Stem Cell Research Legislation Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Stem booth Legislation - Research Paper ExampleIt is hoped that such cells can be developed to replace dysfunctional cells in conditions like spinal cord injury, Parkinsons, Alzheimers, diabetes, and various other medical conditions. A look into the American halt cell query legislations proves that the country needs to make such laws regarding patents and intellectual rights to ensure that the governance and the federally funded researchers have access to shank cells. In addition, there should be clear government guidelines regarding the reason between patent holders and researchers. The advancements in research were not free from honorable issues and legal disputes. As inform by National Bioethics Advisory Commission (1999) this is mainly so because the sources for subject cells are one calendar week old embryos called blastocysts which are usually created through in vitro fertilization to treat infertility, five to nine week old embryos of fetuses obtained through elect ive abortion, embryos created through in vitro fertilization for research purposes, embryos created through cloning or somatic cell nuclear transfer, and finally, adult tissues like umbilical cord blood and marrow. The controversy nearly entirely surrounds taking staunch cells from human being embryos and fetuses because the process destroys them. Admittedly, the American administration has always been open to the ethical concerns surrounding embryo research. Throughout history, the government did not provide any funding to nourish researches on stem cells from human embryos. So, the federal law rightly forbid the HHS from funding any such research. In the year 1994, President Bill Clinton issued an executive directive to the NIH that it should not allocate funds to develop human embryos for research purposes. Two years later, in 1996, there was a legislative ban on NIHs spending on stem cell research from human embryos. Thereafter, every year, the government passed such a ban. As Wertz (2002, p. 674-678) points out, according to the ban, federal funds could not be used for the development of human embryos for research purposes where human embryo is destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death. However, as the Wisconsin scientists successfully grew embryonic stem cells into specialized cells, there arose increased demand from NIH to again look into the governmental ban on stem cell research from embryos and fetus. The opinion of the HHS General Counsel was that the existing law that only prohibited the use of HHS funds for human embryo research would not ban research on stem cells because stem cells are not within the legal definition of human embryo. According to the definition provided, embryo is an organism that is capable of developing into a full human being when implanted in the uterus. It is claimed that the pluripotent stem cells are not able to grow into a human being. Thus, the opinion reached was that HHS could fund such stem cell researches that manage to get the stem cells from embryos using private means. The restriction only applied to those researches that pauperism to derive stem cells from embryos using federal funds. Though there was congressional opposition, NIH do it clear that it would support stem cell research once it managed to issue guidelines and to establish an oversight committee. Thus, the NIH guidelines appeared in August 2000 that made it clear that researches using pluripotent stem cells from human embryos can be conducted using NIH funds. However the condition was that the stem