Blood from Stem Cells

Reported in ToL

That's great news.

Moreover:

It should be noted that this result is one of a very few, involving embryonic stem cell research, that goes beyond 'proving the theory' work.

Most stem-cell advances in medicine have involved 'reprogramming' adult stem cells, usually taken from the {real or theoretical}patient.

Whether or not you agree with the strictions on embryonic stem cell research, is there any reason at all to not avoid a possible slippery slope if there's an alternative??

I have Roe v Wade in mind. For you young'uns: "The Christian Right's fearmongering that legalized abortion will result in late term practices leading to actual infanticide are ridiculous!"
- National Organization for Women,NARAL circa 1970

 

Sigh... want to address the issue as I posed it?

Can you point out any ESC progress beyond a petri dish and mouse cage?

This doesnt qualify, cuz I brought it up.
And do you want to dispute my recollection in paraphrasing NOW/NARAL or not... ???? 'You were there' as Murrow used to say.

Complex and multi-faceted, my ass!

 

There has not been a single clinical application resulting from embryonic stem cell research while there have been somewhere around 80 such applications resulting from adult stem cells.

What is also largely ignored in this debate is that one of if not the major faction against embryonic stem cell research are feminists. Their objections to it are 1) ESC lines from fertility clinics (i.e. the ones that would be thrown out) are not ultimately useful to researches because their quality is poor due to their age and variability 2) As a result, ESC need to be freshly and consistently harvested which would lead to the exploitation of women for their eggs, something already being done if Asia. Harvesting eggs requires hormone injections which are now being linked to cancer 3) the promise of ESC research is greatly exaggerated.

I dont now the counter arguments to their claims, but their claims do seem significant, logical, and largely ignored by MSM in this debate.

 

Let me clarify, for some of you who dont follow closely.. or otherwise dont give a rat's ass.. how ESC and the abortion issue relate.

{added. Mo was typing on it as I was}

The FEAR.. relating to slippery slope... of the Religious establishment, is that some couples, or mothers, may resort to pregnancy, then termination, in order to cure a previous child's serious illness.
It IS NOT a fear by radical Christianists that umbilical stem cells may be used. They are indeed tossed, otherwise.

Personally I have no qualms about a couple parenting a child in order to obtain stem cells from the umbilical cord. Even if they give that child up for adoption.. but that's sorta on the fringe, IMO.
I DO see the slippery slope, however.. Don does too, I'm pretty sure.

 

If the alternative is better, sure. However, I don't one method should be discarded for the alternative just because there is a political or moral issue.

It's true though, that a lot can be done with a person's own stem cells. For example, German doctors grow jaw bone in man's back. Old news, but still awesome. The thing about stem cells is that they can do what not long ago may as well have been magic . . like literally. That's where science needs to go. I feel if things like this can be done, we should be doing research on every single way that this can be made to work to grow jaws, blood, limbs, cure AIDS, whatever.

As for the fear about pregnancy just to save a life - how often does that really happen? That's crazy. I feel like it's another one of these "man, we can't do A because then B will happen" in order to justify stopping research and keeping us in the stone age. I hate to say it, but I'd be all for banning a procedure like that . . to get pregnant, get the cells from the fetus, and then abort the child? I'd be 100% against that. That's fucking crazy.

Now that I think about it, I remember once instance I read about when I was in elementary school, which was in Readers Digest. (NYT Article Here). This article was written while it was happening, the marrow was a match, they ended up keeping the kid (obviously), and their daughter lived, I'm pretty sure. I mean, the kid saves your daughters life . . it's automatically a hero, it deserves to live too! Great. story, actually.


the end.

 

And mo... as you are fully aware that is bullshit.

Dubya didnt outlaw it. He outlawed expanding the lines.

And he certainly didnt outlaw it in Europe or anywhere outside the US.
I brought up the 'Christians' because their fears on Roe / Wade were borne out, as you know.
ASIDE from it being bad law. Dont worry though folks.. Roe Wade aint gonna be reversed - and probably shouldnt- as ann example of BAD LAW decision - unless some Imam does it.

Don, if you want to rant on Birth control edicts by the church establishment ... even on RU45, I'm with you.

Otherwise stop throwing up straw men.

 

Aww... but I NEED a 'straight-man'!*
8)
You said in another thread, I was only good/believable for blogging on tech.

Here's a blog on tech {physics} 101:
* Work is only accomplished when force meets resistance.

I'll leave it to the gentle reader to sort that out.. but here's a hint. don never did respond to my reason why the religious right doesnt like ESC research/medicine.

NOR did he acknowledge my point that the research finding was a GOOD THING, ESC or not!

{edited out a redundancy}