Business Research Method Proposal Stem Cell Therapy

Question: Describe about the Business Research Method Proposal for Stem Cell Therapy. Answer: Introduction The stem cell therapy is a very common topic nowadays for curing the different types of diseases. The body cell or somatic cell is created from the stem cells. The zika virus is a kind of virus related to various types of diseases like dengue, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis (Musso et al. 2014).The virus can spread from pregnant woman to the fetus. The virus causes a disease named microcephaly in human fetus.The major disorders associated with the disease include poor intellectual development, inability in speech, dwarfism, abnormal facial structures and others. The company ABC has developed a gene therapy that can reduce the problem of microcephaly. The gene therapy makes use of the human stem cells. The stem cells are of three different types adult stem cells, human embryo stem cell under 14 days old and embryo stem cells above 14 day old. The study suggests that the embryo stem cells above 14 days old are most effective that cures the disease totally. There is a lot of ethical consideration regarding use of this therapy. The stem cell needs to be extracted at first from the people. The company has to open business in some places where there is a huge demand as well as supply of stem cells. The business plan should be made according to the viewpoint of the consumer (Zikmund et al. 2013). The opinion of the people regarding stem cell therapy should be taken into account. Therefore, the laboratory should be opened in such a country where the people have a clear thinking about the stem cell therapy. The assignment aims to give an idea about the methods to be used for stem cell therapy. An outline idea about the data collection method and analysis of the data are given in the assignment. The possible interpretation of the results of data collection is given in this assignment. Problem statement The problem statement in this research work is to determine a proper business plan for the company ABC relating to extraction of stem cells by the company that would cover all the legal and ethical matters relating to extraction of stem cells by the company. Research hypotheses The hypotheses concerned with the research work are: H0: The legal and ethical practices of the country are not favorable for opening stem cell laboratory by the company. H1: The legal and ethical practices of the country are favorable for opening stem cell laboratory. Literature review Introduction There are mainly two types of cells present in the body - the somatic cell and the stem cells. The somatic cells are the major body cells present in the body. These cells cannot be differentiated to form new cells. The stem cells are known as the master cells of human body. The stem cell possesses the ability to differentiate and form many different kinds of cells. There are more than 200 types of tissues present in a human body (Garbern and Lee 2013). All these tissues originate from the stem cells. The stem cells are found in the human body in the human embryo, parts of the body like bone marrow, adipose tissue, cartilage, peripheral blood tissue and others. The stem cells are also present in the human umbilical cord. The cells need to be preserved for future use. Most of the developed and developing countries of the world have adopted this technique of preserving stem cells in the laboratories. The stem cells are used for curing different types of diseases. International spread of Zika Virus: The zika virus is a type of virus that belongs to the family Flaviviridae. The virus was first found in the country Uganda in the year 1947. The virus causes diseases similar to the yellow fever, encephalitis and others (Oehler et al. 2014).The virus also causes a disease in newborn child named microcephaly. In this disease the brain of the patient becomes small. The main symptoms of the disease are poor speech, poor motor function, under developed systems and others (Lee 2014). The symptoms are all related to the improper development of the brain. The disease do not has any proper medical cure (Owojaiye and Are 2012). What stem cell to use The major source of stem cells is the human embryo. The stem cells are actually present in the human fetus. The cells are also present in adult human beings in the placenta, umbilical cord, bone marrow, adipose tissue. In general stem cell can be classied into four major types embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, mesenchymal stem cell, tissue specific stem cell. The tissue specific stem cells are found in bone marrow and form the blood cells. The mesenchymal cells are also known as stromal cells. The induced cells are formed in the laboratory where the body cells are converted into stem cells. There are mainly three types of stem cells used by the ABC Company for the gene therapy. The first one is the stem cell of adults that is obtained from parts like placenta and umbilical cord. This stem cell does not have much effect in curing the disease and is known to reduce microcephaly about 15%. The second type of stem cells is the stem cells of human embryo that are unde r 14 days old. These stem cells reduce th1e disease by 50%. The best result is however obtained by using stem cells of human embryo that are over 14 days old. These stem cells can cure the disease up to 100%. Therefore, one can use the fetal stem cells if it is ethical to use. The best would be to use stem cells above 14 days as they are best for curing the disease. About the ages of the cell The stem cell therapy has been used to cure different diseases like Alzheimers disease, heart diseases and others (Ding et al. 2015).The cells are also used in laboratory to form other types of cells. The stem cell therapy is nowadays very much use in organ transplant, rejuvenation of tissues and others. Altogether the stem cell therapy has made a wide change in medical science and has brought a new revolution by healing a lot of diseases. Legal and ethical issues: The stem cell research has faced a lot of social, legal and ethical controversies despite of bringing a promising application in clinical fields. The main unethical issue related to this stem cell culture is the destruction of human embryo. The practice of destroying human embryo for stem cell research has brought about a conflict between the two issues. In one hand, the stem cell therapy cures many incurable diseases and on the other hand there is the destruction of very beginning of human life. It is very much obvious that both the issues cannot exist simultaneously. However, it does not always happen that embryos are destroyed for the research purpose and stem cell therapy (eurostemcell.org 2016). Sometimes the cells are obtained from miscarried or still born fetuses. The cells can also be obtained from the still alive fetuses if there be some way of removing them from the mothers womb without causing any harm to them (Schwartz et al. 2015). The placenta can also be used as a sour ce as this is sometimes wasted (hfea.gov.uk 2012). The non embryonic stem cells such as the cells from bone marrow, adipose tissue are widely used for stem cell research. The successful use of non embryonic stem cell in these cases has led to the use of non embryonic stem cells in the treatment of the diseases (Nakamura and Okano 2013). The use of these stem cells has also made the scientist believe that non embryonic stem cells can bring potential improvement in stem cell therapy. Previously these stem cells obtained from non embryonic sources were considered medically less significant. But recent research and experiments has proved these stem cells to be equally significant as embryonic stem cells. The doctors use cord blood that is considered as a waste material after the birth of the baby. The extraction of cord blood requires permission from the mother, father of the baby. The cord blood is sometimes removed while the placenta is still in the body. In such cases, the consent of the mother is enough. The destruction of fetus for stem cell therapy is not at all desirable. The consent of mother is required for using the fetal stem cell. This is banned in many countries (Schwartz et al. 2015). The embryonic stem cells have always proved to be more efficient in stem cell therapy (Biffi et al. 2013). A question that arises in this case is that is it ethical to harm the life of a few embryos in order to save the life of a larger proportion of the population. However, one cannot destroy the innocent life of the embryo at any cost. This way of extracting stem cell is totally unethical and also not moral (eurostemcell.org 2016). The countries across the world have formed various laws to protect the life of the fetus. The United States has no such law that considers the fetus as human being but they do have some laws to protect the fetus. The countries of Europe also have made laws to avoid the practices. The country India has laws that protect the right of the fetus (Goodwin 2014). The country Great Britain has passed certain laws regarding fetus protection such as Human fertilization and embryology act of 1990 and the Human fertilization and embryology Regulations of the year 2001. The acts allows researches on the embryo in certain purposes like increasing knowledge about the miscarriages, to gain idea about the effect of contraceptive pills and others that are meant for the welfare of the entire nation (le.ac.uk 2016). The laws of country India suggests that embryonic stem cells can be used but destruction of embryo for the sake of money or any other means is considered illegal. The use of stem cell culture for certain cases like IVF, formation of human zygote is prohibited. The stem cell culture for this gene therapy can be used (Letter, 2015). The religious viewpoint: Certain religion in the world does not permit the use of stem cells. The people also have some orthodox belief. This would hamper the business of the company. Therefore the company should open business in such places where the people would be literate enough to understand these concepts (Crane and Matten 2007). Therefore, the use of stem cells of embryo in stem cell therapy can be done in some cases. Further research and experiments should be conducted to make use of non embryonic stem cells. A few discoveries have been made in the recent times where an adult cell is converted into embryonic cell. Purpose of the research There are many ethical issues related to the extraction of stem cells. The stem cells are not something found in everyday world. The cells need to be extracted from the human body. The permission of the people as well as the Government would be required for this extraction. The stem cells are mainly of three types adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells below 14 days and embryonic stem cells above the age of 14 days. The embryonic stem cells below the age of 14 days are not easy to be obtained though these stem cells are the best for the therapy. There is many ethical issues related to collection of the stem cells. The legal and ethical laws vary from country to country. The purpose of the project is to determine all the legal and ethical issues of the relating to the extraction of stem cells. The ABC Company is going to take the decision about which type of stem cell to use based on this report. Data collection Introduction: One of the most important parts of the research process is the collection of data. This chapter will study the research philosophy, research design and research approach, methods of data collection, sample size and sampling technique. The research philosophy in this case of the research is positive philosophy. The positive philosophy involves collection of data and drawing inferences from the collected data (Silverman 2016). The appropriate sample size supports positivism philosophy. The researcher will use deductive research approach in this case. The availability of data supports deductive research approach. The qualitative and quantitative research design will be used for this project. The qualitative research design will be used for collecting data from the journal articles. The quantitative data collection method involves data collection with the help of questionnaire. The detailed description of data collection method is given below. Data collection: In this case, the ABC Company has to first determine the country where they are going to open their laboratory. The country having high population should be chosen for the purpose. The countries of the world that has high population are India, United States, China and Japan. The countries like China have the rule of having only one child. Therefore, those countries cannot be chosen for the purpose of the project. The people of the country should be educated also and must possess proper knowledge about the use of stem cell. The people should not have any superstition and orthodox believe. One needs to know the views of the people regarding this stem cell therapy. The psychological condition of the people needs to be known for this purpose. The information relating to these matters could be obtained with the help of a research questionnaire. The questionnaire contains questions about knowledge of stem cell therapy, the diseases that could be cured by the therapy, their views about dona ting the stem cells and others. Therefore, the countries India, United Kingdom and Japan are considered for the purpose of this research. The data that is to be collected for the purpose of this research work would be cross sectional data using online survey questionnaire for early results. The cross sectional data is when the data would be collected over a single point of time (Panneerselvam 2014). The country India has legal laws regarding extraction of fetal stem cells (bic.icmr.org.in 2016). Along with the traditional methods of survey, online surveys can also be done. The interview can be conducted by interviewing the doctors and medical practitioners about their viewpoint regarding stem cell therapy. Sample size The sample size should be appropriate for the collection of data. The accurate sample size will help in getting proper estimates. The country chosen for the purpose of this assignment is India. A few major cities of the country like Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, and Chennai are chosen for collecting data. For example, the total population of Hyderabad is 3747660 (census2011.co.in 2016). Then a sample of size 384 would be appropriate to get a confidence interval with 95% confidence limit and an error margin of 5% (surveysystem.com 2016). The sample size for the cities of other countries also needs to be calculated in the same way. In the countries like United Kingdom and United States. Sampling method: The data can be collected by the method of cluster sampling. Each of the states is taken as a cluster. The data about the laws and ethics of the country also needs to be collected. This can be done with the help of secondary data. Research process: The research process involves the entire procedure for doing the research wok. The first step is to identify the research problem. An extensive literature review has to be done after identification of research problem. The next step involves data collection. This research process involves collection of both primary as well as secondary data. The primary data is to be collected with the help of questionnaire. The next step is analysis of the data. The data analysis and interpretation of the results of analysis needs to be done in the next step. The findings from the data and conclusion will be the final step in the assignment. Analysis and interpretation of data The data so collected can be analyzed with the help of different statistical methods. The data is in Likert scale. The central tendency measures will give an approximate idea about the attitudes of the people regarding stem cell therapy. The regression study can also be conducted to understand the attitude of the people regarding the ethical issues related to stem cell therapy. There are also different types of people living in a country like India. The opinions may vary from person to person. The variation of opinion can be due to religious thoughts and beliefs, literacy rates and other factors. One can perform cluster analysis study with the help of the given data. The clusters can be formed according to religion. One can also find the descriptive statistics measures for each of these clusters. The variation of values of descriptive statistics measures will indicate the differences of opinion among different communities. Report and findings The expected outcome of the report suggests that the null hypothesis of the assignment will be accepted in this case. The acceptance of null hypothesis suggests that the ethical issues and legal laws of the country will provide a favorable environment for opening of laboratory in the country. The rejection of the null hypothesis would however suggest the opening of the company is not going to bring any benefit. Conclusion: The research suggests that the null hypothesis will be rejected. The country should be chosen in a proper way where the ethical and legal issues would support the research of stem cell. The assignment gives a proper idea about the data collection methods and analysis of the data. The possible interpretation of the results of the analysis is also given in this assignment. The assignment also gives an extensive idea about the ethics related to the stem cell therapy. The assignment will help to understand the ethical issues related to the research of stem cell. The assignment will help to understand the places where the opening of the laboratory of the company would provide them with profit and gain better results. The recommendations that follow from the study are: A lot of political and religious issues are related with this kind of treatment procedure. The procedures of research should be carried out by taking into consideration all the social and religious factors. The company can conduct certain campaign to make the people understand the importance of the research. This would benefit both the people of the country as well as the company. Another important thing regarding the stem cell culture is the Theory of Utilitarianism. The patients who are suffering from the disease would be benefitted while the donor that is the fetus would be killed for the purpose. Therefore, it harms a group. A lot of debate is there regarding this issue. The best way to achieve maximum utility is to use those embryonic stem cells that would be wasted. Sometimes abortion of fetus is required for some extreme cases. It may be due to saving the mother as the mother may have some serious diseases. These embryonic stem cells can be used (Henderson 2015). The stem cell of the fetus can provide best results in gene therapy for curing the disease. But using those stem cells involve killing of the fetus which is unethical. 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