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Scientist Pushing for Early Use of Stem Cells
hzs202 writes "BBC News is reporting that Professor Ian Wilmut is pushing for stem cell treatment to be offered to people with terminal illnesses. Professor Wilmut told journalists that the treatment could save lives or at least speed up the pace of research, however it is yet to be fully tested." From the article: "If we wait until things are totally tested and analyzed in animals, it will deny some people treatment"
I learned something interesting last week from friends of my wife and I. When their daughters were born (now 4 and 6yrs old, respectively), they had stem cells taken from their umbilical cords and sent off to a facility in (I think) Texas, where they're safely stored and frozen. Apparently the thinking is that (hopefully never, but...) maybe one day one of the girls will have some kind of ailment that requires the re-growth of an organ (for example), or similar. So they will pull the stem cells out of storage and use the 'current' medical advances to hopefully cure them.
I was amazed to find out that it is possible to do this and that people are doing it already! I think that is so cool! I meant to ask them if it cost anything, but I forgot. Anyone know?
Just thought I'd share, since we're on the subject...
Expensive drugs like AIDS treatments have found their way into the hands of plenty of poor people.
You have a definition for the word "plenty" that I'm not familiar with.
17 million people in Africa have died of AIDS and less than 1/10 of 1% of HIV+ people are receiving treatment. Doesn't sound like "plenty" to me.
It's simple: I demand prosecution for torture.
Certainly lots of people have heard of snake-oil. Heck, asperin was also a cure-all.
The difference between stem cells and asperin is that all of your cells were created via stem cells (indirectly or directly) and not asperin.
In theory, you could regenerate most (if not all) of your dead and dying body cells with stem cells because stems cells are basic building blocks of original cell generation. The reason we get sick, old, and die is because cells self replicate until they are beoyond damaged and damaged cells can only replicate damaged cells.
Go back to the starting point and create healthy original cells via stem cell therapy and you've got young and non-damaged cells again.
Calling stems cells a cure all is akin to calling atoms the cure all for reality. It is what we are made out of.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
President Bush, in 2001, halted all federal funding on stem cells outside of the already-established 78 lines. Many of those cells have been corrupted and can't be used in human trials.
However, he did a partial reveral just recently and signed a law creating a national stem-cell bank based on umbilical cord cells. This is really good news, and hopefully will allow the US to catch up to other countries.
Maybe we DID take the blue pill. You wouldn't remember anyway.
Education's very important, sure. And so is changing people's sexual practices. Those things are what will help much more than some wonder-drug. That said, the U.S. won't give money to education programs that don't preach abstinence. This is foolish, though it and things like it probably helped win Bush votes among Christian conservatives.
Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.
What we need is a population that realizes that we are approaching a time where we can use technologies like nano and biotech to gain complete control over the aging process and eventually pemanentealy reverse it.
sure, the wealthey will be the people who drive this research and benefit from it in the beginning, but, eventually, the technology will get cheaper, and, as usual, the technology will be appear on P2P networks everywhere. You have to remember, that the exponential growth of knowledge will mean that in 20 years, we will have found ways to increase intelligence and develope brain interfaces etc. Using nanotech, people could download and "grow" their own medical devices and boost their own brain power to that of experts, so anybody in say, 30 to 40 years could download and deploy any type of advanced nano/biotech and reverse thier own aging etc, without the help of the old-fashoned drug company paradgm we are stuck with today. Of course, by then the drug comapanies will have allready make a killing on longevity treatments, so I would not cry too much for them (they will be where the music companies find themselves today), however, you may have to watch out for the nano/bio DRM police, if you pirate any future patented nano/bio you have not paid for..
Watch the 60 minuites inverview (sun Jan 1, 2006) with Aubre de Gray (the longevity researcher and developer of the Methuzalah mouse prize), they interviewed him in jan 2005 about longevity (life extention) and the M-prize. Aubre De Gray is the researcher who has identified the 7 or so processes that we could research and fix the aging process in the next 15 or so years given current biotech and nanotech and if we approach this process by considering aging to be an engineering problem and not some magical process we could not understand.
It's more then that. Those things COST money. Condoms, needles, books, pamphlets, and teachers all cost money. In many cases the areas that need them are unable to afford them. Then comes the issue of once you have teachers how do you get people to go to them. Then once you have that solved how do you get people to believe them (I know a problem in many areas of Africa is people giving more credence to ritual and tradition then to educators.
What's the problem? They don't make anyone very much money (except maybe condom manufacturers).
It's not only the US. For examble
Computers allow humans to make mistakes at the fastest speeds known, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns