Saving

A Look into Stem Cell Research

Part II—"Role Play/Jigsaw"

by
Lisa M. Rubin
University at Buffalo
State University of New York

Each student will be assigned to one of the following six groups representing a specific viewpoint on the issue of stem cell research and therapeutic use.  Each group has a particular set of biases that are listed below.  Also listed are some questions for each group to consider.

  1. Stem Cell Researchers
    1. Research will allow for new understanding in human genetics, development, and cell specialization:
      1. What causes stem cells to stay in an undifferentiated state?
      2. What cues them to start or stop dividing?
      3. What genetic/environmental cues signal differentiation?
    2. ES cells could provide an environment for study of diseases that can't be cultured effectively in animal models.  They could also serve as a transferring medium in gene therapy.
    3. Bone marrow transplants already exist as a form of stem cell therapy for cancer patients.
    4. The potential to cure disease signifies a means of protecting public health and human life; thus the government should expand federal funding.
    5. With federal funding, researchers can focus more on the science rather than on raising private funds.
     
  2. Pharmacologists
    1. The economic and psychological effects of autoimmune diseases and other illnesses are enormous.  It costs the government billions of dollars each year in treatment.
    2. Animal testing is a controversial issue in itself.
    3. Stem cell testing could make animal and human trials significantly safer.  Could it negate the need for animal and/or human testing?
    4. Drug costs would most likely decrease.
     
  3. Senators
    1. Federal funding encourages public review and regulation, broader scientific participation, sound social policy, increased public understanding, and prioritizes public safety and benefit over economic benefit.
    2. To deny federally funded ES research could jeopardize the pre-eminent position of the U.S. as a world leader in health research.
    3. The aim of public policy is to protect widely varying individual conceptions of the public good while promoting public health and safety.
    4. Current federal regulation (Public Health Service Act Section 498A) clearly separates a woman's decision to have an abortion from her decision to donate tissue.
    5. Just as organ donation has a specific protocol, ES and EG donation should require a specific protocol.
     
  4. Ethicists from National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC)
    1. The federal government should consider ways to achieve equitable access to the potential benefits derived from stem cell research.
    2. Exclusive private funding raises a potential for research to be guided by market profitability rather than public interest.
    3. Families should not be compensated for embryo or fetal tissue donations.
    4. Women should not be allowed to undergo extra ovulation cycles.
    5. There are two general opposing views concerning human embryos and fetuses:  some consider them to be human beings with a moral status and thus consider it wrong to use them for research while others believe that life may be taken for the sake of saving other lives.
    6. There is debate whether ES cells are "embryos" or just "specialized bodily tissues."  Since they possess the human genome and the potential to produce a human being, do they possess a moral status?
    7. Excess embryos can be donated to research, destroyed, or donated to infertile couples.
     
  5. Right-to-Life Committee Members
    1. The human embryo possesses moral status and potential for life. Any use other than to produce life is wrong.
    2. Women may be persuaded to terminate pregnancies (abortion) or produce extra embryos for monetary compensation.
    3. Some members support consent if the abortion is spontaneous (yet this tissue often contains genetic abnormalities).
    4. Most members support adult stem cell (multipotent) research.
     
  6. Patients with Autoimmune Diseases/Other Illnesses
    1. Stem cell therapy may offer better treatments and/or cures for diseases.
    2. Stem cell therapy could potentially solve organ shortages and the need for immunosuppressive therapy.
    3. With nuclear transplantation, pluripotent cells can be made without the use of a fertilized egg; the procedure is done in vitro, not in a uterus. The risk of tissue rejection is eliminated as well.
    4. Some research findings suggest that certain adult stem cells can act as pluripotent cells. With continued research, clarity of this matter may solve the ethical issues behind ES isolation and research and provide hope for patients.
     

Your Assignment

Using what you've learned from this case study (as well as additional sources if desired), each group (except for the "senators") must come prepared two class periods from today with a one- to two-page statement of its position on stem cell research.  Be sure to cover topics such as adult stem cell versus embryonic stem cell research, possible uses and abuses, pros and cons, public versus private funding, ethical issues, etc.

Each group will be given time in class to review its position and strategy.  Each group will also have to choose two questions to submit to the "senators" to ask the other groups during the public meeting.  It is important that the "senators" understand the key concepts, for its members will be responsible for making and justifying the final decision.

Once each group has represented its position and questions have been addressed, the groups will jigsaw—that is, new groups will be formed.  The new groups will consist of one member from each group plus a "senator" acting as a leader/facilitator.  The "senator(s)" in each new group will be responsible for leading their group towards a final position:  to support or deny expanded stem cell research (public and/or private).  The "senator(s)" will be responsible for writing up the group's policy on the issue (one to two pages), which will be due next class period.  The following website provides a list of United States senators who presently support or oppose stem cell research:  http://nchla.org/issues.asp?ID=6.

In addition, each student must read the following paper:  Blau et al., "The Evolving Concept of a Stem Cell:  Entity or Function?" Cell 105: 829-841, June 29, 2001.  Further assignments will be given at a later date.

References:

Copyright © 2010 by the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science.  Please see our usage guidelines, which outline our policy concerning permissible reproduction of this work.

Home