Embryonic Stem Cell Research

The reason that embryonic stem cell researchers are agitating for taxpayer money is that their private funding has dried up. Private investors and venture capitalists are not investing in embryonic stem cell research because they perceive it to be a pipe dream unlikely to produce any progress and, hence, investment returns, in any reasonable time frame. —Steven Milloy

LACK OF FUNDS

Geron the first company to get the green light for trials, quit and is selling that part of the business

The topic of Embryonic stem cell research carries with it a very controversial past. Some people support it, others do not. Stem cell research costs about 42 million dollars a year, how do they afford it, by the funding of private companies. However, what happens when the money runs out? Where will they get more? Will stem cell research continue? These are the questions I will be addressing in this essay.

Geron, the first company to get the green light for testing, is now cutting the stem cell research department, and selling the shares from that area. That alone tells people that there is virtually nothing coming from it, and yet it is still consuming so much money, and investors are getting impatient for a result. Wouldn’t it make sense that if the company to start all of this drops out, that others would too? Why not abandon it? Many people will not abandon this cause no matter how grave the outcome may be, they will keep fighting because it is important to them. Even though there are many ethical issues with it, it does have the possibility to save lives, but how long will that take, ten, fifteen years? Where is the money going to come from to support it for that long?

The real dilemma is the financial support. At this time, the financial support for stem cell research comes from mainly private investors, such as Geron. However, there is little progress being made, so investors are getting worried about their money loss. Sure they could keep giving money to it and giving money to it, but it is highly unlikely to produce any profiting results within a reasonable time frame. So many of the investors are cutting the stem cell research funding, and this makes the scientists nervous, because they know that soon, the funds will run dry, and then they will lose their jobs, because no company will want to pick it up.

Stem cell research has the potential to save innumerous lives, but the production time is just not reasonable. However, there have been small breakthroughs here and there, and they have helped to save lives, but still, the time frame it has taken for those small breakthroughs has been far too long and used far too much funding. Geron stated in the New York Times that it was halting the clinical trial for stem cells because money is scarce, so they are going to put all their efforts into their cancer treatments which are much further along.

Stem cell research is an admirable cause, as it has the potential to cure many diseases, but it is just impractical, and expensive. So, in essence, I believe it should be considered that stem cell research be halted for a short period of time, until we have even more advanced technology with which to be able to study stem cells more efficiently. The treatments we already have that are proven to work should be kept and used, but I do not think it is logical to use money we don’t have to continue research which could lead to nothing for years.

My score and feedback

I would score my essay as a 7-8.

I would give myself this score because it has qualities of and essay scoring both a seven and an eight. One such category is the organization; it is well organized at some points, but not in others. However, I believe I presented an interesting topic, and backed it quite well. I had no grammatical errors, but on the other hand, my transitions could have been better.

Sources Cited

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/223824.php
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/business/geron-is-shutting-down-its-stem-cell-clinical-trial.html