Therapeutic abortion and ectopic pregnancy: alternative sources for fetal stem cell research and therapy in Iran as an Islamic country

AbstractRegenerative medicine as a background of stem cell research and therapy has a long history. A wide variety of diseases including Parkinson ’s disease, heart diseases, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, diabetes mellitus and etc. are candidate to be treated using different types of stem cells. There are several sources of stem cells such as bone marrow, umbilical cord, peripheral blood, germ cells and the embryo/fetus tissues. Fe tal stem cells (FSCs) and embryonic stem cells (ESCs) have been described as the most potent stem cell source. Although their pluri- or multipotent properties leads to promising reports for their clinical applications, owning to some ethical and legal obstacles in different communities such as Musli m countries, care should be taken for therapeutic applications of FSCs and ESCs. Derivation of these cell types needs termination of pregnancy and embryo or fetus life that is prohibited according to almost all rules and teaches in Muslim communities. Abortion and termination of pregnancy under a no rmal condition for the procurement of stem cell materials is forbidden by nearly all the major world religions such as Islam. Legislated laws in the most of Muslim countries permit termination of pregnancy and abortion only when the life of the mother is severely threatened or when continuing pregna ncy may lead to the birth of a mentally retarded, genetically or anatomically malformed child. Based on the rules and conditions in Islamic countries...
Source: Cell and Tissue Banking - Category: Stem Cells Source Type: research