stem cells

1. POTENTIAL BENEFIT OF STEM CELL
THERAPY TO BOTSWM
STEM CELL
LUCKY MOYENGWE
“I am pro-life.Ibelievehumanlifebeginsat
conception.Ialsobelieve thatembryonicstemcell
researchshouldbe encouragedandsupported”-
FormerU.S. SenatorBill Frist,speech(2005)
16000314

2. Stem cell therapy, also classified as regenerative medicine, is known to promotes the repair
response of diseased, dysfunctional or injured tissue using stem cells. Stem cells can be used to
develop organs in vitro and use them for organ transplantations instead of donor organs, which are
limited in supply. Stem cells can be grown in a lab. These stem cells can be manipulated to produce
desired specific types of cells, such as heart muscle cells, blood cells or nerve cells. The specialized
cells can then be implanted into a person to repair damaged and diseased cells or tissues. If country
like Botswana allows, make rules that regulate stem cell therapy will gain a lot of benefits, that
include increase understanding of how diseases occur, generate healthy cells to replace diseased
cells and test new drugs for safety and effectiveness.
Stem cells, directed to differentiate into specific cell types, offer the possibility of a renewable
source of replacement cells and tissues to treat diseases including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's
diseases, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid
arthritis. Stem cell therapy can help reduce the morbidity rate in the country and help increase our
mortality rate since stem cell research is based on trying to improve our lives and remove all
disease related issues that put our life at risk. The rate at which people are dying is so high and
stem cell has the potential to change the live of every living human being.
If a country like Botswana allow stem cell research and therapy through the elimination of all
Federal laws prohibiting the use of stem cells use and remove all funding restriction. This is going
to be a long-term benefit for the country’s economic status. A significant proportion of the country
budget is allocated to the HIV/AIDS and other diseases since they affect the mortality rate and the
morbidity rates of the population. The that is most affected by the diseases is mostly the
economically active sector of the population. Stem cell therapy has the potential to address all the
diseases that are a burden to the country. The specific fields of future that can help the patients to
get back on their feet include hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and hematological
malignancies, hematopoietic transplantation of engineered autologous cells to provide resistance
to HIV/AIDS, mesenchymal stem cell transplantation for cardiovascular regeneration and the
treatment of diabetes. The scope of the disease burden is large, and a well-developed strategic plan
is therefore needed. The active sector can get back to doing their day to day job with ease.
Funding of stem cell research and therapy can also attract high skilled stem researcher and doctors
from foreign countries which do not permit the use of stem cells. Chronic diseases and injuries are
on the rise and have a profound economic and societal impact in the developing countries like
Botswana and the country is already low populated. There is going to a lot of migrants coming
into our country for stem cell research and therapy. Funding and allowing stem cell therapy may
help to lure private companies to also lend a helping in terms of funding the stem cell research and
centers. These funds can help Botswana to establish facilities that support stem cell research
programs that encompass of research that will help during the discovery to development, testing
of cures, therapies and diagnostics stem cell centers. These facilities will help better the health
status and health care of the citizen of Botswana.

3. The development of new drugs is costly and time consuming and Cell based in vitro assays with
high human relevance are needed during clinical trials hence a suitable model is needed so that it
can be used when testing for effect and safety of medical drugs during development. Stem cell
models could serve as screening platforms during drug assessment. Stem cell therapy can benefit
Botswana in drug development as the country spends more money in importing medical drugs
from foreign countries. This money can be invested into creating stem cell models for drug testing
and screening. Stem cells are more accurate since they can be coaxed into developing into cells of
human organs since they are of human pluripotent cell lines, which are stem cells capable of
developing into any type of cell or tissue except those that form a placenta, and this will eliminate
the use of animals and humans during clinical trials. Adopting stem cells for research, for testing
the toxicity of drugs and identifying potential new therapies is less costly for the country and for
drug producing countries. Not only is there an endless supply of them, but they provide a more
consistent basis for drug testing.
Stem cells can lead to major innovations and subsequent improvements in the quality of life,
investing stem cell therapy and research scientific research, can improve the human condition and
alleviate suffering and better the way we live. It is a responsibility of government to ensure that
they sensitize the citizens about stem and the potential benefit they may do to the country as a way
of trying to curb the ethical issues and moral issues.