Anthony Cancellieri

ENG 112 08
Prof. Douglas
April 24, 2015

Dear Reader,
To prepare you for understanding my line of inquiry, I have created a short summary of
what stem cells are and what they do so that you are not lost on the rest of this project.

Stem cells could be considered the new trend of medicine. A stem cell is a cell without a
job, it hasnt been developed yet. They develop in the embryo, as in a fertilized human egg, then
the cells start to adopt their purpose and they grow. Stem cells fuse with specialized cells and
adopt their functions, and become that particular specialized cell. These cells can be implanted
into from one person to another and the stem cells adopt that recipients cell jobs and heal their
ailments. Studies have shown that adult stem cells are safe to donate to others provided the
candidates donating meet some compatibility with the patient. The donors are volunteers and go
through a selection process involving a saliva sample. They are only picked if they are a suitable
candidate for the donation.
With donated stem cells, there are documented results that the cells can help heal
damages from cancer and glaucoma (Karl). There is a large variety of injuries that the stem cell
healing factor can fix. Adult stem cells are extracted from matured individuals and do not involve
the ethical argument over embryos. The people know, however, that stem cells are being taken
from embryos, which are very early stages of fertilized eggs in the pregnancy cycle, which is
very similar to the abortion debate.

The reason I chose this topic as my line of inquiry was to promote the value in stem cell
research, because I have researched the capabilities of the stem cell therapies, and I really do
believe it is the next step in medicine. I chose this because I decided it would be interesting to
learn about since I have signed myself up to be a potential donor. I had also been aware of the
arguments around stem cell research but I had never really gone into it, so it was exciting to
really learn what it was all about. I hope you will feel the same way and see the value in stem
cell research like I have.