Stem Cells: Makind'S Modern Treasure
Stem Cells: Mankind’s Modern Treasure
My dad has prostate cancer. For many years he has lived with this disease, and he must undergo routine tests and localized chemotherapy injections every few months to keep the cancer from ravaging other organs and tissues. When he was first diagnosed, he was treated with radiation therapy, which put the cancer in remission. After eight years it resurfaced, this time being stronger and more resistant to treatments. My father has experienced the best that modern medicine has to offer. Like many diseases, cancer can be controlled and treated, but it is difficult to rid the body of it forever.
Should employing chemotherapy and radiation be a climactic point for treating cancer? For the majority who suffer with the illness, this is currently their only hope. What if there was a new frontier of medicine that promised hope to not just treat, but cure various diseases from Parkinson’s to Cancer? Should we be satisfied with the contemporary medical treatments we have at our disposal, or explore this new frontier that may reveal many abundant treasures? This frontier is stem cell research. Since the turn of the millennium, this topic has taken root as a very controversial religious, political and social issue in the U.S. and worldwide.
Stem cells are unspecialized cells in your body that can differentiate into many kinds of tissue. Plainly, they can form heart, liver, kidney, brain, nerve and various others kinds of cells and tissues that compose your organs. The Mayo Clinic’s website explains that by using stem cells, scientists have the potential to replace diseased cells, form new tissues, develop new medications, and reveal vital information about cancer and birth defects (“Stem Cells: Medicine’s new frontier”) . The science behind this discovery is complex and amazing, allowing scientists to understand, and possibly cure diseases that since creation have inflicted suffering upon...
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