Have you ever heard of age-related macular degeneration? It’s a leading cause of vision loss in older adults.

The macula is a small central region of the retina, located in the back of the eye. It has the highest concentration of light sensing cells and is responsible for the sharpest vision. It contains over a million rod and cone vision cells. Underneath is a layer of cells called the retinal pigment epithelium. This layer serves to nourish the rods and cones so they can detect light and properly send the signal to the brain. When the retinal pigment epithelium layer begins to fail, it results in the degeneration of the macula.

Over time, the macula can begin to degenerate, causing blurred or distorted vision, sometimes showing up as a circular area in your vision. The degeneration does lead to total blindness, but it will leave someone vision impaired to the extent of being declared legally blind.

Allow me to explain. My oldest daughter has a form of macular degeneration, but hers is due to a rare genetic condition. She is legally blind but can still see, only very blurry. On order for her to read, letters and numbers have to be VERY large. She cannot see facial details but can see the shape of someone’s head and their hair, but she cannot recognize faces. When it comes to colors, it’s very hard for her to distinguish shades of the same color that are close together. We have a table cloth with blue flower (3-4 shades of blue and 3-4 shades of green). She sees one blue and one green. When it comes to stairs, she cannot see any depth as they all look to be one flat level. We had to paint the edge of our stairs outside the house so she can see the contrast.

This is pretty much the same thing that happens with age-related macular degeneration.

For decades, there was little that could be done to stop or cure age-related macular degeneration (AMD) but doctors in London may have just made a huge breakthrough in the treatment but there is an ethical cost to consider.

Douglas Waters, 86, of London had AMD in his right eye. He could not read or see any details. Everything was too blurred out of that eye.

After a revolutionary pioneering treatment, Waters says he can now see well enough out of his right eye to read. He told the media:

“In the months before the operation my sight was really poor and I couldn’t see anything out of my right eye.”

The doctors used stem cells to grow a new layer of the retinal pigment epithelium cells and then they implanted that in the back of Waters’ eye. Now he can read and is thrilled with the restoration of his vision. This is exciting news for millions of seniors, but other than the high financial cost of the process, there is an ethical cost that many may find too much to justify the process.

The stem cells used were embryonic stem cells, meaning a human embryo had to be destroyed in order to harvest the stem cells. If you believe that life begins as conception, then you see the process of taking a human life in order to restore the lost vision.

Hopefully, the researchers will find a way to use any of the variety of readily available adult stem cells, which are used many other medical procedures. These can be harvested without sacrificing a life and thus no ethical dilemma. That would be wonderful for so many seniors.