From: nyikos@math.scarolina.edu (Peter Nyikos)
Subject: Mark Cochran and me on fetal tissue, Cycle 1
Organization: USC  Department of Computer Science
Date: 18 Dec 92 18:57:14 GMT

Back on December 10 I "posted" a half dozen or so follow-ups on the
"Lost Boy" thread, but I have had zero feedback on them so far (of course
I am dependent on e-mailing: the netserver is in its 9th day of "deafness"
and even the sysadmin is having trouble rebooting our interface with it)
except one, which I mailed a copy of to Mark Cochran.  We have had 4
cycles of exchanges so far.  Here is the first cycle, complete in one
letter by Mark since my words in the follow-up are completely contained in it.
Subsequent cycles are longer, with separate posts by myself and Mark, in
that order.  Cycle 2 will be posted Monday (today is Friday).

In the message below, my words are marked with a single > and Mark's words
by >> and then no mark.  [No pun intended.]

From: merlin@eddie.ee.vt.edu (Merlin the Magician)
Message-Id: <9212131805.AA13895@eddie.ee.vt.edu>
Subject: Re: Lost Boy bugged by fetal tissue transplants.
To: nyikos@milo (Peter Nyikos)
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 92 13:05:37 EST
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11]
Status: OR

> 
> In <1992Dec4.071255.13156@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> mcochran@nyx.cs.du.edu (Mark A. Cochran) writes:
> 
> >In article <3DEC92.20430826@vax.clarku.edu> hsims@vax.clarku.edu writes:
> >>In a previous article, smithmc@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Lost Boy) wrote:
> >>>This might shock a lot of people in this newsgroup, but Lost Boy has
> >>>discovered something which might surprise a lot of people...
> >>> 
> >>>He is disturbed by the possibility of widespread application of fetal
> >>>tissue implants.
> 
> Cochran with some welcome news:
> 
> >What is being *attempted* is to devise a method of culturing the
> >tissues so as to bypass the need for a fetal donor. The technique is a
> >variation on tissue cultures used in cancer research that have been
> >kept growing for decades. One such tissue culture is from a woman who
> >died of breast cancer in the late 60's (68 or 69 I believe, I can
> >check if necessary). The tissue cultures provide cancer cells for
> >testing. These tissue cultures don't maintain the cell close enough to
> >it's original function to work as a way around fetal donors, but it's
> >being worked on. 
> >Of course, then people will get upset because the tissue being used
> >"isn't human". 
> 
> I have no problem with that.  My only worry is about the safety: might
> not the cancer cells develop into cancers once implanted?
> 
The tissue cultures from cancers are used for cancer research, they
are not being used in the efforts to develope tissue cultures to
replace or supliment the fetal tissues currently in use for such
research as treating Parkinsons. These fetal tissue cultures will be
derived from fetal tissues, if they are ever developed. As long as
funding for these projects is cut off by the federal govt, though, I
would say it is not terribly likely that the techniques will be
perfected in this country. There are already several european centers
far ahead of us in this field.

> >A fine example of Pohls Law don't you think?
> 
> What is Pohls Law?
> 
Pohls law states that nothing is so good that somebody somewhere won't
hate it. And vice versa.
Lets face it, there's always goin to be some group upset no matter how
we treat people. If we implant a baboon heart into a 2 week old baby,
we're going to offend the animal rights people who think the baboon
has as much right to life as the baby. If we use fetal tissue implants
to treat illness, we're offending the fetus worshippers. If we can
develope the tissue cultures, we're goin gto have people screaming
because the tissues being grafted into the brain is not human.


-- 
	Mark Cochran			merlin@eddie.ee.vt.edu
	onyx@loligo.cc.fsu.edu		merlin@any.abermud.anywhere
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"It's easy, hold the dull end, and hit him with the sharp end." - Don
Alaric Greythorne of Glen Mor, talking to a new fighter.
"I'm just a worn out tired old fat man." - Don Ian of Nightsgate right
before killing another opponent.
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