Posted on 09/30/2010 10:10:44 PM PDT by iowamark
A major breakthrough in stem cell development could help resolve the ongoing debate over the use of embryonic stem cells in medical research.
A team of scientists led by Derrick J. Rossi of the Immune Disease Institute at Children's Hospital Boston published a paper Thursday showing that they can quickly and efficiently transform skin cells into cells with all the properties of embryonic stem cells...
"I think this is a stunning development," said Dr. David Stevens, CEO of the Christian Medical and Dental Association. "People have been saying we have to use embryonic stem cells because we don't have an alternative. Well, now we have an alternative."
The research comes at a critical juncture in the embryonic stem cell debate. A federal judge put a hold on such research in August after ruling that the Obama administration had likely violated the law by using federal funding for research that involved the destruction of human embryos.
In response to the decision, National Institutes of Health pulled 50 grant applications that were scheduled for peer review and $15 million to $20 million in grant proposals slated for the next stage of review. On Tuesday, however, an appeals court ruled that the NIH could continue to fund research as the case makes it way through the courts.
The Rossi breakthrough builds on the research of Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka, who announced in 2006 that he had converted fully developed adult skin cells into cells that were all but identical to embryonic stem cells...
Mr. Melton said he was so "impressed" with the findings that the Harvard Stem Cell Institute will immediately begin using the new method to develop its stem cells.
"We're turning over our entire iPS core to this new method," said Mr. Melton.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Libs won’t go along with it - the issue is about creating another industry, not about the ‘research’ - otherwise this is the sort of thing that funding would have focused on, including adult stem cells and that from umbilical cord blood - to get the same sort of research without the ethical debate.
Cures will come from other channels
Adult stem cells win again!
if it turns them into embryonic stem cells, I don’t see how that solves any ethical dilemma.
The Federal government should not be funding non-military/defense related research peroid.
If the doctors succeeded in getting an actual embryo that way, there would be a moral pickle. But this does not sound like son of Frankenstein. All they did was fiddle around with a skin cell in order to get a cell which is an exact mimic of one taken from some hapless embryo that would have had to be killed in the process of getting it.
I thought the success record of embryonic cells was still about zero, while adult cells were having some success.
This process turns adult cells into the functional equivalent of embryonic stem cells without the necessity of destroying an embryo. Since no embryos are destroyed, there's no ethical dilemma involved.
Perhaps because the source isn't a dead baby??? Scraping a few cells off your epidermis isn't in the same league as deliberately creating and destroying a fetus.
Tell that to Thomas Jefferson. Sorry, but federal funding of "non-military/defense related" research has a LONG, LONG history.
As long as the cells can not develop into an embryo, there should not be a moral difficulty. They may be able to develop into differentiated tissue in the right environment with the right signals, but still be unable to direct their own developmental path that would make them a complete organism - a human bein.
Essentially correct. Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent—can generate the cascade of tissues which build a human body’s psrts. What would be ethically wrong would to back the skin cell up to the totipotent stem cell stage and I don’t read that such is their goal since totipotent stem cells when tried for treating diseases have egnerate teratomas and in some cases killed the patient being treated. ... But given the number of dead soul progressives in stem cell science, I will guarantee some little demigod will try it in order to see if he/she can grow an entire embryonic being.
Most scientists are moral and ethical as this story relates...but that will not resolve the issue of creating life to kill it. The left has been overtaken by evil and will not have it’s thirst for death quenched ever. There are not enough babies to kill and soon, if they get their way they will be killing older and/or weak people with their takeover of the health industry. We are fighting evil, reason and logic will not suffice in changing them. We have to remove them from power and not just political office.
Nearly a decade ago, Japanese scientists were able to keep a goat fetus alive in an artificial amniotic sac for fourteen weeks until gestational term. I haven’t kept up with the developments in that area so chances are good that they have gone further. Soon, with proper care, it will be possible to transplant an embryo into an artificial womb and allow that life/being to grow to complete gestational age.
Suppose the technology you describe is perfected, and we can grow a human embryo in an artificial womb to the point where it can then live on its own. Think how that would affect the abortion debate. A woman goes to doctors and has an unwanted pregnancy ended by having the fetus removed from her body. The doctors now have a living being, separate from its mother, that they can grow and place for adoption later. The mother has no complaint about anything going on in her body, and suffers not further inconvenience. Does there remain any justification for her seeking a “traditional” abortion, one that produces a dead fetus? There are reasons she might want the fetus dead. It bothers her to know the child is out there somewhere, or she may be angry with the father. But these fall far short of a justification for the (now separate) fetus’ death. A real artificial womb would move the date of “viability” all the way back to the beginning.
That date may already be attainable. A decade ago, nearly, I wrote a novel (Evil Interrupted) about the issues and then wrote a non-fiction booklet on stem cells and the goals of research in stem cells. The non-fiction was available online for free to anyone and got downloaded thousands of times. I was hoping We The People would catch up somewhat to the science being done. Apparently, most of we the people have ignored the developments because we’re the creation of the progressives’ media scum.
Recently he was faced with the possibility of preparing embryonic samples and he told his boss he would not do it. He said he knew at one point that he would have to deal with the situation.
But he said essentially the same thing that you did: the shortage of human tissue - whether via abortion or otherwise.
Liberalism is a death cult.
“Tell that to Thomas Jefferson. Sorry, but federal funding of “non-military/defense related” research has a LONG, LONG history.”
Perhaps you would like to elaborate? If your referring to the impulsive Louisianian perchest that is a different matter which even jefferson felt was wrong in hindsight.
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