Stem Cells

When Douglas Melton found his son turning gray and projectile vomiting when he was 6 months old he thought it was just a cold. He and his wife took him to the emergency room and they ran test after test on him only to find out that he had type 1 diabetes. After that day their whole lives were dedicating to making sure that Sam’s blood sugar was right. This was before they had a lot of technology about diabetes so they had to wake a couple times during the night to make sure his blood sugar wasn’t too high or too low. Melton thought that this was no way to live life and this is what inspired him to study the possibilities of stem cells. He now tries to make insulin producing cells using stem cells. The study of stem cells shows promise to the helping or even curing of diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and even heart disease. There are two types of cells, embryonic cells and cells taken from tissues from the body or that is what was believed until Melton started work on a new stem cell which generate new populations of cells by reprogramming one type of fully mature cell so it became another. President Bush passes laws saying Scientists could not use government funding to grow or even look at embryonic stem cells. This may change now that Barack Obama took office though and many scientists are hopeful.
This does affect society and it does affect the world. Although it may not be directly you, someone you know, or someone who knows someone you know may have one of these diseases that this type of research could save their life. This is good news or bad news depending on your opinion of it. If you are against stem cell research than this is bad news because it is pretty much saying that stem cell research is going big and now with the possible funding scientists may be getting from Barack Obama it may get even bigger. The possibilities are growing and the diseases may be getting cured. This is good news because they may be on the verge of a break through for curing diseases which have been incurable in the past. I think everyone should care because this could be a really goo dthing. And it does affect you in some way or another. There are many more questions from scientists and people about where this type of research will go but that is why scientist continue to study stem cells.
~Mildred