"What are stem cells?"
By: Dr. Phil Aaron
    We live in a changing world. A world where our health is important to each of us - important to all of us are the changes, the advances being made in medical research which will eventually be available to individual patients.
    We are able to transplant hearts and reattach severed limbs. This article will review advances being made in an area of medical research which will revolutionize our future; and it all starts at the level of the human cell.
    Five years ago, Dr. Chris Shields, a Louisville neurosurgeon and chair of the University of Louisville's Department of Neurosurgery, invited Lance Burton and his mother, Hilma, my son, Blake and me to Louisville to tour the University's facilities devoted to neurosurgical research.
    Lance's mother, Hilma, and sister, Robyn, had both been operated on successfully by Dr. Shield's team. Shields wanted to show us how far advanced neurosurgical research was. He remarked that research such as that going on in his laboratories and elsewhere across the country was starting to show dramatic results; that even though spinal cord fusion (putting back together a cord cut in two) had never yet been accomplished, the time was rapidly approaching when this would happen.
  Then Wham, Bam!!! Eureka! The startling news last month out of the University of Louisville that their researchers had discovered part of the information necessary to solve the transplant puzzle: the "lost ark".
    The research focused on what we call stem cells.
    Stem cells are cells from certain parts of our body which can change their function-cells which initially work as muscle, brain or spinal cord cells may eventually be able to change and function as other types of cells. Today when blood is transfused these regular blood cells eventually die. Stem cells will not die but would be transfused into a person's body and programmed to function, perhaps change into another body part. This organ would live for a lifetime.
    So, if an individual has a heart attack, in the future stem cells might replace and repair the dead heart cells making the person's heart healthy again.
    One might imagine other diseases which could be cured through stem cell use, eg. Alzheimer's, Diabetes, Parkinson's, Cancer and many others.
    Tonya Ballou has talked with Tim's University of Kentucky Medical Center's doctors as to whether stem cell research might be a possibility for Tim. The answer, "Not yet."
   Controversies
   As we become excited about the great possibilities that Stem Cell research has, one must note that there is great debate, controversy over such research. The debate focuses on the location from where the stem cells originate. Heretofore, the only type of cells which have been able to be programmed to assume the function of a certain body part, eg. heart/brain have come from human embryo tissue. Debate has documented on whether embryonic tissue should be used for such research.
    Should embryonic tissue be used?
    Bush says no. The late Christopher Reeve (Superman) and Nancy Reagan say yes.
    There are ethical, moral, even biblical debates about using such tissues. President Bush, eg., has limited the circumstances under which human embryonic tissue can be used for stem cell research in the United States. Because of this many researchers have left the U.S. to conduct their research where there are no such restrictions.
    However, the team at the University of Louisville recently found a way to produce the same results using tissue without an embryological connection.
    Non-Embryo Tissue Stem Cell Research=All are happy.
    It now appears that one of the greatest challenges of medical research today - those involving Stem Cells may be pursued within the context of moral, ethical and Biblical scholarship.