A "Gun" That Heals?

I was amazed when I watched a National Geographic video featuring a device called the “Skin Gun.” The video documents the true story of a police officer whose arm and face were charred with second degree burns during a bonfire accident. While in the emergency room, he is told he qualifies for a stem cell treatment. Within 90 minutes the officer’s stem cells are extracted and sprayed on his burns. Three days later his skin is completely healed and unblemished. You would never guess he was ever burned!

I’ve read about young children who also received treatment using their own stem cells, resulting in a drastic reduction of their cerebral palsy symptoms. Some children diagnosed with Type I diabetes are no longer needing insulin treatments after receiving stem cell treatments. But should all of these stem cell treatments be legal?

My answer is “Yes.” Why? All of these treatments came from adult stem cells, not embryonic stem cells. Adult stem cells are derived from specific parts of a born human being’s body in a way that doesn’t kill her. They are derived from bone marrow or umbilical cord blood. Although the potential for these stem cells to develop into any type of cell may be limited, they can do some amazing things in specific areas of the body. Embryonic stem cells, on the other hand, are pluripotent, which means they can theoretically be manipulated to turn into any type of human cell. The ethical problem with embryonic stem cell research is that human embryos are killed in order to harvest these stem cells.

Even though embryos are killed, potentially millions of lives could be bettered from embryonic stem cell treatments. Would this justify embryonic stem cell research? The problem with this argument is that it assumes that embryos are not valuable. Suppose toddlers had pluripotent cells in their bodies that could only be harvested by killing the toddler. We would never kill toddlers, even if it was just a few of them, to harvest their stem cells and produce treatments. Because human life begins at conception, killing humans in the embryonic stage is just as wrong as killing humans in the toddler stage.

The purpose of scientific treatment is to protect and preserve life. It doesn’t make sense to kill tiny humans so we can help larger humans.


Embryonic stem cell research’s problems are not just ethical. Dr. Diane Irving, a biochemist formerly with the National Cancer Institute, says, “I have argued that adult stem cells are better because they are closer to the stage of differentiation than embryonic or fetal cells - therefore they do not have as long a distance to travel differentiation-wise as the younger cells. Therefore there is far less of a chance for genetic errors to be accumulated in the implanted cells and less side effects for the patient to deal with." 1

Dr. Irving is referring to the very high rate of teratomas, or cancerous growths, that occur after a subject is injected with embryonic stem cells. For example, a man in China had embryonic stem cells injected into his brain to treat Parkinson’s disease. Teratomas formed, creating hair and bone in his brain, eventually killing him. 2

As it happens though, adult stem cell research can accomplish many medical treatments, but without killing human beings. There are at least 72 different adult stem cell treatments and therapies currently in use with human patients.3 These treatments are helping humans live better lives and there aren’t ethical problems with using these treatments.




Thank you for partnering with me in my work at Justice For All. I love being able to mentor our staff and volunteers and also grow intellectually on current topics like stem cell research. Your support enables me to help other pro-life advocates better understand these complicated issues.



1 Gallagher, M., “Adult Stem Cell Research May Hold Promise for Diabetes Cure,” www.Lifenews.com (March 26, 2004)

2 Folkerth, R., et al., “Survival and proliferation of nonneural tissues, with obstruction of cerebral ventricles, in a parkinsonian patient treated with fetal allografts.” Neurology, Volume 46, Issue 5. (May 1, 1996)

3 Prentice, D., “Benefits of Stem Cells to Human Patients,” Do No Harm Website (April 11, 2007) [http://www.stemcellresearch.org/facts/treatments.htm]