A little more than five years ago, Dr. James Thompson, at the time an obscure scientist, transformed the future of medical science. In his laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, he succeeded in isolating living stem cells-precursor cells that possess the unparalleled ability to transform into any other cell within the human body. Once transformed, they can be spliced with a patient's own DNA and injected into the body. The transformed cells migrate through the bloodstream and locate a deficiency of healthy cells. There they proliferate in abundance, resulting in the natural repair of diseased tissue. However, not only did Dr. Thompson's scientific breakthrough highlight the possibility of such exciting procedures, but bioethical implications of stem cell research followed from his breakthrough. Implications so poignant that they prompted President George W. Bush, in a nationally televised address, to ban the use of federal funds for any further stem cell research.

Two years later, the President's decision seems antiquated, almost isolationist, as the promise of stem cell research proves too overwhelming for America to sit on the sidelines while scientific leaps are made elsewhere. According to Dr. Lee Silver, a molecular biologist at Princeton University, the federal restrictions on the use of stem cells are so severe that they prohibit the serious advancement of research. The reason for this lack of progress lies in the restrictions the U.S. government has set forth in order to receive the limited amount of federal funds that are available; to date, only sixty-four stem cell lines developed around the world qualify for federal funding [1]. Furthermore, all of the sixty-four stem cell lines that do qualify for public funding have, at some point, been spliced with animal cells, rendering any obtained results highly uncertain for human application [1]. Results obtained from these stem cell lines could likely produce erroneous conclusions that would further set back stem cell research for years. In stark contrast, countries such as Britain and Canada have already developed properly funded, unrestricted research programs. The foreign programs have proven so accommodating to scientific researchers that they have lured many prominent domestic scientists. As a result, most of the major stem cell breakthroughs are now occurring in foreign countries. In 1992, Samuel Weiss, a Canadian neurobiologist, exemplified this shift of knowledge when he first isolated adult neural stem cells, a process now mimicked by scientists around the world [2].

If American stem cell research continues to be poorly funded, the United States will fall significantly behind this new forefront of medicine as foreign countries continue to make key discoveries in stem cell research. Therefore, it is essential for the U.S. government to augment the research of stem cell science, in all its forms, in order to capitalize on the political and medical benefits it possesses.

In order to appreciate the medical benefits of stem cell research, it is imperative to be familiar with its background. Two general types of stem cells exist: embryonic and adult phase. When sperm first fertilizes an egg, the resultant cell multiplies to form an embryo cluster. After fourteen days of fertilization, the cells within this cluster are considered pluripotent-because they will later differentiate into all other tissue cells that make up the human body. Therein lies the benefit of embryonic stem cells. Once extracted from the fourteen-day embryo, these cells can be stimulated to differentiate into other cell types. If these pluripotent cells are left unextracted, the embryo continues to mature into a fetus, and the number of pluripotent stem cells tapers off in abundance [3]. In contrast, adult stem cells exist obscurely throughout a human's life span to minimally replace aging tissue, and because these cells develop much later in the human, they contain limited ability to differentiate into other cell types [1].

Even more astounding, medical scientists have theorized a procedure called the somatic cell nuclear transfer, in which stem cells are customized by implanting a patient's own DNA sequence into a cell. The resultant hybrid cell is genetically identical to the patient's cell and, therefore, can be implanted back into the patient without being rejected by the immune system [4]. Without suffering from the harmful side affects of immunosuppressive medication, patients spend less time recovering from surgical implants.

Early stem cell research indicates the promise of many such exciting procedures, but it is important to note that none of which can be accomplished without sufficiently funded research. With what is known today, stem cells provide the impetus to cure many debilitating diseases. For example, diabetes, which results from the lack of insulin, can be treated by implanting insulin-differentiated stem cells that would remain in the body permanently, thereby curing the patient and eliminating the need for constant insulin medication throughout a diabetic's lifetime [3]. In Parkinson's disease, nerve cells that make dopamine, a chemical necessary for neural communication, die prematurely. As a result, the patient develops brain tremors and becomes severely disabled. In Alzheimer's disease, cells that are responsible for the transmission of impulses from nerve to nerve die, which severely affects the thought process. Patients who suffer from heart attacks are susceptible to repeat attacks because of weak cardiac tissue. The only hope for stopping the progression of such diseases is to implant stem cells, which would create new tissue to restore the lost function. Implanting dopamine stem cells that restore the body's chemical balance would cure Parkinson's disease. Implanting neural stem cells that regenerate brain tissue would cure Alzheimer's disease. After an infusion of cardiac stem cells, a patient suffering from weak heart tissue now has a completely rejuvenated cardiac system.

Stem cell research promises to revolutionize transplantational medicine. As medicine stands today, patients in need of organ transplants remain on wait lists for extended, sometimes fatal, amounts of time [4]. Readily available stem cells, however, may produce genetically identical organs and eliminate the need for organ donors. For example, embryonic stem cells can be induced to differentiate into kidney stem cells, which would then be isolated and cultivated in vitro. Under a controlled environment and given sufficient time, those kidney stem cells would then populate into an entire kidney. Stem cells from other tissue types would also obtain similar results. At this point, however, it is important to stress the extensive amount of research that needs to be conducted in order to thoroughly explore the possibility of induced organ regeneration-an idea that highlights the need for well-funded embryonic stem cell programs.

In addition to transplantational medicine, stem cells also show extensive promise in immunological medicine. As it stands today, the introduction of replacement tissue into a patient's body requires the use of immunosuppressive medication that bypasses the immune system's rejection response. Because it is impossible to bypass specific responses, the goal of immunology is to temporarily disable the immune system as a whole so any transplanted tissue will not be rejected [4]. However, the inactivity of the immune system poses several health risks to the patient, requires hospitalization for extensive periods of time, and depends on the complete removal of any bacterial contamination that might exist in food, water, and hospital equipment. Also, current immunosuppressive medication is derived from animal protein, which makes it highly allergenic, sometimes toxic, to humans [4]. Stem cells that have undergone the somatic cell nuclear transfer bypass the need for any immunosuppressive medication and, consequently, avoid many of its harmful side affects [4]. Because these spliced cells are genetically identical to the naturally occurring tissue within a patient, they produce no immune system response, and, after being implanted, the body functions normally.

Pluripotent stem cells have also shown the ability to proliferate endlessly. With the isolation of one embryonic stem cell, it is possible to obtain numerous quantities of identical repair cells. It is this feature of embryonic stem cells that prompted Dr. Charles Debrovner of the New York Society for Ethical Culture to colorfully refer to embryonic stem cells as a body's own "self-repair kit" [3].

Despite its enormous benefits, many believe that embryonic stem cell research is unethical because it requires the extraction of cells from within the embryonic cell cluster, which ultimately destroys the entire developing embryo. It is essential to understand, however, exactly how researchers obtain embryos. Each year, thousands of couples are unable to have children on their own and choose to develop a fertilized embryo through in vitro-fertilization. To ensure that the invitrofertilized egg develops once implanted into the mother's uterus, doctors fertilize dozens of eggs in the laboratory. However, only one egg gets implanted into the mother, and the remainder is stored in cryogenic containment until claimed by future couples [3]. Dr. Debrovner, a leading infertility specialist, attests to the excess of human embryos that exist because they are rejected each year by infertile couples. Currently, as many as 100,000 embryos are stored cryogenically frozen in tanks across the United States [3]. In many cases, those rejected embryos are either frozen until claimed or, if never claimed, destroyed. It is these embryos, destined for destruction, which researchers wish to use for embryonic stem cell research [3]. When considering the great benefits stem cell research possesses, it is deplorable for those embryos already earmarked for destruction to be destroyed needlessly while the millions of Americans that suffer from potentially curable debilitating diseases wait hopelessly for another form of medication.

The United States now stands at a crossroad. The government can either continue to ignore the enormous potential of stem cell research or rethink its suppressive science policy. Choosing the latter would preserve the United States' scientific prowess in the field of medicine and allow the many medical benefits of stem cell research to promptly reach the millions of Americans who currently suffer from debilitating diseases. And if the U.S. government truly understood the potential of stem cells, it would take the revolutionary work done by an obscure American scientist in a small Midwest laboratory and allow it to benefit ailing Americans in all corners of the country.

Mujeeb is a first-year student with plans to major in Biochemistry and minor in English. She aspires to enter the field of medicine.