Stem cells......

[KarateCowboy]

What Bush did was a crime against humanity. I can never forgive him for that veto. Perhaps if he had to live with a grandmother who was paralyzed from the waist down, or watch a great-grandmother have her mind slowly fade from Alzheimer's he would begin to understand what he is doing when he takes funding from such research.

Well Vylo, I'd say it's a crime against humanity to kill members of the human species to save the lives of others in that manner. But I'm of the philosphy that 'humans are humans', rather than 'humans are humans if and only if they are just like me'.
I've pointed about three times to the article highlighting the Japanese scientists breakthrough in the use of adult stem cells. Why can't we have a win-win situation by using adult stem cells? That way adult humans can be saved (which we both want), without murdering unborn children(which I don't want, but does not bother your party).

 

[Archivist]

I'm thinking that if these scientists would use what's available (both adult & umbilical cord blood stem cells), things would go faster than if they just keep whining because there are no new embryonic lines funded by the people's taxes. Remember, there's no law saying companies can't research new embryonic stem cell lines, just that the government won't fund it.

So, either use what's available through the government or find a company/group that wants to do it and find private funding.

According to the Natitional Institutes of Health [http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/basics4.asp scientists are already conducting research using adult stem cells, and they have been doing so for more than 40 years. In addition, they are conducting research on embryonic stem cells using private funding. I don't think that anyone is standing around "whining."

 

[Yusuf Evans]

So we shouldn't have built the atomic bomb or the B-29 bomber? .

I'm trying to understand why your equating a nuclear weapon with embryonic stem cells Anywho, I don't think the atomic bomb should have been built.

 

[belladonic-haze]

Given that I posted a link about breakthrough research that could solve this ethical dilemma, and it was completely ignored, I see now that this is the heart of the issue: Bush is President, Bush started a war, Bush is the cause of high gas prices, Bush killed my dog, Bush is why I just failed that aljebra test, blah blah blah . . . Never mind the fact that Clinton and Democratic Congressman were talking about the use of physical force years before Bush even took office in his first term --Bush is teh evul waRm0ng3r! Of course, none of the Democrats complained about how it wasn't our right to topple a sovereign government when Clinton decided we would attack Slobodan Milosevich in the Yugoslav region, even though *gasp* the war had nothing to do with us! Then it was A-O-K to go to war over a 'moral obligation'; but then, Billy Clinton was a good boy and had the Mother U.N.'s permission then, so it must have been ok. I'm not exactly happy with the situation in Iraq, but actions speak louder than words, and thus every time I hear an anti-war protester speaking, I think:

SAY NO TO WAR!!
(unless a Democrat is President, of course)

First of all.......even a Democrat is a jerk for seeing the war as the only solution. I mainly reacted to the posts before me.

Secondly: People scream and yell murder when it comes to saving lives, yet they suddenly shut up when it comes to war. That is odd...really odd.

Stem cell research will probably save my life one day and frankly I do not take see that as the easy way out. Do you not think that as a vegetarian that I hate the meds I take...but I'll die if I don't. Do you really think I do not realize animals have died for all the treatments I get by testing it on them first? Do you really think that I do not care about lives that give me stem cells to save my life?

Honestly, what can someone do? I could die....but what do I leave behind? I could refuse treatment, but my will to live is so much stronger.

Life to me is life, plant, animal, human (and human is animal but that is another discussion). But if someone has to make a choice to save the life of their child or to not use stem cells from an embryo....they will choose the life of their child. They have too. That is the promise they made to the child the soon as they concieved. We have adult stem cells and if possible they can have loads of my stem cells for research. But if embryotic stem cells are needed and the only way (untill they find something else) to save a life, I agree with it. The Talmuth says: "Save one life and you will save the world". Science has to have the change to develop...and the road isn't easy....not easy at all. But if you hold back development by forbidding certain research, they will get stuck in the use of embryo stem cells and not grow to find a better solution, another way.

Someone suddenly realized that if they throw away the umbilical cord or the aborted embryo's they throw away so many cells that could save lives. If they can develop these first stages in a lab with my eggs to save my life I will give it to them.

If I was born just a few years earlier I would have probably died......I got lucky. I want other people to enjoy life as much as I do. Behind every research story there are so many personal stories and we tend to forget the people who are in need of help and we froget to give them a change to a normal life.

Of course it is important to watch over the ethical matters and to keep the discussion going but Bush just says no....and yet he is willing to kill so many people? Shame on him!!!

 

[Robinsegg]

But if someone has to make a choice to save the life of their child or to not use stem cells from an embryo....they will choose the life of their child. They have too. That is the promise they made to the child the soon as they concieved.

That's an interesting point of view. Apparently, however, there are many who disagree with you, because they think it's okay to kill the child conceived because the pregnancy is inconvenient.

Rachel

 

[Robinsegg]

According to the Natitional Institutes of Health [http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/basics4.asp scientists are already conducting research using adult stem cells, and they have been doing so for more than 40 years. In addition, they are conducting research on embryonic stem cells using private funding. I don't think that anyone is standing around "whining."

I'm sorry about that comment. It came of way stronger than I meant it. However, there are times it does seem that scientists whine that they're being victimized by being kept from research.

I realize that it's being done with private funding. I also realize that there are umbilical cord blood cells that can be worked with if they want federal funding. We donated the cord blood from both of our children to the local children's hospital for research and treatment on other kids.

Rachel

 

[belladonic-haze]

That's an interesting point of view. Apparently, however, there are many who disagree with you, because they think it's okay to kill the child conceived because the pregnancy is inconvenient.

Rachel

Reasons for abortion I am not going to discuss here.

If you are against these medical procedures and your child can get saved by it or will die, I'll bet you choose the life of your child and that is normal, healthy and the way it should be. No parent wants to see their child die.

It always surprises me that some people refuse certain medical treatments for their child even though it will die. God gave humans brains to discover and research and use it for the good of mankind and save the lives of many. A doctor is a person who wants to save lives. I cannot understand that someone refuses treatment for their child because of religious reason while the child can live with the help of that treatment. I don't know what to do with that.

If it is their own body....they have the right to decide to do or don't, but an innocent child? Of course people will now say that an unborn has that same right....but remember that you cannot judge a woman for having an abortion, because you don't know the story behind it....100 abortions are 100 different reasons..... As well as I will not judge a woman for NOT having an abortion. But if they can use my eggs to make stemcells to save my lives I will do it. If that is considered murder, so be it. Better the my egg than me. I am not apologizing for wanting to live. It is something of my own body and I can do with it what I want. It sounds harsh. If you refuse it, I respect that....but do not take these possibilities away from your children and their children. And that is what Bush has done. He chatters dreams and hopes for a better or a longer life....and THAT is NOT his right! IMHO

 

[Archivist]

I'm trying to understand why your equating a nuclear weapon with embryonic stem cells Anywho, I don't think the atomic bomb should have been built.

Did you read which portion of your post that I replying to????

The statement was made by you that we should not fuind research on something that had not been already been proven to work. I was merely pointing out to cases where the government provided huge amounts of funding for projects that had also not been proven to work.

 

[Archivist]

I'm sorry about that comment. It came of way stronger than I meant it.

I understand what you mean now. Sometimes it is hard to say exactly what you want when you are typing online.