There is a lot of misinformation regarding the source of stem cells and the medical benefits.
Let’s Be Clear: Stem Cells and Popular Culture | The Stem Cellar
It was during winter break of my Junior year in college that the gap between the general public’s understanding of embryonic stem cell biology and the reality of that research quickly came into focus for me.… It was during winter break of my Junior year in college that the gap between the general public’s understanding of embryonic stem cell biology and the reality of that research quickly came into focus for me.
The following is a guest blog from Matt Donne, PhD.
I was out to lunch with my grandmother and excited to see her to share my new research project I had started with human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). He just started working with stem cells to cure cancer.” Now this statement was not true, but harmless enough so I figured I would let it go. I was out to lunch with my grandmother and excited to see her to share my new research project I had started with human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). While enjoying our lunch together discussing school, relationships, and such, a friend of hers approached to say hello. Immediately my grandmother proclaimed, “This is my grandson Matthew and he is a scientist. He just started working with stem cells to cure cancer.” Now this statement was not true, but harmless enough so I figured I would let it go. Her friend’s eyes immediately grew large and she quickly felt it necessary to educate us on what exactly I was doing by working with “stem cells”. In her friend’s words I was, “killing babies and sucking out their brains to make stem cells.”
My grandmother and I were both silenced and confused, for different reasons, as her friend quickly walked away in disgust. My grandmother asked concernedly if this was in fact true. I explained that this could not be farther from the truth, and that this friend was extremely misinformed. We then discussed the difference between a developing fetus and the 3 to 5 day old embryos from which these hESC lines were derived. We also discussed these embryos were donated by couples who seek in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments.
Specifically, the donated embryos were those which the couple no longer needed and therefore decided to donate them for research proposes to help advance both science and medicine rather than discard them. This fact-based explanation eased many of the fears my grandmother had as to the research. This, however, left in me a fear that over 10 years later I still see playing out in popular culture.
Most recently my frustration toward this misinformation came when I saw a posting by VICE of a carton entitled ‘Magical Stem Cells’. The cartoon was a truly gross and inaccurate representation of where embryonic stem cells are derived, as it portrayed a unicorn fetus essentially being harvested to create “magical” stem cells that can turn into any other cell, tissue or organ in the body. This is wholly inaccurate. It is possible that the cartoon was created to positively promote the potential of stem cell biology, however anyone somewhat versed in the field would find it misleading, disgusting, scary and dangerous.
