Stages of Development

• Zygote (from the Greek: ἔμβρυα, lit. "that which grows”)

• Morula (16 cell pre-embryo)

• Blastocyst• Embryo• Fetus (Latin fetus,

meaning offspring)• Newborn

• Infant• Toddler• Child• Prebuscent • Adolescent• Young adult• Adult

What Are Stem Cells?

• Stem cells are specialized cells that can produce several different kinds of cells (they can be derived in a variety of ways).

• Just like the stem of a plant will produce branches, leaves, and flowers, so stem cells can usually produce many different kinds of cells.

What Are Adult Stem Cells?

• Over 50 trillion cells in your body. Most will only divide a few times.

• Specialized stem cells continually produce new cells in certain tissues.

• There are skin, bone marrow, liver, muscle, etc. stem cells.

What Are Embryonic Stem Cells?

• Blastocyst – Inner Cell Mass• The Inner Cell Mass eventually forms

all the cells of the body. These are embryonic stem cells (ESC).

• In order to retrieve them, the embryo is destroyed.

• Many researchers attempt to refer to these as simply “reproductive cells”.

“I hear that the Church is against stem cell research.” Answer: “Wrong”

One of the biggest misconceptions about stem-cell research is that the Catholic Church opposes it. The Church, in fact, supports five of the six types of stem cells.

1) Adult stem-cell research, involving the growth of stem cells from the patient's own tissue or that of another living donor.

2) Umbilical Cord Blood: Stem cells developed from umbilical cord blood or placentas after a delivery is completed.

3) Miscarriages: Cells from fetal tissue derived from miscarriages (also called spontaneous abortions), as long as the parents give informed consent.

4) Wisdom teeth: Cells from wisdom teeth can be stored and used now. This is, of course, ethical.

5) iPS – Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells – Scientists are able now to rewind a cell to make it act like a pluripotent cell – The Church is not against this, as it does not destroy human life

6) Embryonic Stem Cells: Only the use of embryonic stem cells is morally unacceptable because it involves the killing of a human being.

Benefits of Stem Cells to Human PatientsAdult Stem Cells v. Embryonic Stem Cells

1.Brain Cancer2.Retinoblastoma3.Ovarian Cancer4.Merkel Cell Cancer5.Testicular Cancer6.Lymphoma7.Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia8.Acute Myelogenous Leukemia9.Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia10.Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia11.Angioimmunoblastic Lymphadenopathy with Dysproteinemia12.Multiple Myeloma13.Myelodysplasia14.Breast Cancer15.Neuroblastoma16.Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma17.Hodgkin's Lymphoma18.Renal Cell Carcinoma19.Various Solid Tumors20.Soft Tissue Sarcoma21.Scleromyxedema22.Multiple Sclerosis23.Crohn's Disease24.Rheumatoid Arthritis25.Juvenile Arthritis26.Systemic Lupus

27.Polychondritis28.Systemic Vasculitis29.Sjogren's Syndrome30.Behcet's Disease31.Myasthenia Gravis32.Red Cell Aplasia33.Autoimmune Cytopenia34.X-Linked Lymphoproliferative Syndrome35.X-Linked Hyperimmunoglobuline-M Syndrome36.Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome-37.Sickle Cell Anemia38.Sideroblastic Anemia39.Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia40.Aplastic Anemia41.Amegakaryocytic Thrombocytopenia42.Chronic Epstein-Barr Infection43.Fanconi's Anemia44.Diamond Blackfan Anemia45.Thalassemia Major46.Stroke47.Osteogenesis Imperfecta48.Sandhoff Disease49.Corneal Degeneration50.Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis51.Primary Amyloidosis52.Limb Gangrene53.Surface Wound Healing54.Heart Damage55.Parkinson's Disease56.Spinal Cord Injury

Adult Stem Cell Successes

Cancers— Lymphomas, multiple myeloma, leukemias, breast cancer,neuroblastoma, renal cell carcinoma, ovarian cancer Autoimmune diseases— multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus, rheumatoidarthritis, scleroderma, scleromyxedema, Crohn’s diseaseAnemias (incl. sickle cell anemia)Immunodeficiencies — including human gene therapyBone/cartilage deformitiesCorneal scarring-generation of new corneas to restore sightStroke—neural cell implants in clinical trialsRepairing cardiac tissue after heart attack—bone marrow or muscle stem cells from patientParkinson’s—retinal stem cells, patient’s own neural stem cells, injected growth factorsGrowth of new blood vessels—e.g., preventing gangreneGastrointestinal epithelia—regenerate damaged ulcerous tissueSkin—grafts grown from hair follicle stem cells, after plucking a few hairs from patientWound healing— bone marrow stem cells stimulated skin healingSpinal cord injury— clinical trials currently in Portugal, Italy, S. Korea

List of Conditions for which Embryonic Stem Cells Have Helped Human Patients

These cells have never helped a human patient“Although they worked with mouse embryonic stem cells for 20 years and made some progress, researchers have not used these cells to cure a single mouse of a disease…Scientists say the theory behind stem cells is correct…but between theory and therapy lie a host of research obstacles…the obstacles are so serious that scientists say they foresee years, if not decades of concerted work on basic science before they can even think of trying to treat a patient.”

Gina Kolata, “A Thick Line Between Theory and Therapy, as Shown with Mice,” The New York Times, Dec. 18, 2001.

“If the embryos obtained through IVF are going to be destroyed anyways,

shouldn’t we just use them?”

1. This is the same logic used by the Nazis in the experiments they did on the Jews waiting to be executed: “They are going to die anyways, we might as well use them for experimental research.” The Nazis, theoretically, had a greater ‘end’ in sight with their experiments (but this doesn’t justify what they did).

2. In the end we will all die, but that gives no one a right to kill us.

3. One wrong choice (in vitro fertilization) does not justify an additional wrong choice to destroy them for research.

The Problems with Embryonic Stem Cells1. The embryo must be destroyed.

2. Immune rejection

3. In China a man with Parkinson's was treated with human ES cells which turned into a tumor (teratoma) in his brain that killed him (one of numerous stories).

4. “Fountain of Youth” syndrome. Some of the greatest evils of the 20th century were based on utopian visions of the world (Nazi’s and the 1000 year reign, Pol Pot and Communism in general).

5. Coverage in the media has been biased and inaccurate (a number of studies have documented this -- namely, how advancements in Adult Stem Cell Research are essentially ignored).

6. 20 years of ESC on rats produced minimal results.

The Humanity of the Unborn

• The Argument from Biology• It is a human life at conception• The fertilized egg contains 46 chromosomes

in a new and unique configuration.• Fertilization begins a directional process.• Separate from the mother, genetically distinct

Medical Embryology Textbooks

The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology

"Zygote: this cell results from the union of an oocyte and a sperm. A zygote is the beginning of a new human being (i.e., an embryo). Human development begins at fertilization… This highly specialized, totipotent cell marks the beginning of each of us as a unique individual.”

Medical Embryology Textbooks

Essentials of Human Embryology

“In this text, we begin our description of the developing human with the formation and differentiation of the male and female sex cells or gametes, which will unite at fertilization to initiate the embryonic development of a new individual.”

Medical Embryology Textbooks

Human Embryology & Teratology

“Fertilization is an important landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new, genetically distinct human organism is thereby formed…”

What Do Medical Doctors Say?

Dr. Alfred Bongioanni (University of Pennsylvania):

“I have learned from my earliest medical education that human life begins at the time of conception.”

Dr. Jerome LeJeune (University of Descartes):

“after fertilization has taken place a new human being has come into being.”

What Do Medical Doctors Say?

Dr. Hymie Gordon (Mayo Clinic):“By all criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception.”

Dr. Micheline Matthews-Roth (Harvard University Medical School):

“It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception”

• Fetal brain begins to form on day 23

• Brain waves produced by 6 weeks

• Fetal brain begins to form on day 23

• Brain waves produced by 6 weeks

Human Embryology 101

• Fetal heart beginsFetal heart beginsto form 18 days after to form 18 days after conceptionconception

• Measurable heart beat Measurable heart beat 21-24 days after 21-24 days after conceptionconception

The Humanity of the Unborn

• Argument from Scripture• “Thou shalt not murder.” (Exo. 20:13)• Hebrew and Greek do not distinguish between pre-born

and born children• God’s intimate involvement in the development and life

of the pre-born infant (Ps. 139: 13-16)

The Humanity of the Unborn“For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s

womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:13-16

The Humanity of the Unborn

“The Lord called me from the womb; from the body of my mother He named me.” Isaiah 49:1

The Humanity of the Unborn

‘Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,

‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and

before you were born I consecrated you; I have

appointed you a prophet to the nations.’”

Jeremiah 1:4-5

The Humanity of the Unborn

“At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.”

Luke 1:39-44

Reminder: Vital principles of Catholic Moral Theology:The Church is always in favor of what is according to the Natural Law. The direct killing of a innocent human being is always morally wrong. The Church will always stand up for the innocent and for the voiceless in the world. Suffering has redemptive value. Our goal as Christians is certainly to alleviate suffering in the world, yet there is a misguided philosophy in the world that thinks we can create a world without suffering. The criteria for an action being moral is that it is moral at every level -- namely, (1) Intention, (2) the Act itself and (3) the End result.

• — Any production of human beings for the sake of experimentation, research, or the harvesting of organs is morally wrong. Such actions reduce a human being to simply disposable biological material. (Cf. Donum Vitae, I,5.)

• — Any medical research or observation which jeopardizes the health or life of the unborn child is morally wrong. (Cf. Donum Vitae, I,5.)

“This is what is happening also at the level of politics and government: the original and inalienable right to life is questioned or denied on the basis of a parliamentary vote or the will of one part of the people-even if it is the majority. This is the sinister result of a relativism which reigns unopposed: the "right" ceases to be such, because it is no longer firmly founded on the inviolable dignity of the person, but is made subject to the will of the stronger part. In this way democracy, contradicting its own principles, effectively moves towards a form of totalitarianism. The State is no longer the "common home" where all can live together on the basis of principles of fundamental equality, but is transformed into a tyrant State, which arrogates to itself the right to dispose of the life of the weakest and most defenseless members, from the unborn child to the elderly, in the name of a public interest which is really nothing but the interest of one part. “

The Gospel of Life, 1995

Church Teaching

• Pope John Paul observed: "At the center of the moral vision of [the American] founding documents is the recognition of the rights of the human person . . ." The greatness of the United States lies "especially [in its] respect for the dignity and sanctity of human life in all conditions and at all stages of development."