Stem Cells Mend Spinal Injuries

Darkman, Walkin Dude writes "New research shows that rats that had their spinal columns severed were able to regain use of their hind legs through the use of stem cells from embryonic rats." From the Wired article: "Spinal cord injuries can be caused by accidents or infections and affect 250,000 people a year in the United States alone, costing $4 billion annually, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders. Whittemore's team took specific cells from rat embryos called glial restricted precursor cells -- a kind of stem cell or master cell that gives rise to nerve cells."

Re:We're not persuing this as fast as we can becau

[Seumas]

How dare you.

This is America. How dare anyone presume to step into the shoes of God by improving the conditions of or completely healing those who are sick or disabled. Man has no right dictate and change what God has obviously deemed his will by employing ridiculous and sinful medical practices.

Unless you live in the midwest and you're trying to knock your wife with the funky teeth up with nine babies. That's totally fine.

Re:We're not persuing this as fast as we can becau

[QuantumG]

Because it is the obligation of good christian women to offer up their fertile wombs for implantation of these harvested embryos and carry them to term whilst burning at the stake the women who donated them in the first place.

this just in from marketing

[CloudDrakken]

need to start making "I broke my spine and all I got was this aborted fetus" tees

Re:We're not persuing this as fast as we can becau

[ortholattice]

I have never understood why fundamentalist religious right-wingers consider embryos to be human beings. It is certainly not mentioned in the Bible, which supposedly provides the foundation for their beliefs.

An early embryo does not have even a single functioning neuron, so certainly it can't have any kind of conscious existence, and it is a far stretch to say that it has a "soul".

The reasoning seems to be that it has the "potential" for becoming a human being. But once cloning is perfected, every cell in our bodies will have the potential for becoming a human being, no different from an identical twin. So every time we shed a few skin cells, we are discarding millions of potential human beings.

In this sense, a pre-neuron embryo is no different from any other mass of tissue in our bodies.

Perhaps we should take these people's reasoning to its logical conclusion, and forbid the destruction of any tissue at all from our bodies. To which senator should I mail my feces for preservation?

Re:Cruelty is discusting

[zpok]

"We've got no business causing spinal injuries to animals, or any injuries for that matter. Test them on humans if humans are who they aim to benefit."

Right, glad you volunteered, just lay down please this won't hurt a bit...

Re:Cruelty is discusting

[wocket44]

I'd much rather kill 100 mice than have 1 person die. In fact, that makes me think that perhaps we should fight all of our wars with mice. You know some kind of organized mice fight to determine who wins.

Re:We're not persuing this as fast as we can becau

[zerocool^]

I mean, they've already shown us that being paralysed does nothing against intellegence (Stephen Hawking)

Well, duh. Being paralyzed is a huge dexterity hit, intelligence doesn't enter into it.

~Will

Obligatory Monty Python quote

[tolkienfan]

"Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate."