Scientists see breakthrough in research on stem cells

Boston Globe ^ | 2/10/2003 | Maggie Fox

[GeekDejure]

In the next couple of generations, we may be looking at gene testing of every baby born, a diagnosis and playing with every child's genes.

Sounds like Home Birthing will accelerate . . . just like Home Schooling !!!

.

[Concerned]

OMEGAMAN WROTE: "...those opposed to this important life-saving technology..."

PSALM 73 RESPONDED: "A life is sacrificed for that technology, which makes the phrase "life-saving technology" an oxymorn."

BINGO!

As the mother of a severely mentally and physically 18 year old disabled daughter, who neither walks nor talks, and who will probably always wear diapers, I ABSOLUTELY OPPOSE embryonic stem cell research!

From what I understand, ADULT STEM CELLS can be used and have provided FAR more successful results.

There is NO, NO, NO NEED to destroy one life to allegedly "save" another!

[hopespringseternal]

I read it someplace. I didn't make it up.

You missed the point of my question. For one thing, you do not know the moment the embryo differentiates. For another, it is an arbitrary milestone. You have chosen it because it is convenient for you. For other people it might be the end of the first or second trimester or viability. But in the end, it is a fuzzy date tied to no particular event than can be readily measured.

[toast]

You have chosen it because it is convenient for you.

I have chosen it because that is what I believe.

Everybody choses somewhere along the spectrum from conception to birth where they believe an embryo or fetus becomes a person. I believe partial birth abortion is a horrific act of murder. Then the logic goes the same for any late term abortion. The age of viability is constantly changing with advances in medicine.

On the other end some believe contraception is a sin. And a few believe a man needlessly spilling his seed for no good reason is also a sin.

I believe what makes man a being that is totally different from all others is his mind. Before there are nerve cells there is no mind.

It is common for families to shut off life supporting machines if a patient is diagnosed as brain dead. The persons life is deemed to have ended when brain function stopped. Does it not follow that a human being's life starts with brain life?

[NeilSmith]

Nice post.

[Psalm 73]

"A few cells are sacrificed so people, like my son, may live..."
I am sorry about your son, and I will pray for him, and I know it is often difficult to seperate emotion from fact, so I should end there, but...

"... there is life and it is human, but it is not yet a human being."
If there is life, and it is human, then it is a human life. Period.

"The human brain is what makes us different than animals."
No. technically it is our DNA, but spiritualy it is our soul, and our unique relationship that humans have with God.

[Psalm 73]

"They're left over and otherwise are going into the garbage, it is reasonable to get some benefit for others."

I am so sorry that you view human life in this way.
Would you also say that, as a large percentage of children in orphanages (esp. foreign), are "left over", and are destined for a type of "garbage" heap, then why not prevent their waste by harvesting their organs so that others may live?
Just think of the benefits to society - an almost limitless supply of hearts, kidneys, and eyes...

[hopespringseternal]

I believe what makes man a being that is totally different from all others is his mind. Before there are nerve cells there is no mind.

Neither is there a mind with only one brain cell.

You are simply applying moral relativism to justify your arbitrary point. There is a logical position to take: Conception. At that point, a fundamental change occurs. No other point in life has such profound changes, not even birth. Sure, we change, but from one moment to the next we are not fundamentally different.

[Endeavor]

You quoted someone else and address your comment to me.

The frozen embryo crowd has never been my cup of tea, for the same reasons the embryonic stem cell crowd isn't.

Artificial insemination techniques in use today require the fertilization of multiple eggs which yields multiple embryo's, with those not selected for implantation to be either frozen for future use or thrown out. A fertilized egg (zygote, which grows to become an embryo) is a human life.

Using embryonic stem cells which were derived from aborted babies is nothing short of Hitler's terminal experiments on his captives. We've killed the baby because it was inconvenient but being the good little environmentalists we are, we're determined to salvage it's body parts to advance our science or in some cases, to build our biotech products for our company. Sick Sick Sick

Purposeful fertilization of human eggs with human sperm for the purpose of producing multiple embryos to harvest their embryonic stem cells is also sick - the embryos (and therefore, human beings) are destroyed in the process.

[Endeavor]

I'm no bioluddite. I also refuse to see the search for a "cure" come at the cost of human life. There's a whole lot more to living and dying than the prolonging of life at the expense of innocents.