HOW REGENERATIVE MEDICINE IS SET TO CHANGE THE WORLD
Some parts of our body – like the liver – have an inherent ability to regenerate. Other organs like the heart cannot. But if modern medicine has its way, this could change by using cells that come from the unlikeliest of sources: our bellies.
Conventionally, physicians have looked at our bones in search of stem cells – cells that retain their ability to grow into any kind of cell necessary. In our bone marrow, there are little factories of stem cells that generate new blood cells every now and then. Traditionally, that’s where we went when we needed stem cells. But now there is research suggesting that there might be more stem cells in our bellies than in our bones.
This has obvious advantages. Fat cells can be easily accessed through liposuction instead of the more invasive bone marrow biopsy. And with our growing waistlines, very few of us will ever be found short of fat cells.
The only issues in stem cell research are ethical. Is it okay to sacrifice a young fertilised egg or embryo for the sake of medical science? Is it encouraging man to make further forays into the dominion of God?
President Bush went the conservative way and banned all stem cell research, but now Obama has lifted the ban. Scientists in Japan have succeeded in converting adult cells into stem cells, which means that we’ve taken the first steps towards regenerative medicine. Heart disease may soon become a thing of the past.
But only if we preserve our waistlines.
