It is very hard to argue what is life and what isn't. Take a random skin cell that falls from your body by the millions each day. The DNA of that skin cell can be transplanted into an embryo and result in a clone of yourself. While certainly a difficult thing to accomplish at our current level of science, this is clearly something that can be done.
Does that dead skin cell deserve the same level of protection as a 6 month old fetus? Of course not. Where does life really begin? It all depends on your beliefs.
I've been an investor in several of the stem cell related companies for quite a while.
Many different stem cell lines are needed because of HLA phenotypes. A person's body will quickly reject tissue that does not match their HLA phenotype. From what I remember, there are several hundred common HLA phenotypes.
In addition to the HLA phenotypes, you must also consider genetic variance. Without having many different stem cell lines to study, the effects of the most common genetic variations cannot be studied.
Alas, the result is that much of our tax money goes, indirectly, to supported corporate R&D work.
Corporations pay taxes as well. In fact corporations pay far more taxes than the US government gives back to them in the form of government sponsored R&D. This is a far more productive use of 'our' money than the typical welfare program or targeted tax break.
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It is very hard to argue what is life and what isn't. Take a random skin cell that falls from your body by the millions each day. The DNA of that skin cell can be transplanted into an embryo and result in a clone of yourself. While certainly a difficult thing to accomplish at our current level of science, this is clearly something that can be done. Does that dead skin cell deserve the same level of protection as a 6 month old fetus? Of course not. Where does life really begin? It all depends on your beliefs.
I've been an investor in several of the stem cell related companies for quite a while. Many different stem cell lines are needed because of HLA phenotypes. A person's body will quickly reject tissue that does not match their HLA phenotype. From what I remember, there are several hundred common HLA phenotypes. In addition to the HLA phenotypes, you must also consider genetic variance. Without having many different stem cell lines to study, the effects of the most common genetic variations cannot be studied.
Corporations pay taxes as well. In fact corporations pay far more taxes than the US government gives back to them in the form of government sponsored R&D. This is a far more productive use of 'our' money than the typical welfare program or targeted tax break.