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| quote: | Originally posted by Q5echo
first off you can't ban IVF and there are already measures in place to protect unused embryos. even if it was wholly Federally funded, it's a classic red herring to hide your ideology behind though, that you're real good at, i'll give you that. |
Guess we'd better tell Bill Frist how ideologically driven he's being with his vote on the matter, won't we?
And I'm sorry, I didn't realize how strong those measures to protect those unused embryos were, like this:
| quote: | Despite the national soul-searching stirred up by stem cell research, human embryos are discarded all the time in fertility clinics -- and hardly anyone seems to mind.
At one Bay Area clinic, they are flushed down the drain in a metal sink. At another, a technician drops them into a medical waste bin, to be picked up and incinerated by hospital staff.
At still another, a "quiet area" is set aside in the lab, where frozen embryos are thawed and allowed to live out their last days -- usually no more than three or four at most.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic.../20/MN58092.DTL |
So, protective measures like that, Q?
| quote: | | you seriously believe that? |
It's not a belief - that's a fact with what Bush had done with his veto. Can you make a little feeble attempt and demonstrate to the contrary, sir?
| quote: | | thats the problem with you blind haters. you have to tell yourself that Bushitler is the boogeyman so your rhetoric tastes better as you regurgitate it over and over again. good'ole fear mongering from the left never hurt anybody right? |
What was that Congressional vote again, Q? You tellin' your party members who voted on this bipartisan bill just how "Left" they are?
Funny how you resort back to your labelling and "hate" painting when that's pretty much all you have left.
Quite repetitive. Quite tedious.
| quote: | | no, the lawmakers that squashed any alternatives for federal funding in favor of exclusive hESC research dashed any hopes of "life-saving research". it's my opinion that all this was, was an attempted boondoggle for BigPharmiCo. i know you couldn't see that with your blinders on. |
Okay, someone's going to have to decifer this code for me here. Not exactly sure how to read this. Q, were you aware that the two other alternative bills sailed through Congress? How did any lawmaker "squash" alternatives for federal funding in favor or exclusive hESC research? You really need to be a bit more clear with your thoughts here.
| quote: | | more fear-mongering. i mean if your dumb ass really believes that, you should advocate for some Federally mandated organ/tissue havesting legislation from terminally ill patients. |
Well it wasn't long until you switched from your "hate" rhetoric to "fear-mongering". Only a matter of time with you, one just has to wait it out.....
I want to make sure I have your logic straight here. You are equating a group of 20 cells that have not developed into any life form of any sort to that of terminally ill patients, people with pain, heart beat, brain wave activity, higher cognitive processing, and so on?
Oh dear, you really don't have a clue as to what you're arguing, do you? You're really going to have to get past some serious ethical issues if you are trying to make such an argument about blastocysts, such as:
| quote: | If embryos are persons, then IVF medicine must change dramatically. People who undergo the procedure should not, for example, have the option of deciding not to donate extra embryos to other couples. They would have to choose between implanting them, now or at some future time, or donating them to others. The government, in turn, should pay the cost of preserving abandoned embryos, just as it now covers emergency neo-natal intensive care for infants without caretakers. Until such changes are implemented, people truly opposed to killing embryos should refuse to subsidize fertility clinics.
Yet such reforms might strike many consumers of IVF treatments as undesirable. Many people who create embryos for implantation are unwilling to see those embryos implanted in other people. Like some men who prefer not to donate to a sperm bank, many couples would rather not reproduce at all than reproduce without having any subsequent relationship with resulting offspring.
Those who would oppose compelled donation do not, in other words, really think of embryos as children to be kept or given up for adoption. They think of them instead as special property, the destiny of which should be in their hands unless and until the property actually becomes persons.
For those who embrace the view that embryos are persons, this common intuition about the status of embryos presents a challenge. They may describe stem cell research as homicide, but they must recognize that doing so entails a description of current fertility treatments as homicide as well, albeit homicide that is intimately linked to creating other lives. They would have to insist that all unutilized frozen embryos be preserved and made available to interested couples, regardless of the original couples' respective wishes. After all, one could not give up a child after birth but insist that the child be discarded or used for research.
Perhaps more realistically, the pro-life opponent of stem cell research might simply oppose IVF altogether, a position taken by the Vatican. The person who believes that life begins at conception but supports stem cell research has a different problem on her hands. She, by accepting both of these arguments, implicitly accepts the notion that full persons may be sacrificed to save other full persons' lives. Would she feel the same way about unwanted persons who had already been born?
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/colb/20010801.html |
| quote: | | i mean, Terry Schiavo was as much a clump of cells as some blatycists right? or can you make that distinction? |
I believe we have something called "organ donation" on the back of our driver's licenses to this effect, do we not? If that individual makes a formal consent for tissue harvest after their lives have ended, then what exactly is wrong with harvesting such organs if the consent is with either the patient, legal guardian, or family members?
How many straws can you continue grasping for here, Q? This is becoming borderline silly.
oh shit! now all of a sudden your the f**king expert biologist that "Rove and Snow" inheirently have no right to be. who's the hippocrite now? dolt truth is, you have no f**king idea what your spewing right now. your just makin shit up. "Few if any real credible scientists would consider it a point of contention that adult stem cells offer as much promise as the embryonic stem cell lines." wtf?
first, what the hell is an "un-credible" microbiologist? do they all work at the NIH?[/QUOTE]
As I've mentioned previously, I feel fairly comfortable in this field, much more comfortable than our scientifically-challenged President.
How about you?
And speaking of NIH, in layman's terms:
| quote: | Human embryonic and adult stem cells each have advantages and disadvantages regarding potential use for cell-based regenerative therapies. Of course, adult and embryonic stem cells differ in the number and type of differentiated cells types they can become. Embryonic stem cells can become all cell types of the body because they are pluripotent. Adult stem cells are generally limited to differentiating into different cell types of their tissue of origin. However, some evidence suggests that adult stem cell plasticity may exist, increasing the number of cell types a given adult stem cell can become.
Large numbers of embryonic stem cells can be relatively easily grown in culture, while adult stem cells are rare in mature tissues and methods for expanding their numbers in cell culture have not yet been worked out. This is an important distinction, as large numbers of cells are needed for stem cell replacement therapies.
A potential advantage of using stem cells from an adult is that the patient's own cells could be expanded in culture and then reintroduced into the patient. The use of the patient's own adult stem cells would mean that the cells would not be rejected by the immune system. This represents a significant advantage as immune rejection is a difficult problem that can only be circumvented with immunosuppressive drugs.
Embryonic stem cells from a donor introduced into a patient could cause transplant rejection. However, whether the recipient would reject donor embryonic stem cells has not been determined in human experiments.
http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/basics5.asp |
Another credible source to consider in layman's terms:
| quote: | For many years, scientists have conducted studies to determine whether the stem cells in adult tissue have the same developmental capability as embryonic stem cells. The general consensus is that adult stem cells seem to be less versatile. Scientists think that embryonic stem cells have a much greater utility and potential than the adult stem cells, because embryonic stem cells may develop into virtually every type of cell in the human body. Adult stem cells, on the other hand, may only be able to develop into a limited number of cell types. Embryonic stem cells also continue to divide indefinitely when placed in culture, while this may not be the case for adult stem cells and this would reduce their capacity to form new cell types. Both adult and embryonic stem cell research should continue simultaneously as they are both critical to our understanding of the etiology, progression and treatment of disease.
http://www.stemcellresearchfoundati...About/FAQ.htm#4 |
| quote: | | second, how many more advances in practicable terms has ESC research given way to ASC research? huh? |
Here's a recent one:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5154026.stm
One of my instructors is working in conjunction with a coupla instructors at University of Wisconsin-Madison:
http://www.news.wisc.edu/packages/stemcells/
You can also find some abstracts and literature from the website I listed: www.stemcellresearchfoundation.org
We can also discuss some of this research in detail, if you so choose:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...earch&DB=pubmed
I've got school access to most of the primary literature pertaining to this topic. Some I might have to order from online, if necessary, but it may also be useful to some of the research I'm assisting with so it may be worthwhile.
Just to reiterate, I am not advocating, nor is any serious scientist advocating ignoring whatever research adult stem cell lines brings. Indeed, there is some recent evidence examining the plasticity of these adult cells. However, current research strongly suggests that they do not have the level of plasticity that embryonic stem cells have, and we simply must go to where the evidence-based research leads us, ESPECIALLY if such blastocysts are being thrown away in the first place.
That is a simple point you continue to sidestep.
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Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...
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