Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Powerman

Active Member
Jul 23, 2005
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Where do you folks stand on the issue?

I don't mean whether or not the govt. should fund it. That's for the politics section. I'm talking about what your ethical stance is on it.

Are you ok with it? Does it bother you? Have you taken time out of your day to educate yourself on what it actually is?
 
Powerman said:
Where do you folks stand on the issue?

I don't mean whether or not the govt. should fund it. That's for the politics section. I'm talking about what your ethical stance is on it.

Are you ok with it? Does it bother you? Have you taken time out of your day to educate yourself on what it actually is?

I think we outta leave chicken embryos alone. :tng:
 
Powerman said:
Where do you folks stand on the issue?

I don't mean whether or not the govt. should fund it. That's for the politics section. I'm talking about what your ethical stance is on it.

Are you ok with it? Does it bother you? Have you taken time out of your day to educate yourself on what it actually is?

Why do I have a feeling that you are just waiting to educate those who haven't?
 
I'm not itching to educate anyone. I just find that usually those who oppose such things don't really know much about it.

I think it's kinda silly to take a stance on something you know little about.
 
Powerman said:
I'm not itching to educate anyone. I just find that usually those who oppose such things don't really know much about it.

I think it's kinda silly to take a stance on something you know little about.

Let's see .... last I heard, it was Promethian experimentation that might could possibly lead to something some day.
 
Powerman said:
Where do you folks stand on the issue?

I don't mean whether or not the govt. should fund it. That's for the politics section. I'm talking about what your ethical stance is on it.

Are you ok with it? Does it bother you? Have you taken time out of your day to educate yourself on what it actually is?

No, Yes, and Yes!!
 
So far, embryonic stem cells have proven extremely useful for causing cancer, and that's about it. Mabye one day it will lead to something big, but I think it needs to run under its own power, at least until they can find a source of embryonic stem cells other than children.

Oh, and answer me this, if embryonic stem cell research is supposed to be as big a miracle as its supporters claim it is, then why does it need government funding? If it has even a small fraction of the potential the supporters claim, they'd have to beat the investors off with a stick. And don't say it's because they're too short-sided. It takes 5-15 years to make a new drug, so I know the medical companies have the patience.
 
Powerman said:
Where do you folks stand on the issue?

I don't mean whether or not the govt. should fund it. That's for the politics section. I'm talking about what your ethical stance is on it.

Are you ok with it? Does it bother you? Have you taken time out of your day to educate yourself on what it actually is?
No, yes, and slightly.

A human life is a human life whether or not
it is in the womb, and should be accorded
the same right against being killed.

I understand there is potential for stem cell
use as treatment for such diseases as MS,
and that embryonic stem cells are thought
to hold much more promise than adult ones.

Nevertheless I have strong reservations about
taking life for the sake of medical research.
 
Embryonic stem cell research has not produced nearly the results in treating diseases that adult stem cell research has. I have already posted on this board several articles having to do with adult stem cell research and the successes that have been obtained with this research.

There are many sources of adult stem cells for researchers to use, while the embryo is the sole source of embryonic stem cells. If my tax dollars are going to be used to fund stem cell research, I absolutlely want it to be the adult stem cell version.
 
Adam's Apple said:
Embryonic stem cell research has not produced nearly the results in treating diseases that adult stem cell research has. I have already posted on this board several articles having to do with adult stem cell research and the successes that have been obtained with this research.

There are many sources of adult stem cells for researchers to use, while the embryo is the sole source of embryonic stem cells. If my tax dollars are going to be used to fund stem cell research, I absolutlely want it to be the adult stem cell version.
What he said.
 
Adam's Apple is right on. I see no reason to use stem cells from embryos, each of which is a new human being waiting to grow and be born, when we could just as easily use stem cells from adults for the same research.
 
gop_jeff said:
Adam's Apple is right on. I see no reason to use stem cells from embryos, each of which is a new human being waiting to grow and be born, when we could just as easily use stem cells from adults for the same research.
And the adult stem cell science is the one that has moved beyond "research" to actually treating patients.
 
mom4 said:
And the adult stem cell science is the one that has moved beyond "research" to actually treating patients.

Right you are! :D

correct.jpg
 
Adam's Apple...Embryonic stem cell research has not produced nearly the results in treating diseases that adult stem cell research has. I have already posted on this board several articles having to do with adult stem cell research and the successes that have been obtained with this research.

Exactly!! Proven successes...
 
Embrionic stem-cell research has not achieved the results that adult stem-cell research has. There are many factors invovled in this . First, yes government funding would help move the research along. Second it is extremely difficult to legally aquire embrionic stemcells in the United States with which to do research.

The reason that people are interested in embrionic stem cells, is that unlike adult stem cells which are pluripotent (can turn into several different cells, but not certain cells like nerve cells), embrionic stemcells are totipotent (can turn into any kind of human cell). The potential medical capabilities ARE astounding. However embrionic stem cell research does suffer from the same moral and ethical problems as Abortion (which is why most people here object to it.)

This problem is theoretically avoidable. It sould be possible to take a small number of a growing embryo's stemcells and get them to grow in culture, while doing no harm whatsoever to the embryo as a whole.
 
deaddude said:
Embrionic stem-cell research has not achieved the results that adult stem-cell research has. There are many factors invovled in this . First, yes government funding would help move the research along. Second it is extremely difficult to legally aquire embrionic stemcells in the United States with which to do research.

The reason that people are interested in embrionic stem cells, is that unlike adult stem cells which are pluripotent (can turn into several different cells, but not certain cells like nerve cells), embrionic stemcells are totipotent (can turn into any kind of human cell). The potential medical capabilities ARE astounding. However embrionic stem cell research does suffer from the same moral and ethical problems as Abortion (which is why most people here object to it.)

This problem is theoretically avoidable. It sould be possible to take a small number of a growing embryo's stemcells and get them to grow in culture, while doing no harm whatsoever to the embryo as a whole.

There are already several dozen lines of those stem cells available for research. Using those, I don't oppose; getting new ones, I'm against.
 
deaddude said:
Even if getting new ones does not damage the fetus?
My understanding is that harvesting the stem cells always destroys the baby. Please explain how it would be possible to obtain stem cells without damaging the baby.
 
I believe there is some Japanese research going into this. It works alot like the natural process that creates Identicle twins. At some stage in fetal developement it is possible for a sizable portion of stemcells to split from the main fetus, if this bunch of stemcells is large enough it can form a new fetus and so an identicle twin is formed. If we take a few stemcells from the fetus at this stage of development, and get those stemcells to grow in culture, than we have a viable source of embrionic stemcells without harming the fetus.

Note that this is still being researched, but if successful should provide for a source of stem cells that is ethically sound.
 

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