The battle between morality and law

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MEDICAL SCIENCES AND HEALTH CARE: LEGAL & ETHICAL MATTER ARISING.
As long as science & technology keep progressing with outstanding impact on
man- a development that will always re-definelife and social behavior, so will
more questions on human moral values, ethical conducts, and the legality of new
ways of life will keep arising.
There is no doubt, man has undertaken a long and deep scientific journey in the
past hundred years; worthy of mention is, the medical advancementthat has
gone beyond what man could imagine decades ago.
With the little understanding of human anatomy (study of the structureand
relationship between or among body parts) back then; today, we have answers
to “what and where” questions on anatomy, becauseof the significant
improvement over yesteryear examination method of dissection of (cadavers:
dead human bodies) to severalcomplex techniques of X-rays, Ultra-sound,
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging
(NMRI), and Magnetic Resonance Tomography (MRT); all are medical imaging
procedures using radiology to examine internal body structures in details.
Also with unclear, vague, and perhaps obscured information on human physiology
pioneered by Hippocrates of Kos (460- 370 B.C.E) to Aristotle (384-322B.C.E),
who established the relationship between the body structures and functions to
Claudius Galen (circa, 129-200/216) who started animaldissection to study
physiology back then; today, we can say with confidence that we have distinct
and defined answers to several“how” questions on body functions; thanks to
medical imaging procedures.
Similarly, with doubtful or perhaps unreliable information on diseases and
illnesses in terms of: causes, prognosis, care, and cure years back; today, our
knowledgehas become very profound and unlimited.
Aboveall, our knowledgeof medication procedurehas become copious and
bountiful; becauseof significant leap in: pharmacology (thestudy of drugs and
their administration); pharmacodynamics (thestudy of how body responds to

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drugs); and pharmacokinetics (the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and
excretion of drugs fromthe body).
In fact, this body of knowledgeincluding pathology, psychology has made quality
health caredelivery simpler, cheaper, easier, better; and more important, make
humans enjoy meaningful life.
Notwithstanding these feats, human has continued to live with moral burden,
troubled conscience, un-answered ethical and legal questions; regardless of Bio-
ethic studies, which have resulted in crafting sound ethical codes & conducts in
addition to medical laws for health care providers-unfortunately, man is still far
fromwhere he should be morally, therefore aggravating the conflict between him
and the society.
Oftentimes individual’s medical needs do becloud sound judgmentcoupled with
greed and love for money by health care providers thatalways push ethical and
moral values in to background.
A careful consideration of someissues over the years will shed light on how far, or
how good; how bad or how worse, wehavegone in pursuitof happiness when
seeking medical help.
ON-GOING MEDICAL & SCIENTIFICAL ISSUES
STEM CELL: there is no medical issuethat has generated so much controversy
than stem cell. Stem cell is a biological process found in all mutli-cellular
organisms thathas the ability to divide, mitosis (separate chromosomes into two
identical sets), and differentiate.
In mammals, there are two types of stem cells: the Embryonic Stem cells (ES cells)
and the Progenitor Cell. The embryonic stem originates or develops frominner
cell mass, which comes into existence 4-5 days of post-fertilization, it has
between 50 and 150 cells that ultimately creates the structures of fetus (life); the
firststage of human development beforeimplantation at the uterus. The fetus
produces by ES is also known as pluriblast- a cell with potentials to differentiate
fromless specialized cells to more specialized cells.

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Progenitor cell- a replenish cell that reproduceto repair, replenish worn out or
damaged tissues in human body, mostly in grown up or adults.
The Controversy of Stem Cell Engineering
The controversy stemhas generated over the years is-is it proper or not to extract
stem cell from: unbiblical cord, bone marrow, adiposetissues (i.e. body fat or fat
depot), and blood as renewablesources to replace (damaged) cells, treat
diseases, conditions, and disabilities in others?
Is proper to extract Stem Cells from the mentioned sources for a keep and later
use for people with medical problems? There is no doubt, we will continue to
have supporters, which includes, butnot limited to: scientists, liberals,
pharmaceutical companies, health care providers, pressuregroups, political
parties; on the other hand, non-supporter leagues will come from religious
organizations, movements and brotherhood, political parties, conservatives, legal
experts.
Stem Cell activists will always argue the gains and benefits this therapy will offer
humankind now and, in the future; considering some of the exciting, but
interesting discoveries so far. For instance, Medical Research Council for
Regenerative Medicine (MRC), University of Edinburgh, U.K discovered a “key
protein” Tcf 15 in a recent study-a trigger in differentiation process. Thebreak-
through gives a better insight into stem cell potentials to differentiate, the
success, which Dr. Sally Lowell says hold promisefor morefuture discoveries.
This study is one of the severalsimilar and valuable stem cell studies being
conducted around the globe, examples are: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALM)
study by Yang (Ted) Teng and his team from Harvard Medical School; findings
fromthe study showed there will be cure for AML through stem cells usein the
near future. More exciting, but interesting is the Olfactory Ensheathing cells the
joint study by Welcome-TrustMRC under Professor Robin Franklin of Medical
Research Council (MRC), U.K; the discovery in the study showed that certain
nosecells can cureSpinal Cord Injuries (SCIs) becauseof these cells can be used
to regenerate axons (signalcarriers) in the Central Nervous System(CNS): and

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more recently, Stem cell and Type 1 Diabetes study conducted by Dr.IIia Banakh
and Professor Len Harrison of Instituteof Molecular Medicine, Australia on
possiblefuture cure for Type 1 Diabetes. The Australian medical team discovered
a cell fromthe adult stem cell of pancreas that turned in to “insulin-producing
cell,” which in turns “secrete insulin in responseto glucose.” The study concludes
that “the potential to regenerate insulin-producing is present in all of us”; which
means, with stem cells therapy in place in the future, “people with type 1
diabetes will be able to regenerate their own insulin-producing cell.”
In all, today’s medical troubles of: degenerative (cell, nerve andbone) condition,
ParkinsonDisease, Alzheimer, Cancer, MultipleSclerosis, Diabetes, Spinal Cord
Injuries, Heart Diseases, and Motor NeuronDiseasesmay someday begone as
this procedure’s goalis to use not-yet-grown-or-less-specialized cells create new
cells to replace those wasted in degenerative diseases. No doubt, stem cell holds
some degree of optimismfor the future. But the questions regarding stem cells
are: wherewill the cells be sourced-fromparents, children, and relatives or from
stem cell banks? Should the frozen embryonic stem cell be seen as life, or a mere
bio-active medical material for treatment? What will be the relationship between
stem cell donor and the receiver? Should there be monetary transaction between
the donor, receiver, and the third party of this procedure? If yes, to what extent?
On the other hand, opponents of stem cell research havecontinued to say: life
begins at conception, which takes place few days after sexual intercourse; even
though, the conception theory has been faulted-after all, spermand (woman) egg
are already living organisms beforethe fusion. The question is, should a man who
masturbates be punished for wasting his semen? Or should women be punished
for undergoing monthly cycles-after all, un-used and non-fertilized eggs are
wasted? These are questions without answers as thetwo parties keep presenting
reasons for and against stem cells research; and supporters and non-supporters
keep increasing by the day. In fact, the recent US presidential elections showed
how scientific matters, social issues, religious thoughts, shaped debates, electoral
maps, and results. There is no doubt, these issues will linger for a long time to
come.

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CLONING: another trouble, another debate; cloning is the biologic process of
duplicating materials to producesameresult with exact look. This genetic
representation of individual can be accomplished in three ways:
1. Recombinant DNA technology or DNA cloning
2. Reproductive Cloning, and
3. Therapeutic Cloning.
Like stem cell debate, opponents of cloning see the scientific process as nothing,
but a negation to natural biological method of reproduction. More so, opponents
have come up with social, moral, legal, and more important, medical problems
(perpetuation of disorder or defect fromgenetically faulty individual) cloning will
bring, if allowed or adopted as a medical procedure.
Nanotech is a smallest tag, bio-compatible RFID transponder, a hand-freeor
hand-held ergonomic reader and writeable softwareto identify, and to trace
issues for medical solution. The transponder contains electronic chips that can be
planted in humans, animals, even plants or other objects to gather scientific data
for analysis for human use.
Itallows scientists to create, explore, manipulate, and measure materials in
nanometer (one billionth of a meter); these materials can be chemical, physicalor
biological properties. Sincethe introduction of this technology in early 80s, we
have had four types of nanotech:
1. Passive, which includes dispersed and products nanotech
2. Active, which includes: bio-active and physic-chemicalmaterial of drugs,
bio-devises, transistor and amplifiers
3. Systemnanotech
4. Molecular nanotech.
What are the ethical and legal problems associated with nanotech? The science of
nanotech has been quite phenomenal, it has helped in providing sound and

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detailed information on difficult subjects; also helped penetrate into difficult
zones.
Nanotech has been very usefulin spaceresearch, sea/ocean bed exploration
because many of the research tools are fitted with nanotech to help obtain,
explore, monitor and transmit binary information to earth stations for super-
computers’ analysis.
More so, nanotech has been so helpful in gathering information on single or
unicellular organisms such as: slime mould, algae, fungi, parasite, archaea, etc.
which in turn has helped in drug development and manufacturing for diseases’
management and control.
Also, nanotech has helped in the monitoring and management of wild-life;
especially, the endangered species. Animals havebeen fitted with electronic chips
to monitor their movement, social life, poachers/predators and document
findings for further use.
Regardless, does it mean or suggestnanotech has no ethical or moral concerns?
Certainly not; is there any ethical problemor moral burden, when a man or
woman is fitted with amplifier to monitor what goes around such an individual?
At what point is individual fitted with nanotech’s privacy infringed? Whatis the
border line between private information and public information from someone
with nanotech? Even, when nanotech is removed fromthe body, will the body be
same as pre-nanotech? Who owns the information accessed by nanotech- the
sourceor nanotech owners? How long will nanotech information/data be kept
before destroy? Should there be monetary reward for nanotech participants?
In Vitro Fertilization
In Vitro Fertilization popularly called IVF is the process of fertilization by manually
combining egg and spermin a laboratory dish; the process of fertilizing the female

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partner matured egg by male partner spermin the IVF lab for the transfer of
embryo into uterus.
In severalcases, this medical procedureis performed on females that cannot
conceived through biological process; whatis done is, matured egg is extracted
froma female through surgery, whilemale spermis sourced or obtained through
ejaculation, and then fertilization takes place, before the transfer into uterus
Surrogate Mothers
Arrangementwhere a woman or (couple) hires another woman, to carry and to
deliver a fertilized egg.
Surrogacy is of two types:
1. Genetic mother/traditional surrogate
2. Gestational surrogate
Genetic or traditional surrogate: the baby carrier may be or not genetically
related to the child shecarries; on the other hand, gestational surrogatemother is
un-related to the fetus, rather, she is substituting for the actual or biological
mother during the nine-month gestation.
As civil union (gay marriage) is becoming more popular in the western
hemisphere, there are possibilities that partners in this union may seek the help
of surrogatemothers in the future to help carry and deliver babies; even help
nursebabies up to six year. The question is who owns the baby-surrogateor civil
union partners?
What are the ethical, moral and legal problems the explained medical procedures
will have on human and the society now and in the future? What arethe
implication of new medical procedures on the family, and society at large?
Will these medical procedures createmore complex medical situation, or correct
the on-going troubles?

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As science & technology keep moving forward with noticeable improvement, also
there will be behavioral changes that will create more ethical and moral
questions. Will there be answers to these questions? Probably so, possibly not;
however, only time will tell.