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Stem Cells Restore Feeling In Paraplegic
Vicissidude writes "According to WorldNetDaily scientists in Korea report using umbilical cord blood stem cells to restore feeling and mobility to a spinal-cord injury patient. The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Cytotherapy, centered on a woman who had been a paraplegic 19 years due to an accident. After an infusion of umbilical cord blood stem cells, stunning results were recorded: 'The patient could move her hips and feel her hip skin on day 15 after transplantation. On day 25 after transplantation her feet responded to stimulation.'"
Who cares about the olympics, when we're being outpaced in the sciences we'll have nothing left to convince other nations to loan us the billions of dollars needed to cover our debts... Way to screw science (in yet another way) you Right-To-Life fuckers!
I'm sorry, but this is pure hyperbole "A good number of scientific teams formerly here in the US have had to leave the country to continue their work". Actually, it is bullshit. What there is simply is a ban on federal funding of stem cell research. Sure, they might have left, but not out of fear. In fact, many firms are funding research on stem cells. There is no ban. Period. To say otherwise is a lie. Perhaps firms aren't putting as much money into it because maybe they don't feel there's significant returns possible. On that, I do not know. Maybe they think there's better returns on umbilical cord reserach. I don't know either. But if there was a potential for profit, they'd follow it with money.
Many, myself incldued are leary of stem cell research, not because of religious hang ups,but because of the potential for abuse. The cautin is warranted. And as for federal funding, they feds have no place in funding medical research. I looked in the constitution, and can't find mention of it anywhere. So, I oppose it on a) federalist principles and b) some moral qualms. But mostly a.
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
It's an ethical issue if they are actually aborting fetuses to harvest stem cells, and since that isn't happening, it's pretty clear the ethical card is simply a smokescreen being put up by your local Fundies, who also have their eyes on evolutionary theory and climate change. Welcome to the Unscientific States of America.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
However, giving them the benefit of the doubt, it is too bad the field of stem cell research in the US has been badly damaged by policies the current Whitehouse administration have put into place.
The Korean researchers used umbilical stem cells, not embryonic cells from a fetus. It is a lie to insinuate that the white house forbids stem cell research. It only forbids federal grants to researchers using cells from aborted fetuses. Why be so disingenuous?
Thank you for posting this obvious truth. I am constantly amazed at both the brains and the stupidity of the Slashdot community. They can build and repair some of the most intricate and amazing devices known to man, but cannot see the most simple concepts. The Bush administration and the pro-life community have one goal in their view of stem cells: Preserve LIFE. The lives of fetal humans hang in the balace in a market-driven society like the USA. The law of supply and demand mandates that if you create more demand for a product, then there will be more money flowing for your supply. There is a market for murdering fetal humans, and we hope to see the end of it soon just as our not-so-distant relatives saw the end of the horrible slave market in the USA. We want to use adult and umbilical stem cells to improve life for the living, and to stave off the market for the death of the yet unborn. Put down the tech manuals, folks. Read something that will improve your understanding of more than code and circuits. Live!