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Human Based Stem Cell Culture Medium Developed

Posted by samzenpus on from the get-it-in-you dept.

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."

2 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Interesting Discovery by Loc_Dawg · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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".

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    _signature creation failed.
  2. Re:Orthogonal issues by mrbooze · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.