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Human Based Stem Cell Culture Medium Developed
ubersonic writes "A new culture medium for growing human stem cells -- that contains no animal products -- is offering researchers a cleaner and therefore safer environment for performing the cutting-edge technology.
The discovery means that stem cells developed for therapeutic use can be transferred directly to human subjects. By using this medium all of the concerns about contaminating proteins in existing stem cell lines can essentially be removed."
I don't believe that it will totally remove any arguments about stem cell research. We don't currently need human "tissues", just human "cells".
_signature creation failed.
No, the argument that it "encourages" abortion is not strong at all, it's completely non-existent.
Does anyone out there really think that young women are sitting around thinking "Hey, if I get pregnant, I can go through annoying hormonal shifts, then have a painful and mildly risky invasive procedure, then they can use my aborted fetus to do medical resarch! Hooray!"?
People can reasonably have ethical objections to the concept of aborting a fetus for any reason, but it takes a special kind of brain damage to think stem cell research *encourages* women to have abortions.
Especially since one of the most commonly suggested sources of stem cells are excess fertilized eggs from fertility treatments that are going to be destroyed anyway.
The problem was rejection and posible bad reactions to being exposed to the animal proteins. The human proteins aren't likely to cause the same rejection issues. The real problem now is Bush is demanding that they stick with the small number of existing lines, most of which are already contaminated. They can still experiment in this country but they can't recieve government funds if they use new lines because it upsets the radical base. I think there will be a lot of opposition to treatments being approved because of the same ignorant stance. They are terrified some of the hundreds of thousands of unused embryos might be used to treat the sick. It's about control and they don't care if the donors approve or not. It's a religious issue like many facing the government today. So long as the current administration is in power religion will always trump common sense.
you *cannot* "contaminate proteins"! what contamination in the context of stem cells is that cells may become differentiated due to the way how they're cultured. the essence of a stem cell is that its undifferentiated cell and has a potential to transform to any cell type (muscle, brain, cardiac, liver, etc). With time these cells may loose this totipotency, or their ability to turn into any cell type. Contamination has nothing to do with culturing stem cells in heterologous medium!
None of the stem cells from these clean lines can be used in any Federal funded stem cell research. Bush made certain of that.
I agree. Even once we can go and get a replacement heart grown from our own stem cells there will be people picketting the hospital saying we're evil for having our defective heart transplanted. Just like there are people now who consider blood transfusions to be evil even if it's your own blood you have banked that you are transplanting.
How we know is more important than what we know.
I don't disagree with the basic idea of what you are saying. The problem is that you are confusing "stem cells" with "embryonic stem cells". Not all stem cells are embryonic stem cells. The stem cell lines that so far have provided the best results have been stem cell lines extracted from adults and umbilical cords and not aborted or non-implanted embryos. Most people who object to embryonic stem cell research have no problem with adult or umbilical cord stem cell research. Just be sure that when you put forward your argument against embryonic stem cells, you specify embryonic stem cells. Unless, of course, you disagree with ALL stem cell research. In which case, good luck!
But why is the rum gone?
This doesn't change anything wrt the debate about if it's right - which is primarily over the fact that the most useful stem cells still come from aborted fetuses, which nearly all anti-abortion advocates think is immoral.
While non-embryonic stem cells can come from aborted fetuses, most actually come from bone marrow, fat cells, nasal and cheek linings, umbilical cords, etc. Stem cells from these sources are not controversial and have been successfully used to treat parkinsons, diabietes, leukemia, spinal injuries and some 61 other diseases. All of which is well documented, but usually not reported. It is only the use of embryonic stem cells derived from cloning a human embryo (nuclear transfer) that are controversial.
To date, the only thing that embryonic stem cells have produced are cancer tumors. Evidently, they are so undifferentiated that they cause uncontrolled cell growth (tumors). The push for having government funding of embryonic stem cells is because businesses and private individuals won't fund it. They are pouring millions into non-embryonic stem cell research, which has been proven to be successful time and time again.
Regardless, the "discovery" reported doesn't impact the moral or ethical discussion, it comes into play after the intitial stem cells are taken (or created, in the case of embryonic ones).
I suppose I'm one of the (relatively) hardliners. I don't object to stem cell research, only the stem cell research that, as WheelDweller says, results in the death of children to produce.
According to Wikipedia (which is not exactly one of my favourite places to get information):
and As far as we know, there are no clinical uses for embryonic stem cells. All successes have come from adult stem cell research. I say, cut our losses (both financial and ethical) and focus on what works. Let's find all the uses possible from adult stem cells before we revisit any ethical dilemmas about killing children for their stem cells to deal with other problems.As for the original story, I say great! Combine this with using one's own ("adult") stem cells, and we should have an easier time getting our successes to work consistantly.