the similarities and differences. The website also talks about potential problems between adukt stem cells and embryonic stem cells. The article also talked about how these embryonic stem cells are capable of renewing themselves and can become tissue or organ specific cells.

Beau Embryonic Stem Cells Pro block 4

My article includes some advantages to Embryonic stem cells. The article mentions how to there are more possibilities with embryonic stem cell than adult stem cells. It also says that 70 million animals are killed each year in testing and embryonic stem cell could greatly reduce this number. In general, my article shows that pros of embryonic stem cells are very beneficial to human health.

http://www.ehow.com/about_4780664_advantages-embryonic-stem-cell-research.html

Peter Morgan, Block 4 Pro Adult Stem Cells.

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-204_162-6735628.html?pageNum=2&tag=contentMain;contentBody

My article was not so much geared towards the put down of embryonic stem cells but weighing the pros and cons of both. What it does inform the reader of is that adult stem cells have had many, many, successful treatments while embryos haven't had any. This shows that adult stem cells are already successful and we still don't know much about embryonic stem cells. Another point is that to harvest embryos we have to terminate a developing human life while, adult stem cells can be taken out of the blood stream or bone marrow. This is much less costly, less painful to the patient and adult stem cell surgery is covered on most insurance policies. One researcher has reported making a beating heat with the use of adult stem cells and, many cases have shown that stem cells put on a persons heart can make the heart much stronger. Adult stem cells have also helped cure or treat type one diabetes, Cancers such as melanoma and kidney cancer, Multiple sclerosis and more. The only thing that we need to be careful of is ourselves. We all want the research to fall into place and just work and it doesn't happen like that. We have to fight to be patient, to be sure that the research is legitimate and that it will work without fail. But when looking at the progress from both fields of research it is clear that adult stem cells are much more advanced, humane, useful and should be studied more. That is exactly why adult stem cells need to be studied, not embryonic.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Friday, May 25, 2012

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Friday, March 2, 2012

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Monday, February 20, 2012

Friday, February 17, 2012

Thursday, February 16, 2012