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The Hope and the Hype of Stem Cells
The August issue of Time magazine is running a cover story about the ‘hope and hype’ of embryonic stem cell (ESC) research. The article lays out the advantages and disadvantages of multiple kinds of stem cell research, and comments on the odd way that – similar to global warming and evolution – the interaction of science and politics greatly complicate the issue.
From the article, ‘Opponents of ESC research … argue that you can’t destroy life in order to save it; supporters argue that an eight-cell embryo doesn’t count as a human life in the first place—not when compared with the life it could help save. Opponents say the promise of embryo research has been oversold, and they point to the cures that have been derived from adult stem cells from bone marrow and umbilical cords; supporters retort that adult stem cells are still of limited use, and to fully realize their potential we would need to know more about how they operate—which we can learn only from studying leftover fertility-clinic embryos that would otherwise be thrown away.’
Similarly tagged OmniNerd content:
- Skin I/O, by VnutZ about 3 years ago
- NASA Photo of Liquid on Titan, by VnutZ over 3 years ago
- Advances with Stem Cells, by JyroBritanniac over 3 years ago
- What Direction Does Your Cow Point?, by wyldeling over 4 years ago
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Re: The Hope and the Hype of Stem Cells by EyeOfSage
I say let them ‘destroy life in order to save it’. The mother is going to have an abortion any way…..so why not use it to save lives.
Nazi Germany by jmarkdavison
Let’s apply the Kantian reasoning to another case of morally questionable scientific experimenting:
Why was it wrong for Hitler to conduct experiments on the inmates in Nazi concentration camps? He was going to kill them anyway.
(Answer is upside down at the bottom of this page)
Before beating this poor, dead horse (again) ... by mikeforbes
… read these threads from last year on the same topic.
I’m all in favor of debating this topic again now, but if those involved in this discussion would read the previous threads first, we could avoid regurgitating the same points over and over.