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Obama To Reverse Bush Limits On Stem Cell Work
An anonymous reader sends this quote from the Associated Press:
"Reversing an eight-year-old limit on potentially life-saving science, President Barack Obama plans to lift restrictions Monday on taxpayer-funded research using embryonic stem cells. ... Under President George W. Bush, taxpayer money for that research was limited to a small number of stem cell lines that were created before Aug. 9, 2001, lines that in many cases had some drawbacks that limited their potential usability. But hundreds more of such lines — groups of cells that can continue to propagate in lab dishes — have been created since then, ones that scientists say are healthier, better suited to creating treatments for people rather than doing basic laboratory science. Work didn't stop. Indeed, it advanced enough that this summer, the private Geron Corp. will begin the world's first study of a treatment using human embryonic stem cells, in people who recently suffered a spinal cord injury. Nor does Obama's change fund creation of new lines. But it means that scientists who until now have had to rely on private donations to work with these newer stem cell lines can apply for government money for the research, just like they do for studies of gene therapy or other treatment approaches."
This is great news. The puritanical and backwards thinking of the W years has hurt America while other countries not hindered by superstition have moved ahead to become leaders in this field.
No wonder America has lost it's edge.Maybe we can get back to the godless heathen science that made us so great.
The fact of the matter is, if stem cells and science were going to be so great for the American taxpayer, then why cannot they just sell the products produced by it?
Bottom line is, there's no hope in stem cells. There's no cures in sight for any disease. If there was, then, there would be a private investor making stuff with stem cells, and Bush never blocked that. But you see, there's no hope in stem cell research, which is why, the government is stepping into to pay for it.
You want to know what made this country great? It's scientists and inventors making USEFUL discoveries, and USEFUL products. Pile stem cell researchers onto the other pool of scientists doing nothing economically useful, sucking at the federal tit. Some crackhead on government cheese is as much economically useful as a scientist taking federal money. It's all just welfare for people that don't want to produce.
But I'll ask you this. If you think I'm wrong, then please tell me how. Tell the date when stem cell research will cure ANY of the diseases it has been claimed to cure. Tell me when stem cell research will cure alzheimers, or paralysis, or parkinsons, or cancer. What's the date that's going to happen by? Just give me a date that you can guarantee success by.
This is my sig.
Thanks for ruining my day. I enjoyed that bj from my wife, but now I'm thinking about those 100 million 50% contenders who got digested rather than getting converted into happy babies.
3/10, try harder with the straw man you've almost got the hang of it.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
light in mainstream medicine in very few years.
Then, let's have a date. When cured? Give me a deadline that you think it will happen.
Dude, if you have no idea what you are talking about, it's better to moderate your own opinions.
If you know what you are talking about so much, then let's have a date. It's such a simple thing, three numbers, two slashes. Out with it.
This is my sig.
Do you, now? Precisely how much are you willing to bet? Put your money where your mouth is.
I'll put up $5.
Your shouting is about ideology, not science, and you know full well that reality only cares about the latter.
No, the point is that all of your shouting about stem cell research is about ideology and not science. You just hide behind miracle cures to get money. Well then, if you can deliver these cures, that's great. But let's have a date. Give us a date. If we publicly fund stem cells, we will have these results, on some date. What's the date?
This is my sig.
Basic scientific research is a "public good". You can't get the proper levels of funding by asking the private sector to do it, simply because the bulk of the benefits will be impossible to monetize.
That's exactly why we didn't see any progress in science until the government started investing heavily in all scientific research around WWII and after.
Wait, what? The whole body of classical physics, including the relativistically-correct Maxwell's equations of electrodynamics AND much of the important results of quantum mechanics were worked out long before the heavy interference from the government. Compared to all the great achievements of the late 19th century and early 20th century, do we have anything in basic science to show for ourselves (other than the atomic bomb, thank you very much), for all the money government stole from people and wasted in "science"?
Basic science was doing perfectly fine before the government started messing with it. Basic science doesn't need government funding to survive and thrive, and history proves it.
Just because the government can provide a public good doesn't mean it should. In fact, anything the government doesn't have to do (i.e. anything that doesn't involve war or law enforcement by force), the government should try *not* doing it and see if the private sector can do it more efficiently (and the whole point of capitalism is that it can).