Arguments for and Against Using Stem Cells in Biomedical Research and Medicine

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Another essential impeding fact, is the absence of corresponding law either prohibiting or permitting stem cell research. According to Constitution of Republic of Armenia any action that is not directly forbidden by the law can be legally applied, but it is a circle because there is no law about the research because there is no research itself (there was no necessity to accept a law) and there is no research because there are no legislative norms for that (ignoring the fact of absence of financial resources). [The Constitution of the Republic of Armenia] That’s why in Armenia now there is a hesitative situation in conducting research.

Most important problems are considered to be scientific ones connected with pure research. One of them is defined to be the absence of enough data about effectiveness of stem cells which makes unpredictable the consequences of therapeutic use of those. The second one is uncertainty of the impact of medicines the patients take on the implanted stem cells, which puts under the question quality of cells. It is known that some cells are produced by process of therapeutic cloning, representing a procedure of taking out the nucleus of an egg and replacing it by another organism DNA-material. This procedure increases the probability of genetic mutations occur, and guarantees of safety of biological material are not fully worked out. [http://clinvest.ru/articles/item/nekotorye-aktualnye-problemy-klinicheskih-issledovanij-stvolovyh-kletok]

It can be inferred from points mentioned above that stem cell research is rather new, not fully developed scientific field. Nevertheless, in Western countries, economically highly developed ones, this type of research both basically and on application is broadly used. Although there are many arguments “pro” and “cons”, still stem cell research is considered to be required in all the countries as statistically its results helped to save several lives. Though there are still problems that have to be covered, this is one of the most outstanding achievements in science.

References:

file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/StemCells2%20(1).pdf

http://www.eurostemcell.org/factsheet/types-stem-cells-and-their-current-uses

The Constitution of the Republic of Armenia [ http://www.president.am/en/constitution/ ]

http://clinvest.ru/articles/item/nekotorye-aktualnye-problemy-klinicheskih-issledovanij-stvolovyh-kletok