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Science

Stem Cells From Nonviable Embryos 15

Posted by Hemos from the parthogenisis dept.
sam_handelman writes " The people at Advanced Cell Technology, best known for their expertise in cloning, the same people behind the clonal stem cell kidney recently discussed on slashdot, have developed a way to "trick" an Egg cell into self-fertilizing. If this Zygote (fertilized Egg) were viable, it would be a clone of the mother; the new york times reports a plan to harvest them for stem cells, in order to make stem cells by a means acceptable to religious groups." Essentially, they've been able to force parthogenesis.
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Stem Cells From Nonviable Embryos

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  • Reading that short part of the article has made me feel like that is wrong. For some reason, I do not know why I have never felt that way before with regards to this sort of thing.

    What makes this more acceptable than any other way that has been done before with eggs?

    You are still 'starting' a life (i do not pretend to know the scope of what anyone wants to place on that). Harvesting it like that just seems something that should not be done.

    How can an egg be tricked into fertalizing itself in the first place? Isn't it missing 1/2 of the chromosomes? (note: I am not scientist).
  • Okay, so to appease the conservative Christian core, worried about embryos used in cloning, they caused a monkey to have a "virgin birth"? Sure, it's slightly off of fact, but I can't help but wonder what these scientists thinking?

    "Eureka! We won't have to worry about those religious-types bothering us about our research anymore!"
    "Oh? Why not?"
    "Well, first we prove the most cherished tenet of their faith false...."
    • they caused a monkey to have a "virgin birth"

      and

      "Well, first we prove the most cherished tenet of their faith false...."

      Um, haven't they just prooved that virgin birth is possible? (Well scientifically possible anyway, and practically possible to 21st century scientists, don't know if this technology was available in the ancient middle-east.)
      • Yes, they proved a vigin birth was possible... to create by scientific means. Keep in mind, these are (most likely) the same fundamentalist groups who 100 years ago objected to the theory of evolution.

        Anyway, this doesn't explain how a virgin-born Christ figure would be male, when this technique can only create females. Did you read the article?
  • these scientists need to realize that fucking around with the beginnings of life will never be acceptable in any way to religious groups. although it's a noble effort on their part, if the procedure requires the killing of what will become a living man then the Catholic Church will always remain a staunch opponent of such practices.
    • Catholic Church will always remain a staunch opponent of such practices

      I'd like to try to explain it to you by drawing an analogy, but I don't know you well enough. Perhaps you could help me - is there anything at all that you believe in? Anything at all? No? Well then I guess it's pointless trying to argue with you. huh?
      • actually, i'm a strong Catholic myself. analogize away! i apologize if my post seemed to indicate the exact opposite of my position. that seems to happen all too often with me. i believe intervening with the processes that naturally produce humans is acting directly against the will of God.
        • i believe intervening with the processes that naturally produce humans is acting directly against the will of God.

          So what? It seems that through history the following things have been against the will of God on an off and on basis:
          Eating meat on fridays.
          Using condoms and other contraceptives.
          Being protestant.
          The earth going around the sun.
          Harry Potter.

          So how about we let the christians and other superstitous people deprive themselves of whatever advances and technology we come up with, while they argue amongst themselves, (or rather, blindy obey the will of the pope) about such matters as whats going to be banned this week, or what northern irish school to throw stones at this weekend.

          Meanwhile the rest of the world should be free to enjoy the benefits of modern science.
          • So how about we let the christians and other superstitous people deprive themselves of whatever advances and technology we come up with, while they argue amongst themselves, (or rather, blindy obey the will of the pope) about such matters as whats going to be banned this week, or what northern irish school to throw stones at this weekend.

            Meanwhile the rest of the world should be free to enjoy the benefits of modern science.

            Regardless of your opinion, I seriously doubt you can fail to see that there is a moral issue here.

            --
            Benjamin Coates
  • Some of you might be interested in a related study [mcgill.ca] (published in Nature ) which made headlines last summer.

    Summary:
    Dr Freda Miller and colleagues at the Centre for Neuronal Survival and the Brain Tumour Research Centre at the Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, have isolated stem cells from the dermis of adult rodents that will proliferate and differentiate in culture to produce very different cell types- neurons, glia, smooth muscle cells, and fat cells. These novel stem cells, SKPs, were isolated from the skin of juvenile and adult rodents -- an accessible on-embryonic source. Human studies have indicated that similar cells are present inadult human skin. "We believe our discovery is important as we have identified an exciting new stem cell from a non-controversial source that holds considerable promise for scientific and therapeutic research," says Dr Freda Miller.

  • So harvesting one of these feti is not like killing a baby, it's like killing a baby Jesus!!!

    Trust me, they'll whine about it.
    • Oh but don't you see, it was the killing of Jesus that made the whole faith possible... The more Jesuses we kill, the more bad stuff we can be forgiven for for free! The more we can sin!

      If I was the pope, I would start wholesale slaughter of virgin births as soon as possible.

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