1. How are stem cells and cancer cells similar? 2. What are the ethical issues s
ID: 50346 • Letter: 1
Question
1. How are stem cells and cancer cells similar?
2. What are the ethical issues surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells? Can any of these issues be avoided using technology such as somatic cell transfer or induced pluripotent stem cells, explain why or why not?
3. What are the potential dangers of stem cell technology?
4. What are the basic differences between the 4 major classes of plants found in Olympic National Park? What is the earliest common ancestor for all of these classes?
5. When looking at the classes of animals in the park, what is the difference between an invertebrate and a vertebrate? Which class of animal has the greatest amount of diversity?
6. Do all animals have symmetry? What types of symmetry are there?
7. In any ecosystem, death is an incredibly important part of the health of that ecosystem. What types of organisms are critical for the recycling of nutrients in the ecosystem?
Explanation / Answer
1. Stem cells are similar to cancer cells in the following ways:
a. Both types of cells have the ability to proliferate extensively.
b. Both cell types have cell renewal properties.
2. The ethical issues surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells are:
a. The embryo is a complete person from fertilization onwards and thus has full moral status.
b. It has been argued after 14 days of fertilization embryo needs special attention and protection.
c. The moral status of embryo increases with each passing day.
No, these issues cannot be avoided by using the given technologies because somatic cell transfer is basically a cloning technique and has ethical issues surrounding it. Moreover, somatic cell transfer and induced pluripotent cells are related to embryonic stem cell technology itself in one way or the other.
3. The main dangers feared due to stem cell technology are the unexpected results and effects that can happen from the use of this technology. Some of these dangers are:
a. Passing on virus: When stem cell technology is used for transplants the patients are kept under heavy medication for the transplant to be successful. In such a case the immune system of the patient can be wiped out and the virus in the transplanted stem cell can then be easily passed on to the patient.
b. Passing of disease from animals: Cultivation of stem cells in laboratory requires nutrients for growth. This nutrition can be derived from animal sources. These animal sources can have various diseases which can then be passed to patients receiving stem cell based treatment or therapies.
c. Uncontrolled or misdirected growth: Since stem cells are young they are versatile Due to this property special care and control is needed to ensure that stem cells grow in a controlled manner. A small mistake can lead to uncontrolled or misdirected growth which can be dangerous for patients undergoing stem cell treatments.
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