What is stem cell research and how is it connected to abortions?
Are you thinking about whether or not you should get in touch with the local cord blood bank?
The strategy of cord blood banking has witnessed much elevated acceptance in the past several years. Nowadays 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 delivered, however with developing recognition of how valuable the blood of the umbilical cord is, the doctors have finally started to store the blood of the umbilical cord in cord blood banks.
After a ton of medical research has been performed on what can be done with the umbilical cord researchers have found that it is very beneficial to store the umbilical cord in a cord blood bank. The blood from the umbilical cord is exceedingly beneficial in treating varied diseases related to the immune system and also other blood related disorders which people suffer from. Till the mid 1990s the umbilical blood was never stored in a cord blood bank; But after the mid 1990s medical professionals have began to understand the importance of umbilical blood and are now spreading knowledge of the importance of storing umbilical blood in a cord blood bank.
The increasing 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 carries high amount of hematopoietic stem cells and can be stored in the cord blood banks safely for years. The importance of having a large amount of hematopoietic stem cells is that this exact type of blood is capable of generating new white blood cells and red blood cells. The science behind the use of cord blood is similar to that of bone marrow transplants which have been in practice for many years. However unlike the bone marrow which needed to be a perfect match with the recipient, the utilization of the umbilical blood does not involve such a perfect match.
There are much increased chances of treating an ailment with the use of umbilical blood than there are with the bone marrow transplants since the probability of a patient’s body rejecting the umbilical blood are much less in comparison to his likelihood of rejecting the bone marrow.
The ongoing stem cell research shows that there are roughly 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 finally starting to store their baby’s umbilical cord blood in a local cord blood bank. The cord blood is not only useful to the child whose umbilical cord blood is stored, but this blood can also be utilized by various family members of the children as well. The use of umbilical blood is vital because research proves that the use of the umbilical blood can facilitate in curing cancer, damaged internal organs as well as blood disorders, which is one of the primary reasons why a lot of people are opting to use a cord blood bank service.
If you want to have your baby’s umbilical blood stored need to pick a cord blood bank well before the arrival of your baby because not all hospitals are equipped collect and transport the umbilical blood to the cord blood bank. For that reason you will have to to select the cord blood bank and let your dr know about 2 months in advance so that you can simplify the progression of paperwork 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.