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Court Rules Against Stem Cell Policy
An anonymous reader sends this quote from Reuters:
"A US district court issued a preliminary injunction Monday stopping federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research, in a slap to the Obama administration's new guidelines on the sensitive issue. The court ruled in favor of a suit filed in June by researchers who said human embryonic stem cell research involves the destruction of human embryos. Judge Royce Lamberth granted the injunction after finding that the lawsuit would likely succeed because the guidelines violated law banning the use of federal funds to destroy human embryos. '(Embryonic stem cell) research is clearly research in which an embryo is destroyed,' Lamberth wrote in a 15-page ruling."
While I am sorry to hear about your mother, and sincerely hope that you do not get alzheimers either, the fact is that there ARE moral implications, and you cannot get around them by looking at the benefits. The ends do not always justify the means, and bringing up what is indeed an unfortunate situation is not sufficient to get rid of the objections. Keep in mind, the moral objections basically amount to "we think this is murder".
Additionally, I have heard talk that embryonic cells are not necessarily superior to other forms of stem cell; any bio buffs want to clarify whether this is true, and if so why the push to use something so laden with moral qualms?
"Destroying embryos?" First of all these aren't "embryos" -- that is a weasel word often used by fundies and Republicans to conflate an undifferentiated blastocyst with a viable fetus as probably both parties believe that the blastocyst, ney, the zygote, has a "soul." "Embryo" implies more advanced development which is what a blastocyst becomes when its development differentiates it as a human being . A blastocyst is a sphere of about 100 cells filled with fluid, the blastocoele, which contains a clump of pluripotent stem cells attached to its inner wall called the ebryoblast. This is what they're talking about when they say "embryo" : a blob of stem cells. And when they talk about "destroying" the "embryo" what really happens is that the blastocyst is punctured ( Oh no! It's destroyed! ) and the embryoblast stem cells are extracted and allowed to multiply a petri dish. These cells ARE NOT VIABLE -- that is babies won't sprout up like fucking mushrooms from the petri dish. And the blastocysts, they aren't viable unless implanted into a working uterus. Furthermore, what's going to happen to the "embryos" ( blastocysts ) that aren't needed? Can you say medical waste and a furnace? If "destroying embryos" is the equivalent of killing a person, then you commit mass murder every time you take a shit because there are more bacterial cells in your intestines than in your body. Going further with that thought, don't you also commit mass murder when you ejaculate? You know those sperm could have been babies! For fucks sake I'm damn sick of this bullshit.
jdb2
Well, Obama is president. As head of the executive branch, he can always choose to not enforce a certain law, it is well within the perogative of the executive to ignore a law, and say something will be done "this way" instead. Or this law X will not be enforced.
That is an intentional consequence of separation of powers, and the way the US government is structured.
Masturbation should be outlawed because the sperm cells would have a chance to become a real baby if they were given the chance. Instead, masturbation just kills them, destroying their life. Actually, any practice that wastes sperm or eggs and has no chance of producing a child should be outlawed.
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
Oh - the religious people; those who know better than the rest of us on the basis of some myths for which they have no real evidence. Well - if they object so much then please do not take advantage of any medical treatments that are as a result of what they consider to be immoral/whatever acts and leave the rest of us alone.