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Biologists Find Stem-Cell-Like Functions In Ordinary Cells
mattrandy123 writes with news that scientists from NYU and Utrecht University have discovered ordinary plant cells can fulfill some of the same regenerative functions previously attributed to stem cells. Quoting:
"In the study, the researchers cut off the plant's root tip, thereby excising the stem cell niche, and examined the return of cell identities by measuring all gene activity. The results suggested that stem cells returned quite late in regeneration after other cells were already replaced. The researchers then used mutant plants in which the stem cell niche no longer functions to confirm their initial observations. Despite the absence of the stem cell niche, the plant's ordinary cells worked to regenerate all the major tissues constituting the root tip — a process that began hours after it had been removed. However, researchers found that plants without functional stem cell niches could not resume normal growth, showing that other cells did not replace all functions of stem cells."
off topic, but anybody else finding that google.co.uk searches return every single result flagged as "this site may hurt your computer?"
At the time Roe v Wade was decided, it was not commonly known that a person's physical characteristics were uniquely determined at conception. The problem with science - from the perspective of the urban elite - is that it confirmed that, indeed, a person is fully human from the point of conception onward. Thus, for the first time, there existed a scientific basis for the opposition of abortion. This represents a *very real* problem for a demographic which, in their zeal to eliminate God's influence from public policy decisions, replaced Him with science. Now, it seems, science is the enemy of social progress.
I'm not sure how a fetus' physical characteristics being "uniquely determined at the time of conception" in any way implies that the fetus is "fully human." If a child's physical characteristics were uniquely determined by the parents' DNA would you argue that every man-woman pairing in the world should have a child so as to not deny all these potential children the chance to live? It seems based on this reasoning that you ought to.
Being uniquely determined really means nothing. The idea that a purely potential being deserves protection is patently ridiculous since it leads to the idea that everyone should produce the maximum number of babies possible. The real question is at what point you no longer consider the fetus merely a potential child, but consider it a real human being. The answer to that one isn't obvious, but arguments like yours don't seem terribly relevant to it.