What is stem cell research and how is it connected to abortions?
Are you wondering about whether or not you should call the local cord blood bank?
The general idea of cord blood banking has noticed much improved acceptance in the past decade. At the moment people are thinking about whether they can bank their infant’s cord blood. In the past, the umbilical cord used to be thrown away after the child was actually born, however with increasing feeling of how useful the blood of the umbilical cord is, the medical professionals have finally started to store the blood of the umbilical cord in cord blood banks.
After a great deal of doctors research has been conducted on what can be done with the umbilical cord researchers have uncovered that it is in fact helpful to store the umbilical cord in a cord blood bank. The blood of the umbilical cord is quite useful in healing various diseases related to the immune system and also other blood related disorders which people suffer from. Until relatively recently the umbilical blood was never stored in a cord blood bank; however after the mid 1990s medical professionals have began to comprehend the magnitude of umbilical blood and are finally circulating awareness about the need for storing umbilical blood in a cord blood bank.
The expanding importance of the Cord blood bank
The most basic reason why people are now researching using a cord blood bank is due to the fact that the umbilical blood is considered to be so precious. This is since it consists of high amount of hematopoietic stem cells and can be stored in the cord blood banks safely for years. The importance of having a high quantity of hematopoietic stem cells is that this specific type of blood has the capability to generating new white blood cells and red blood cells. The idea behind the use of cord blood is similar to that of bone marrow transplants which have been in practice for years. However unlike the bone marrow which needs to be matched perfectly, the utilization of the umbilical blood does not involve such a perfect match.
There are many increased chances of treating an ailment with the use of umbilical blood than there have ever been with the bone marrow transplants since the odds of a patient’s body rejecting the umbilical blood are much less in comparison to his chances of rejecting the bone marrow.
The sustained stem cell research shows that there are almost 70 diseases that can be cured with the use of the umbilical cord blood. It is for this reason that more and more people are now starting to stock up their baby’s umbilical cord blood in a local cord blood bank. The cord blood is not only usable by the child whose umbilical cord blood is stored, but this blood can also be utilized by the family members of the children as well. The storing of umbilical blood is important because research proves that the use of the umbilical blood can facilitate in curing cancer, damaged internal organs and even blood disorders, which is one of the major reasons why a good deal of people are starting to avail yourself of a cord blood bank service.
If you need to get your baby’s umbilical blood stored really need to select a cord blood bank well before the birth of your child due to the fact that not every hospital is equipped collect and move the umbilical blood to the cord blood bank. For that reason you would need to select the cord blood bank and inform your doctor almost 2 months in advance so that you can streamline the process of documentation and preparation for the collection and storage of your baby’s umbilical cord blood to the cord blood bank.
I hear that abortions can be good in the sense of stem cell research.
But I do not know what that is, so if someone could explain to me what it is and how abortion would benefit for stem cell research that would be great. Thanks!
Filed under Stem Cell by on Dec 15th, 2009. 
Comments on What is stem cell research and how is it connected to abortions?
it’s an obsolete question now that scientists have discovered the ability to garner stem cells from living human skin.
The problem came up when they were creating stem cells in a lab, they beleive that destroying stem cells is like destroying life. But now they can get stem cells from living tissue or the yummy leftovers after a birth so there is no need to create them just to destroy them.
the spinal cord from aborted babies, or umbilical cord (i cant remember) contains cells that can heal or replace dead cells
Well, stem cell research covers many fields, but it always involves cells at a very early stage of differentiation (stem cells) – which means cells before they have genetically programmed themselves to become a particular tissue, so they have a wide range of “choices” as to what they become.
What it has to do with abortions is that the best way to get stem cells is from an early fetus, we all start as undifferentiated stem cells, but as we develop, those cells divide and specialize to form bones, nerves, muscle, etc. So when a fetus is aborted, the material claimed can be harvested and the stem cells can be used to carry out valuable research that may one day lead to the ability to grow organs in vitro (eliminate waiting lists) and cure some devastating genetic diseases, such as Parkinson’s or Huntington’s disease.
To address some of the other posts, no abortion is EVER done just to harvest the stem cells, it is a question of whether when an abortion is done whether the tissue is discarded or used for research. Also, although stem cells can come from other methods, not all stem cells are the same, and stem cell lines from fetal tissue are valuable (as are the other lines).
Abortion and stem cell research are only related in that they both involve destroying embryos. Hypothetically, aborted embryos could be used for stem cell research, but as far as I know this is not happening. Right now, embryos for research come from in vitro fertilization. When people do IVF to get pregnant, they create several embryos, and implant the best ones in the mother. The parents decide whether to freeze the extra ones for later use, or to destroy them. It is the ones that they want to destroy that can be used for research. These embryos are at a very early stage in development, where they are only undifferentiated cells in a sphere.
stem cell research is basically taking stem cells (which can grow into virtually any cell in the human body) from fetuses and develop them. then the scientists implant them into people who need a specific type of cells, such as people with parkinson’s disease, in hopes that it will replace the defective or lack of cells and cure the disease. if you get an abortion you can give the fetus to a stem cell research centre to, uh, help them. :\
I don’t think that abortion is ever “good.” I think scientists use stem cells because they can be used to grow tissue, I.E. a heart, lung, etc.. Scientists can “program” the cells to become anything they want.
I did hear that scientists can now get stem cells from mice. And according to the other poster, they can now get stem cells from skin.
Anyways, I really wish all these idiots that go and abort their fetus, just because they don’t want a kid, should use contraceptives. It’s not that hard.