America steps up on stem cells, finally unleashed from "war on science".

I am very pro-life, but I don't share the views of the GOP when it comes to stem cells. As long as the the cells are available, they should be used with the parent's permission. I realize they are afraid of increased abortions, and potential cloning, or pre-determined abortions, but that is something you deal with in science.

 

Absolutely. I've never understood the idea of increased abortions. There are something like 1 million abortions a year where stem cells can be taken. Why would anyone intentionally start aborting people to get stem cells?

 

Well, IIRC, the stem cells don't come from abortions. I believe they're harvested from leftover embryos from the in-vitro fertilization process - when a woman opts for in-vitro, they fertilize a bunch of eggs in case they need more, and then usually discard them after a successful impregnation.

 

"Humans Have Entered a New Stage of Evolution"


Bring on the clones, the super brains, and the metallic body parts and armor.

 

Significant for cancer research. I'm glad that stem cells were removed from the terrorist watch list.

 

Good.

Be it gay marriage, the drug war, abortion, sex education in schools, or stem cell research, the religious aspect of politics is what keeps me from being a republican.

Time to move forward.

 

An embryo is still human. There is nothing leftover about life. That's still abortion.

 

I draw the line at steam cells and the gay marriage.

 

Oh please. I'm sure American scientists have been on top of this issue for years. If you believe this you also believe smallpox is kept in only two places in world. LOL.

 

and further emotional detachment..

 

Just curious, are you saying stem cell research is wrong because it is akin to abortion, or are you saying that discarding unused embryos is wrong without commenting on whether doing stem cell research on those that were already going to be discarded is wrong?

 

"Unused" embryos. That's a good phrase for emotional detachment and making them out to be gadgets that can be used or thrown away or killed.

If the embryos come from "in vitro" fertilization instead of sex, does it mean their lives are worth less? No. Life is important. Importance of life isn't determined by the means of origin. Babies from artificial insemination still deserve to live.

 

Steam cells are hawt.

 

The thought is that if you had one child with MS, you might create a pregnancy to gather stem cells that may work as a cure. Sort of like that new movie coming out based on a Nicholas Sparks book where they had a 2nd child to help save the first.(I think it deals with cancer and bone marrow in the movie, but I'm not sure).

 

Interesting - do stem cells need to be from the same gene structure to be useful? You would need one from the same parents as opposed to just getting generic stem cells from another source? If so, I could see how that could be potentially problematic.

 

Thanks for responding to my post, but you didn't really address the question.

To my knowledge, embryos created for in vitro fertilization but not used are usually discarded, and it is those embryos that will be used for embryonic stem cell research. To me, that would indicate that your problem is with the discarding of the embryos that are not used in the in vitro fertilization process, rather than with the stem cell research that may occur. If that's the case, then there really isn't any logical link between stem cell research and abortion, right? Your problem is with the in vitro fertilization process, correct?

Also, if you don't like the term "unused embryos" please feel free to come up with a better way to refer to those embryos that are used for embryonic stem cell research that would otherwise be discarded. I'm not tied to terms, I'm just trying to write in a way that can be understood by as many people as possible.

That's an interesting theory, and I know you're not necessarily defending it, but I would imagine a counterpoint to that would be that it would be wiser to wait and see what happens. If cures or other medical breakthroughs are found where creating embryos specifically for medicinal purposes isn't necessary, then that would make the above objection moot. If cures or other medical breakthroughs are found that might lead to some wanting to create embryos solely for medicinal reasons, then we could cross that bridge when we come to it.

 

Hail science!


http://zombietime.com/john_holdren/

 

The book is by Jodi Picoult and you're sort of right, it's leukemia and kidney/bone marrow transplants. The thing is they aren't talking about stem cells there, just organ transplants. It would likely be a similar situation, though, you're right.

 

A company in Colorado is skirting the FDA and using stem-cell procedures already for joint damage in humans. The results are impressive.