The Undergraduate Biological Research Society's Thursday night lecture evolved from a stem-cell research presentation into a heated discussion concerning ethics and morality.
UW-Madison Assistant Professors Su Chun Zhang and Robert Streiffer delivered presentations discussing the scientific and sociological aspects of stem cell research, respectively.
Zhang defined stem cells and outlined various recent experiments, including the development of human stem cells without large amounts of mouse-derived feeder cells.
He closed his portion of the presentation by placing the importance of stem-cell research in terms of its potential, explaining future uses could include human development, cancer research, gene discovery, drug screening/toxicology and cell replacement.
\From an engineering standpoint, I really enjoyed Professor Zhang's talk about the more technical side of things, and the potential to develop embryonic stem cells into all sorts of different cells in the human body, from neurons to heart cells to blood cells,"" said Marty Grasse, a UW-Madison sophomore who attended the lecture.
Streiffer also emphasized the significance of stem-cell research, but focused his discussion on the sociological and ethical issues associated with the field. He touched on topics concerning the monetary cost of the research and also addressed various controversial aspects regarding the ethics of abortion and ""human dignity.""
Though each presenter discussed both the scientifically technical and ethically problematic issues regarding stem-cell research, the audience passionately focused on ethical and politically charged views in the open discussion at the end of the presentation.
""Professor Zhang was very informative about new research and the possibilities ... in the stem cell field, and Professor Streiffer was very informative about the different moral implications,"" Grasse said.
Nevertheless, ""toward the end there were a few individuals that seemed like they made it their business to argue with the professors about moral issues,"" Grasse said. ""One gentleman asked Professor Zhang what I thought were some inappropriate questions concerning how he reconciled the morality of his work, and there were individuals that seemed to be arguing with Professor Streiffer about the moral issues in his work as well.""
Despite several participants' visible discomfort as they witnessed various audience members ask the professors challenging and graphic questions, students from the UBRS were enthusiastic about their ardent crowd.
""I thought it was very interesting ... people from all different perspectives were talking, and ... it was just a good global perspective of everyone's view,"" said UW-Madison senior Courtney Villari.
