 | Social Impact Stem cell research is already revolutionizing the medical field and opening the world to brand new oppurtunities never even imagined in the past. For instance, the reversal of sickle cell disease (SCD). It is estimated that around 120,000 infants are born with SCD every year worldwide. With new stem cell therapies becoming more and more available, SCD could very possibly be seen as a non-threatening disease in this world. Reference: http://health.usnews.com/health-conditions/pain-management/sickle-cell-disease Economic Impact By 2020, the U.S. alone is on track to have invested around 500 billion dollars into regenerative medicine research.Naturally, politians want to see that this will bring a boost in the economy, and in fact it will. results ten years from now will be much higher howver, short term advantages include many new open jobs and boost in funding from awareness of the good that stem cell research is doing. Overall, the economy will greatly benefit from stem cell research with time. Political Empact Over the years, the pressure on the government to raise the amount of government-funded stem cell research has not budged. As a result of the controversial issues surrounding stem cell research, many politians have done their best to stop or restrict research. For example, when President Bush was in office, he put many restrictions on stem cell research. However in 2009 when President Obama came into office, he lifted many restrictions Bush had put on the research (as shown in the YouTube clip to the left). Currently, scientists have pushed the limits on their research further than ever before, but they still have a long ways to go. Reference: http://www.newsbatch.com/stemcells.htm. |
