Slashdot Mirror
Scientists Coax Human Embryonic Stem Cells Into Making Insulin
First time accepted submitter kwiecmmm writes A group of Harvard scientists reported that they have figured out how to turn embryonic stem cells into beta cells capable of producing insulin. This discovery could cure diabetes. From the article: "'It's a huge landmark paper. I would say it's bigger than the discovery of insulin,' says Jose Olberholzer, a professor of bioengineering at the University of Illinois. 'The discovery of insulin was important and certainly saved millions of people, but it just allowed patients to survive but not really to have a normal life. The finding of Doug Melton would really allow to offer them really something what I would call a functional cure. You know, they really wouldn't feel anymore being diabetic if they got a transplant with those kind of cells.'"
Of course, when the problem you're facing is insulin resistance, this isn't going to help you all that much. ;)
Ezekiel 23:20
There have also been examples when a procedure was first pioneered with embryonic stem cells, that later was able to be replicated with adult stem cells from the patient themselves. Initial attempts were probably made in part due to religious objections surrounding the use of embryos, but it has happened enough to consider that they might be able to do it here, with the patient's own cells, so there wouldn't be much of an issue with rejection.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Furthermore, the statement by the bioethicist in the article is false:
"It's the destruction of an individual unique human life for the sole purpose of helping other persons."
I'm not sure why anyone would put it that way, since no one is out there having abortions for the purpose of supplying stem cells, and it is very nearly criminally irresponsible to suggest otherwise.
And if a pregnant woman elects to end her fetus's life wouldn't it be unethical not to use that tragedy to do some good for someone?
Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
It's hard to anticipate much of value from somebody who manages to cram so many terms that are both heavily loaded and almost totally vacuous into a single sentence.
In addition to your point (it's very, very, unlikely that the embryos were produced for this purpose at all, let alone solely, since most of the embryo supply is surplus from IVF work, which humans obviously do for other reasons), the rest of the sentence is little more than a fabric of implicit assertions padded with a few nearly meaningless bits.
"Destruction": This process only works because the embryonic cells are undifferentiated (any later in embryonic development and it'd be fun with cell reprogramming) and will only be medically relevant if the resulting beta cells form a reasonably long lived cell line(possibly not immortal; but the more frequently the patient needs new ones implanted, the lower the benefit over just injecting insulin). Does this change in developmental trajectory count as 'destruction'? Arguable; but hardly self-evident.
"Individual": As opposed to the other kind? Did I miss all those collective humans out there? Maybe a hive mind? What would a 'non-individual' human life even look like?
"Unique": Both irrelevant (would the procedure be somehow more or less ethical if it were non-unique? One of those creepy, soulless, clones?) and questionably accurate (very early stage embryos can, and sometimes do, split and form two cell masses that each continue to divide. We call them 'identical twins' and usually don't tell them that they are non-unique, or that a 'unique human life' was destroyed when the original zygote split into two). Given the age of the cells the researchers were working with, chosen specifically for their plasticity, it's actually somewhat tricky to argue that the embryo is 'individual' and 'unique'. In a terribly vacuous sense it is (this embryo is unique because no other embryo is also this embryo); but beyond that you really have to argue for it.
"Human life": This one is as old as the hills, and a classic of the abortion wars. Is it human? Yeah, sure, to the same degree that any other cells in my body are. Is it a 'human life' in the moral personhood sense that you are invoking? Arguable; but you certainly haven't argued it yet.
I sure hope that this bioethicist was either taken out of context or hasn't given up the day job.