Thread: Stem Cell Research

Titanus Dradonus said 1 what is Stem Cell Research? Its when we take Stem Cells from one of three places A Embryo - Which kills the embryo sadly. B Umbilical Cord after baby is born - the most pain free way, and easiest, however, provides very little. C Bone Marrow - The most painful thing in a world can be a bone marrow transplant, or giving bone marrow. So they say. What Stem Cells do is, once extracted, they can be frozen and kept safe like any other cell. But whats unique about Stem Cells is that they are the building blocks for development. In other words, Stem Cells are the ones that build the heart, lungs, liver, etc etc in a baby's body. Hence, one you take Stem Cells from an embryo, it dies. Click to expand... Soooo... You forgot a D option there. Induced pluripotent stem cells. Scientists can reverse engineer--essentially, fuck you proper scientific lexicon I lack--stem cells from human skin cells. So the whole embryo thing is really a moot point. We've been able to manufacture that stuff since 2007. In 2009 a way to induce pluripotent stem cells from adult cells solely by way of proteins was found, which means we can now essentially manufacture stem cells as mutation prone i.e. not very as those you would get from an embryo. Titanus Dradonus said 4 The cons. Of course there are cons to every pro. But in this particular con, there is really only one main con Cloning. it is very possible, years down the road, you could clone someone. or someone could live forever by getting transplants after transplants. now we as human beings know thats immoral, and should not allow that. Will we still do it? Yea. No one lives by the rules, and if they could live an extra couple of years or so, what do they got to lose? Click to expand... Whoa there, partner, what's wrong with cloning people for organs? All you would need to do is clone them in such a way--given that cloning for the purposes of our conversation is feasible with all the kinks worked out--that they lacked all those parts of the brain that were unnecessary for a body of organs kept in a vat. Namely, no cerebellum and no neocortex. Just leave the brain stem to control autonomic functions. No thought, no emotion, no will what's wrong about having a floating flesh sac with a face when I need a new liver? Or arm? Or eye? Can you imagine that--a functioning eye transplant. That'd be great! Titanus Dradonus said Also, other countries are doing stem cell research, and we are not. I would hate to see our enemies use it in war, and we don't Click to expand... Actually, we are totes doing stem cell research. There's been stem cell research in this country for a long ass time. The most the Bush administration did was limit the stem cell lines that scientists could draw from. Obama, within his first year of office, lifted this restriction with the caveat that scientists pursue ethical means of obtaining stem cells. E.g. full disclosure, induced pluripotent stem cells. The other countries that have the capability to do stem cell research are unlikely to go to war with the USA, assuming that's the country you're referring to. You may have forgotten that half of the world's defense spending is done by the USA. You may have also forgotten that there haven't been a whole lot of countries who throw the first punch when this country goes into war or global police action or whathaveyou. To be quite frank, you mention human cloning for organ transplants as unethical. I think that using genetics as weapons of wars, inflicting pestilence, that is unethical. Biological warfare is bad news bears, dude. How is that a positive justification for stem cell research? We need to do it first 'cause if we don't then somebody else will make SUPER AIDS and then unleash the SUPER AIDS on our SOLDIERS so we need to make the SUPER AIDS first to unleash on THEIR SOLDIERS first. That is essentially what I got from that.