Embryonic Stem Cell Research is back in the US – But is it Morally Wrong? »
Posted By WikiMap 1 month, 1 week ago in NewsFor researchers embryonic stem cells are a “blank canvas”; they can potentially be programmed to form any kind of cell in the human body. These cells are harvested from fetuses, which to some means that a living creature has been destroyed, albeit in the name of well meaning and important medical research.
Read Full Story at mychannelnews.info »
1047 Views Share Story 42 Comments Report
RSS Join the Discussion
+ Add CommentComments So Far: 42 (view all)
-
-
-
100%
stephen-johnson1 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
"Embryonic Stem Cell Research is back in the US – But is it Morally Wrong?"
Reply
It might not be needed:
"Major Step In Making Better Stem Cells From Adult Tissue
ScienceDaily (Oct. 19, 2009) — A team led by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute has developed a method that dramatically improves the efficiency of creating stem cells from human adult tissue, without the use of embryonic cells. The research makes great strides in addressing a major practical challenge in the development of stem-cell-based medicine.
The findings were published in an advance, online issue of the journal Nature Methods on October 18, 2009.
The new technique, which uses three small drug-like chemicals, is 200 times more efficient and twice as fast as conventional methods for transforming adult human cells into stem cells (in this case called "induced pluripotent stem cells" or "iPS cells").
"Both in terms of speed and efficiency, we achieved major improvements over conventional conditions," said Scripps Research Associate Professor Sheng Ding, Ph.D., who led the study. "This is the first example in human cells of how reprogramming speed can be accelerated. I believe that the field will quickly adopt this method, accelerating iPS cell research significantly."
In addition to its significant practical advantages, the development of the technique deepens the understanding of the biology behind the transformation of adult human cells into stem cells."-
100%
epiphannyy1 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Where adult stem cells can be utilized, that is great. The problem is that, currently, there is no real substitute for the embryonic stem cell. What they can do with the embryonic stem cells cannot be reproduced, at least not yet, with adult stem cells. That is why research is necessary on both fronts.
Reply
That's the thing, I don't believe anyone on the pro side of the embryonic stem cell research debate is arguing for the exclusion of any research. It all has value and all needs to go forward, unfettered by emotional public opinion. Let the research dictate the course. What proves valuable should continue. What proves futile should not. That is how SCIENCE is supposed to work. This seems to be one of the only areas of science, however, that basic scientific principles of following the research don't seem to be followed. It defies logic.
-
-
-
100%
madmikescott1 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
embryos plus 4 months Start to be fetuses. up to 1/3 of all naturally conceived embryos FAIL to IMPLANT and are flushed out at menstruation. This guy is either a clown or a lie-er. God has many big dice, 2 raised to the 22nd power before the genes get mixed. Science needs embryonic stem cell lines just so that we can see what they CAN do. then it becomes time to see if we can make adult derived stem cells do the same tricks.
Reply -
-
0%
reyesangel61 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
The heart of the embryo starts beating 18 DAYS after conception, so it is not just a piece of meat, it is a living person. Embryonic cell research may be promising (the scientist just do not ACTUALLY know) but there are other ways of obtaining stem cells, among them getting cells from human placentas.
Reply
The use of embryonic cell will be used to justify abortion a give it respectability. That is what is wrong.-
100%
epiphannyy1 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
So........do you protest the existence and practices of fertility clinics, since they routinely incinerate "out of date" embryos created at their facilities? These are the same embryos, by the way, that are used in the research. There is no need to create embryos for research. There are literally THOUSANDS available via fertility clinics so the argument of "justifying abortions" is a false one.
Reply
So two questions:
Do you actively protest fertility clinics for creating embryos that very often end up in the incinerator instead of a womb?
Do you believe the incinerator is a better option for an "expired" embryo than the research lab? -
100%
jordan111 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Please, pay attention. Scientists want the cells BEFORE they come together to form a heart, not after. At conception, cells are formed that have not come together to begin the process of forming a human. Each individual cell is potential. That means, none of the cells have taken on an identity to become a heart, a lung, a toe, an eye. They are potential, and nothing more. No 'babies' are being destroyed. Single cells are harvested BEFORE they begin the process of being human. BEFORE. Science wants the cells so that THEY (science) can induce the cell to become what THEY (science) need to cure disease.
Reply
For instance you have a person who needs an eye. Science wants to take the cell and program it to be an eye in the hope it can be introduced to the person and an eye will form. Now that is very simplistic, but should be suffficient for you to grasp the concept. No 'babies' are destroyed in the harvesting of these cells. -
100%
paulie421 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
I sat and watched my father die a horrific death of prostate cancer at 57 years old, while at the same time his 2 grandsons cord blood lay frozen and waiting for good use. Bring on the research...you'll bring the cure...and to the opposers-may you never see what I have and may your own child never be sick.
Reply
-
-
100%
Charlson1 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
As one proverb says, "Waste not, want not." No embryos should be harvested just for the sake of research but embryos that were supplied to fertility clinics and would be discarded should be used for research. Aborted fetuses should also not be out of bounds but no monetary compensation should be allowed to ensure that abortions for harvesting would not become a blackmarket commodity.
Reply -
100%
epiphannyy1 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
I think what is morally wrong is allowing the thousands of embryos in fertility clinics to "expire" and go into the incinerator rather than go toward curing disease and improving the lives of countless people in the world.
Reply
I honestly don't understand why there is so much outrage over stem cells, when there is NONE over the automatic waste at fertility clinics all across America. I agree that they shouldn't be "creating embryos" for the purposes of research, but when it comes to a choice between research or an incinerator for an embryo, the choice seems like a no-brainer to me. And I have yet to see ONE opponent to stem cell research honestly address this situation....incinerator vs scientific research. If this whole "morally wrong" concept were a genuine outrage, it would be applied to fertility clinics as well. -
75%
liv4jax1 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
epiphannyy... I guess I am going to be the odd ball here and say that I really don't like the whole notion of fertility clinics either. Look in the news about what happens when women go through IVF, octomom, Kate Gosselin, come on now. Now that is only two examples, but they put up to 6 embryos in the woman, if you can not have a child "naturally", adopt! Fertility clinics do harvest embryos, not for research, but for this purpose. That to me is wrong, just my opinion. I understand your argument that it is better to use them for research, rather than destroy them, but these are clinically grown embryos, that whole statement just sounds wrong. But hey, we live in America and everyone has their own opinion. I just hope that the gvt doesn't start "harvesting" embryos for research, I believe that is what will begin to happen. When is the line drawn, when is it too far, give an inch and they take a mile
Reply-
100%
epiphannyy1 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
I totally agree with everything you just said.
Reply
I too disagree with the whole idea of fertility clinics - both for the reasons you state about the exploitation and the fact that there are children just begging to be adopted and never have that privilege to be a part of any real family. Creating new lives when so many already exist who could and would fill that void makes no sense to me at all.
But given the fact that we DO have these clinics and we DO have these excess embryos destined for incineration, I just think the option that leads to helping others makes more sense than the option that leads to nothing.
-
-
83%
cavmo1 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Is it murder? Is that the question about morality? I am not sure what constitutes murder in this case. Maybe someone could clear that up for. Otherwise, the potential medical breakthroughs far outweigh, in my opinion, any concern about usage of donated embryos. How many cures exist in the developing cell. Can we manipulate this development into cellular treatment for forms of Cancer, Parkinsons, Alzheimers? It seems like attempting to save a multitude would be worthwhile research.
Reply-
0%
prolife221 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
My grandmother died last Thanksgiving from Alzheimer's Disease. There are so many things I would have done to help find a cure, but not sacrificing another person's life that has not had a chance to make a change. What if all these 'fetuses' (I call them babies) will one day find the cure to all disease and cancer? We will never know because we are killing them all.
Reply
-
-
100%
allen901641 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Stem cell research is vital. To the opposition ... you don't have to contribute an embryo nor do you have to participate in the benefits. You do not ave the right to force your religious ideas down everyones throat. The so-called religious right needs to learn to live like the christians they claim to be. Yeshua ben Yosef (Jesus) is supposed to have said "give to god what is god's and to caesar what is caesar's." This is what we call separation of church and state. Stop trying to force yur particular religious opinions down everyone elses throat. Only then will you be a true christian.
Reply
Just sign me: Old Catholic Bishop.-
Neutral
Jessica5551 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Allen,
Reply
I am a Christian woman, and I absolutely agree with you! I also understand that as Christians, we want to bring Jesus to life within others. The problem is that times like this are too controversial because of the various components of such arguments. First of all, stem cell research is not only embryos directly harvested, but also the cells from the umbilical cord once a child is born. Even in a religious aspect, aren't humans supposed to help one another...wouldn't helping another human being by saving their life from stem cells be the Christian thing to do?
Anyways, Allen, thanks for your comments, and thanks for listening to mine! I hope others in this hateful world can come together and find a compromise! Again, thanks!
-
-
0%
cmcgirt1 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
KILLING IS NOT MORAL NO MATTER WHAT THE CIRCUMSTANCES ARE! JUST BECAUSE A EMBRYO HAS TO HAS ASSISTANCE TO LIVE UNTIL THEY ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO DO IT ON THEIR OWN, DOESN'T MEAN IT ISN'T A HUMAN.
Reply
WE KEEP PEOPLE ON ALL KINDS OF ASSISTED LIVING APPARATUSES UNTIL THEY ARE WELL ENOUGH TO LIVE ON THEIR OWN DON'T WE?
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE.
MORE RESEASRCH IS NEEDED FOR ADULT STEM CELL RESEARCH.-
100%
coo1 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Okay, so you walk into a fertility clinic holding your two-year old's hand. A fire breaks out. Do you abandon your 2 year old to save a thousand embryos? Of course not. Humans make value judgments all the time. You can't save everyone. By your reasoning, the state should force everyone to exercise every day, ban all automobiles (major cause of death), etc. When you leave a human on a breathing apparatus (for example) until they are well enough to live on their own, someone (usually a doctor) has made a judgment call that the person actually will get better some day. These are they types of moral dilemmas that we have to live with every day. You happen to come down on a different side of this dilemma then most people on the planet (BTW, people in other countries can't believe we actually debate this stuff).
Reply -
100%
Coatl1 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
"JUST BECAUSE A EMBRYO HAS TO HAS ASSISTANCE TO LIVE UNTIL THEY ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO DO IT ON THEIR OWN, DOESN'T MEAN IT ISN'T A HUMAN. "
Reply
I 100% agree with that. The lack of all the things that makes us human (like a central nervous system) is what means embryos are not humans.
-
-
-
0%
pacsengr1 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
I think that besides the moral issue at hand, their is significant scientic proof to make the argument that while Adult Stem Cell research has shown promise and is getting the attention of Free-Market Venture Capital, Embyonic Stem Cell research has been a real failure and is now dependent on Government funding to stay alive. It is as unfortunate that these issues are never argued on their merits as it is that the moral issues are trivialized.
Reply-
Neutral
mwvl1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
This is incorrect pacsengr. When people speak about Adult Stem Cell research, they are speaking about procedures like bone marrow transplants that were actually pioneered back the mid sixties.
Reply
For the record - from the mouth of the discoverer of embryonic stem cells - embryonic stem cell research is not focused on transplantation. The primary focus (80% -90%) of this research is directed toward research, drug and therapy development. You see there are no human heart cell lines. So scientists can't study how drugs or therapies will act upon this tissue. With Embryonic and the new IPS Cells scientists are able for the first time to actually study what a drug will do to nerve cell, because we can make human nerve cells in what ever quantity you want. It also means that the drugs and therapies should be more accurate for human medicine. It also means that drugs can be tested more quickly as well as accurately.
-
-
-
0%
novstorm19441 month, 1 week ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
So you self righteous people think that people need to adopt and not have a child of their own because they are extra eggs laying around. Who do you selfrighteous AH think you are?? You have a lot of nerve telling people they need to adopt rather then give birth to their own child. There is so much wrong information in here by people who think they can BS people. Well many people in here are educated and KNOW when a heart starts growing and when an eye is formed. I hope people check out all the moronic info given by morons before buying it lock stock and barrell. It is none of anyones business if the plant 1 or 8 embryos or if a couple have 8 kids..the only people who say this are the ones that have had their own children naturally and had no problems getting pregnant. I know many people who have had the heartbreak of not having their own child and some who did adopt and most who didn't. The reason for not adopting is because they do not know what the real back ground of the parents is. Too many people are getting special need children and have no idea about it until after the adoption and children that were drug and alcohol babies, things they didnt bargin for. Plus the easy access bio parents get to these kids and also the fact that these bio parents come after many many adoptive parents and the courts give the bio parents the kids back. Also the people who have paid for those fertilized eggs are not about to start donating them to strangers. Why should they? They are their potential children and they should give them away..Sheesh
Reply -
-
-
JasonLiesterComment removed: Hard Banned
-
-
Neutral
mwvl1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
I just completed my thesis documentary film on the Stem Cell research debate. I interviewed Dr. James Thomson from UW-Madison for the doc. He is the scientist who discovered how to grow embryonic stem cells in laboratory environment. He is also the co-discoverer of the new IPS (Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells), which are skin cells that have been genetically altered back to their embryonic stem cell state. According to Dr. Thomson, they act exactly like embryonic stem cells in the laboratory – thus far.
Reply
During the production I had the opportunity to interview over a hundred people on streets in four different cities. It amazed me that there is such confusion, misunderstanding and downright lies about this research. In my documentary I sought to clear up some of the misinformation and provide the audience with the facts regarding the embryonic stem cell’s origins, alternatives and research purpose and goals.
Embryonic Stem Cells used in research come from left over IVF procedures. They do not come from aborted fetuses. Women typically have eight to ten eggs removed for fertilization in a Petri dish. The zygotes (fertilized eggs) are incubated for seven to ten days – the same amount of time that a zygote needs to develop into a blastocyst as it travels through the fallopian tube down to the uterus. Once the incubated eggs have reached the blastocyst stage, doctors remove then grade them. They choose the best ones, usually two to four and implant them into the woman. They freeze the remaining six to eight blastocyst in case the couple needs to try again or wants to have more children. It varies, but often times couples are left with the difficult decision of what to do with the remaining frozen blastocyst. In actuality, they are left with only three options: donate to science, donate to other couples or have the blastocyst destroyed. This is the point of contention in this debate. It is not about aborted fetuses – its about those three options. This is the only place that embryonic stem cell researchers get their cells. We are not talking about chopped up aborted fetuses tissue here. That is one the major misconceptions out there about this research.
My goal with the thesis documentary was to provide the audience with the opportunity to decide for themselves what to do with the remaining frozen blastocyst. There are too many other docs out there that feed you lies, mislead you and misinform you or worse try to pull on your heart strings to get you sympathetic to the cause. Personally, I am OK with whatever you chose to do. You have a right to your opinion, but you should try to make that decision based on the facts.
The film is entitled “Lines in the Sand”. It will air on Montana PBS this November and then in other States over the coming months. Or you can buy a copy from me. Just email me at mvlfilms@aol.com. -
Neutral
mwvl1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
to denise – No you are incorrect – umbilical cord blood stem cells are “multipotent” – meaning that they can be coaxed into becoming a number of different human cells. Embryonic Stem Cells are “pluripotent” – meaning that they can be guided into any of the over 200 different types of cells in our body.
Reply
The newest and most promising branch of stem cell research is the new IPS (Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells). These are genetically derived from skin cells and seem to act just like Embryonic Stem Cells in the lab. Only these would be better for transplantation, due to the fact that a patient’s own skin with his/her DNA could be turned into transplant tissue. This would eliminated GVHD (graft verses host disease) which often can kill the patient.
Add a Comment
Sign In With Your Propeller Account
Please keep your comments relevant to this story.
To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.