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Scientists Create New Human Embryonic Stem Cell
Homework Help writes "U.S. scientists were successful in creating a new human embryonic stem cell. From source, "U.S. researchers said on Monday they have created a new human embryonic stem cell by fusing an embryonic stem cell to an ordinary skin cell.
They hope their method could someday provide a way to create tailor-made medical treatments without having to start from scratch using cloning technology.
That would mean generating the valuable cells without using a human egg, and without creating a human embryo, which some people, including President George W. Bush, find objectionable.
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Please keep that in mind before you start bitching about us Christians being anti-science.
Just wanted to mention a random fact that I heard about medical research and federal funding.
Say a company gets federal funds to research cancer, or MS, or any other disease. Most places are involved with the research of many diseases/cures/whatever.
If one lab, or one person even, involved with that company is researching stem cells, federal funding for ALL projects is cut off. Even if the stem cell research within the company is being funded entirely by private sources.
It's because of this policy that a lot of labs aren't able to do any stem cell research.
Actually, the National Institute of Health is the federal agency that assigns the funding in question. The NIH is part of the Department of Health and Human services, which is part of the executive branch, which the president is the head of. There's your constitutional basis.
its not illegal. its just that the agencies responsible for handing out research money, part of the executive branch, have made this their policy.
think about how many state laws have been passed under the threat of witholding highway fuding.
there are lots of ways the three branches can push something in and of themselves. they can choose to block something (veto, fillibuster, amendment), but it costs.
Executive orders do not have (and never have had) the force of law. Congress can override them simply by passing a law contradicting the order, and the Supreme Court can strike orders down (and has in the past). The only type of orders that do have force of law are those made in pursuance of certain Acts of Congress which give the President discretionary powers.
The Rise and Fall of Online Community
Regarding the debate, Bush is losing.
Most Americans now think the ban should be dropped and the government should "fund research that would use newly created stem cells obtained from human embryos".
The federal government is not allowed to fund any organization which does embryonic stem cell research. So if an organization is doing 200 studies using 1000 researchers and 1/2 of them are federally funded then you would think they could use private money to do an embryonic stem cell study. But, if they did that they would lose ALL gov funding to ALL of their projects.
Now can you see why people might object to this? It's not that it bans federal funding for research but it ALSO limits the research these organizations can do with private funding.
PS: When you look at the history of scientific research over the last 100 years most ground breaking research has been paid for by government organizations. Now if you want to give up satellite TV, the internet, computers, and most of the other advances over the last hundred years then your viewpoint might have market but that's hey you don't know what you would be giving up so it must not be that important.
The president has a moral obligation to do what's best for the country as a whole instead of acting out of his own personal religious beliefs.
Strictly speaking, he does not have that obligation, nor that power. He can recommend to the Congress "such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." He must do what is necessary to uphold the law of the land.
But the power to act lies within Congress, and any recommendation by the President is based upon his personal opinion, which may or may not reflect what is best for the country.
This is why there is a separation of powers, so that the Congress can hold a President, who either oversteps his authority, or is an idiot, in check.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
It has something to do with the way the chickens are raised, locked in tiny cages for their whole lives, choking on their own filth, and forced to live as egg factories. They become physically and mentally ill in that environment, demonstrating self-mutilation behavior and a drastically reduced lifespan.
Many vegetarians will buy "free range" eggs, which cost much more, but are harvested from chickens that are not kept in cages.
Here is some good documentation of the ways hens are mistreated.
"The advanced societies of the future will be driven by competing systems of psychopathology." -JG Ballard
From what I remember from other articles concerning transplantation of organs/cells... its not the DNA that triggers the rejection... at least not right away... Initially your body recognizes cells as foreign by their surface proteins... each person has a more or less unique pattern... hence why family members are more likely to provide good transplants... the proteins are close enough... That's how certain diseases get beyond our defenses... they infect a cell, and suddenly have our surface protein pattern and hide from our immune system...
This is also why some of those stem cell lines that had been created on a feed of mouse(?) skin and blood were contaminated... the surface proteins bled between the cells, and suddenly the stem cell lines had mouse proteins and thus could never be implanted in people... the host would immediately notice the proteins and would attack the cells as a foreign body "rejection"
Gravity Sucks
Not quite - current researchers say they're about 3-5 years away from starting human trials in repairing spinal cord injuries with stem cells. More here, though due to the halt on federal funding, this has been somewhat derailed (we were 5 years away in 2000).
On 1, the Catholic Church believes that all birth control, save "the rhythm method" is wrong. As for the comment on invitro, the Church is also opposed to it because of the associated destruction of embryos. I believe that both of these positions are dead on.
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
Never forget: 2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.
And some time I'd like you to ask the Iraqi women who were captive in Saddam's Rape Rooms,
.never mind the Iraqi boys who are raped in front of their parents by contractors at Abu Ghraib.
. .
Ask the writers of the new Iraqi constitution about what their plans are for women's rights. Or rights for Christians. Or rights for Sufis, or other non-Shia muslims. Those groups all had more rights under Saddam's regime than than under any Islamic republic.
and the people that were electrocuted, dipped in acid baths, and tortured for years how much they hate G.W. Bush.
Or the people "rendered" to other countries where torture is legal.
WMD mean nothing, we know he gassed the Kurds that was WMD, maybe they should just live in fear for the rest of their lives or until he gassed them again.
Maybe I'd believe the Bush 43 Administrations' outrage over Saddam's gassing of the Kurds if fellows like Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld, John Poindexter, Paul Wolfowitz, while in Ronald Reagan's and Bush 41's Administration, they had said something about Saddam's Kurd-gassing ways. They never said a damn word. They sold him satellite photos, gave him aid and support, and shook his hand. The individuals in the White House today have ZERO credibility when it comes to criticizing 3rd world dictators who oppress their people. Between the Shah of Iran, Pinochet, the Contras, Marcos, Al Qaeda, and dozens of others these people have aided supported for over 30 years, aided and supported in their torture, oppression, abridgement of rights, they'll have a hard time convincing anyone that they've suddenly changed their ways, and now are champions of freedom and human rights. Maybe if they did more to expose drug and arms dealing, money laundering anonymous bank accounts in the Caymans, and the Bahamas, which would have exposed how the Saudi Royal Family finances terrorisim, I might be convinced. Maybe if they fought for more liberal elemants of the Iraqi political landscape to win in the election, instead of illegally funnelling reconstruction funds to help Ahmed Chalabi and Shiite Religious Fanatics to win, thus putting Iraq on a path to become the next Iran, maybe I'd give them a chance.
But this criminal gang is not working to make Iraq more free. They are the enemies of freedom, the enemies of human rights, the enemies of liberty. Their goal is endless, profitable, conflict, strife, and war.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
You can not patent the "sequence" of a gene. The whole genome sequence is freely available to the public.
In simple terms what you could patent is the discovery that "this piece of sequence does that" or how it functions in nature and how can it be utilized.
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome /elsi/patents.shtml
Healthcare Questions
1. Why are doctors and scientists so excited about human embryonic stem cells?
Stem cells have potential in many different areas of health and medical research. To start with, studying stem cells will help us to understand how they transform into the dazzling array of specialized cells that make us what we are. Some of the most serious medical conditions, such as cancer and birth defects, are due to problems that occur somewhere in this process.
...
2. Have human embryonic stem cells been used successfully to treat any human diseases yet?
... HSCs (hematopoietic stem cells) are now used in order to treat leukemia, lymphoma and several inherited blood disorders.
Also, when you mention the egg is not an embryo - I'm aware. IVF procedures usually have multiple eggs being fertilized at any given time. Once they determine which eggs have been fertilized and which haven't, they then insert (more than one) egg into the uterus. It often happens that many of these zygotes/embryos die, but usually at least one makes it through. Sometimes a lot more than one. But they usually still have some left over, to make sure that the lady has, indeed, been impregnated, and if not, then they don't have to go through the entire IVF procedure again. They can just insert new zygotes/embryos that they have sitting around from the last time through. This is good if she isn't pregnant. But if she is pregnant, and she knows she doesn't want any more children, the zygotes/embryos are either frozen or destroyed.
:)
Or at least that's what wikipedia told me