It's a hot-button topic for sure, but we've finally started testing stem cells as a viable means of curing long-incurable injuries related to the nervous system.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39614418/ns/health-cloning_and_stem_cells/

Concievably, this could usher in a whole new era of medical tools at our disposal. Will it make enough strides to convince the public? Will opposition to it (and the often source of the material) be enough to derail possible advancements?

Where do you stand on Stem cell testing?

I don't understand how anybody could be against it, but I'm sure there are enough of them out there..

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"Let's just trap Sekera in the caverns underneath HSBC arena." -BlueandYellow

Reporter: "Steve, you guys now lead the league in defensive scoring."
Montador: "It's probably because of how good-looking we are."

People are against it because of where stem cells come from.

You don't understand it?
Ok, I'll sum it up:
No one is against "Stem cell research", they're against "embryonic stem cell research".
Some people believe life begins at conception and using embryonic stem cells is akin to harvesting useful parts from people we didn't want.

But the whole argument will go away anyway because the more research is done in the field, the less those embryonic cells are considered unique.
I don't care either way, but I believe the future of the science will have little to do with embryos.

http://www.ccfon.org/view.php?id=695
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... n15338777/

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Hold my beer and watch this...

Ok, let me rephrase my previous post;

While I understand some people's objection as to how the stem cells are accrued, what I don't understand is the continued objection to using something that can help many sick/injured people and their families.

However, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I just don't get the reasoning..

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"Let's just trap Sekera in the caverns underneath HSBC arena." -BlueandYellow

Reporter: "Steve, you guys now lead the league in defensive scoring."
Montador: "It's probably because of how good-looking we are."

i'm against the harvesting of chicken eggs and the intent to allow the eggs to remain unfertilized. those could have been great chickens someday, if only they were allowed to blossom into what god had intended them to be.

all i'm saying is that chickens want to fuck, too.

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young people everywhere have been allowed to choose between love and a garbage disposal unit. everywhere they have chosen the garbage disposal unit. (guy debord)

I'm all for stem cell research, but I think that it may be over-hyped. I might be talking about something different here, but clones like Dolly the sheep came from stem cells right? If so, I know that these artificial cells develop and break down at a much quicker rate than the natural ones. So it seems possible to me, making a few jumps in logic, that someone with say cancer could get better with stem cell treatments, then redevelop the disease later. Am I totally off the mark in thinking this?

There isn't much opposition to the actual research. The objection is centered on where you get the materials to perform your research.

If you can get em without involving human embryos (which is where the science is headed), you won't anyone objecting to it.

So you have no grasp of the roughly 40 year long abortion debate?

Hell, South Park had Christopher Reeve sucking on fetuses for strength.

To some people, using embryos for this type of research would be morally the same as say, killing Garry Bettman to harvest the evil from his spinal column to use in research.

Wait...that's a bad example...no one would object to that.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

I don't want to live in a world without hockey in Atlanta or Phoenix..

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"Let's just trap Sekera in the caverns underneath HSBC arena." -BlueandYellow

Reporter: "Steve, you guys now lead the league in defensive scoring."
Montador: "It's probably because of how good-looking we are."

My only objection to it would be if they killed the unborn children in order to gain the stem cells


My question is


Is there a way to obtain the cells that do not harm the child in anyway?(i dont know either way)

if there is, i see nothing wrong with it

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PSA: I am an overly sarcastic person. If you take me at my word, then i will most likely anger and offend you.

Yes. There have been great strides in the areas of getting stem cells from other sources. XC's links were on that subject.

There are ways to get stem cells from adults...it was originally just "easiest" to get them from embryos, but the field is growing past that.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

Yeah, kind of off the mark, but understandable.

I was going to sum it up for you, but i'll let a wikiquote do it instead. Regarding dolly:
"This used the technique of somatic cell nuclear transfer, where the cell nucleus from an adult cell is transferred into an unfertilised oocyte (developing egg cell) that has had its nucleus removed. The hybrid cell is then stimulated to divide by an electric shock, and when it develops into a blastocyst it is implanted in a surrogate mother."

So, with cloning, you're using established cells to create a copy of what you've already got. With Stem cells, you're using cells which havent become anything yet, they are totipotent, meaning they can BECOME any type of cell found in the human body. There are a zillion more differences between the two...but I dont think either of us want to turn this into some sort of molecular biology lecture.

In short, i've not read of anything indicating that the short lived nature of animal cloning will be a concern with stem cell regeneration in humans. But of course, we are at the very first steps of testing in humans, there are bound to be roadblocks to get past. I'm guessing we dont have the first clue as to what the real hurdles will be.

According to what I have read, which was several years ago so things may have changed, the future of stem cell research has really nothing to do with embryonic stem cells and everything to do with stem cells taken from adults. All of the good that has come from stem cell research has come from adult stem cells. Embryonic stem cells can develop into anything, yes; however, it is more costly and less efficient to have them do that than it is to take a stem cell from anywhere in the human body and develop it into one of the 3-4 specific kinds of tissues it can become. The differentiation of embryonic stem cells is much more difficult to control. It's kind of silly to push for one thing when we already have something that is better with more potential, as far as I know.

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Miles to go before I sleep

‎"Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation."
-Khalil Gibran

(hope I dont get something wrong, not having checked all the links you provided)

my understanding on this is the potency of different stem cells. Whereas embryonic stem cells are Totipotent (can become ANY cell in the body) adult stem cells exhibit a range of multipotency (can become SOME cells in the body) and are incapable of being 'coaxed' into some others.

I didn't click the links, because I've had a decent interest in this topic for a long time, and am comfortable with my knowledge in it. XC is right; the point so many people argued about, embryonic stem cell research, is actually outdated. Basically, the technology and technique is there to take adult stem cells and revert them to an essentially embryonic state.

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Does anyone else ever sort of trip on the fact that we've discovered so much about WHAT we are, and how we work, that we're on the verge of taking parts of ourselves, and turning them into something else which can heal us? Thats...fuckin bonkers if you ask me, we've all heard about it for a while now, so it's not like "OMG i'm crapping myself" but seriously, this is freakin amazing. Human kind is so incredible sometimes.

just adding to it

in his first link
[quote[The two teams of scientists found a way of reprogramming skin cells taken from adults, effectively winding the clock back on the cells until they were in an embryonic form.[/quote]
taking this as true, and how the stem cells will be created, then it removes any moral objection, i would think, that anyone would have to this

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PSA: I am an overly sarcastic person. If you take me at my word, then i will most likely anger and offend you.

taking this as true, and how the stem cells will be created, then it removes any moral objection, i would think, that anyone would have to this[/quote]

Everybody wins. Hope it works out..

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"Let's just trap Sekera in the caverns underneath HSBC arena." -BlueandYellow

Reporter: "Steve, you guys now lead the league in defensive scoring."
Montador: "It's probably because of how good-looking we are."