With his recent encouragement to Congress to ban human cloning, President Bush is sure to come under the fire of the scientific research community and a media that wants nothing to stand in the way of the progress of science towards "future cures." The development of stem cells derived from adult skin cells in late-2007 provided hope for the pro-life argument in the field of bioethics. Human lives may yet be saved despite the rampant disregard shown by much of the American public.
As President Bush explained in his State of the Union address, scientists recently "discovered a way to reprogram adult skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells." This development holds the promise of new, ethical research and may eliminate the "need" for research that destroys embryos, produces clones, or harvests women's eggs. These adult stem cells provide hope for human life in a culture that seems willing to destroy its young to heal its old.
This willingness to destroy life began when scientists clamored for funding and attention as they explored the potential of embryonic stem cells. The media and many politicians were only too happy to oblige, trumpeting the "promises" of embryonic stem cells long before anything was actually tested. Moreover, any resistance to the idea of leaping into embryonic stem cell research was immediately labeled "ramblings of the religious right" and promptly dismissed.
This hasty move dismissed the need for care and wisdom in medical ethics, but that's not surprising in a culture that kills millions of its own when they become "inconvenient." If we can kill the unborn because they are inconvenient, why not kill even younger humans if they can provide us with cures for diseases?
No one proclaims the fact that embryonic stem cell research has yet to provide one approved treatment. The research moves forward on the basis of hope. Ethical and fiscal concerns are ignored on the basis of hope—hope that old humans will one day be able to harvest cures from the lives of small, young humans.
Thankfully, science itself has provided a practical hope for those who find their culture's embrace of death deplorable. In September, Toronto researchers used stem cells derived from skin cells to treat the spinal cords of rats. These cells, termed induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), have most of the same characteristics as embryonic stem cells, but forming them does not require the destruction of embryos. In November, James Thomson, a Wisconsin scientist, was able to do produce the same pluripotent stem cells from human cells.
In addition to removing the "need" to destroy human embryos, the creation of iPSCs from adult cells holds the future possibility that a diseased person could be treated with stem cells derived from their own cells. This would solve the "need" for cloning, since cloning is performed in the hope that it will produce stem cells which are not rejected by a patient's immune system. Stem cells derived from a patient's own cells would not be rejected by their immune system. Moreover, the iPSC method would eliminate cloning's ethical problems: the common destruction of embryos, the harvesting of women's eggs, and the possible ethical nightmare of cloned humans.
The potential of iPSCs is so great that it may very well eliminate the "need" for typical embryonic stem cell research and cloning. Embryos would not be destroyed, because similar stem cells would be produced from regular adult cells. Cloning would not be "needed", because these adult stem cells would be accepted by the patient's immune system. Continue >>
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they were saying the same things 100 years ago in the USA, wil be saying the same things 100 years from now...
citsonga, I guess when God sent the prophets to bring the people back it was just for fun. When God said, in asmuch at these people draw near with their mouths, and praise me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me. He was only joking.
I guess all the senseless murders aren't enough. I guess all unwed mothers and fatherless children aren't enough. I guess rampant drug use is not enough. I guess our kids illiteracy rate is not enough. So then tell me, when is it ok to declare a state of emergency? When the enemy is climbing over the wall or far off in the distance?
they were saying the same things 100 years ago in the USA, wil be saying the same things 100 years from now...
citsonga, I guess when God sent the prophets to bring the people back it was just for fun. When God said, in asmuch at these people draw near with their mouths, and praise me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me. He was only joking.
I guess all the sense murders aren't enough. I guess all unwed mother and fatherless children aren't enough. I guess rampant drug use is not enough. I guess our kids illiteracy rate is not enough. So then tell me, when is it ok to declare a state of emergency? When the enemy is climbing over the wall or far off in the distance?
holito8: "Our society is on the verge of a moral collapse."
they were saying the same things 100 years ago in the USA, wil be saying the same things 100 years from now...
bush said: "we must also ensure that all life is treated with the dignity it deserves."
what a hypocrite. He doesn't have problems dropping bombs on people in Iraq and Afghanistan or being the governor of a state with the most executions, or approving the torture of prisoners or locking up for years, so-called enemy combatants, many of who are believed to be innocent without the opportunity for due process.....but, but we have to save the embryos...............LOL.......bush gives America a bad name.
Yesterday's news from Reuters:
'Finnish patient gets new jaw from own stem cells'
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL012172320080201?feedType=RSS&feedName=scienceNews&pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true
Yeah, the link is long, so Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V it.
You've stated the truth.
"Isn't it great to start a field and then to end it?"
The devil needs only to start an ideal.
President Bush recognized this connection between human life and stem cell research in his State of the Union address. Regarding the adult stem cell development, he said, "This breakthrough has the potential to move us beyond the divisive debates of the past by extending the frontiers of medicine without the destruction of human life…. And as we explore promising avenues of research, we must also ensure that all life is treated with the dignity it deserves."
Scientist have proceeded forward as though there is no God. We have for far too long become depended on the wrong source. God is our source and our ever present help. Because we have lost focus, we have recieve or reward. Our society is on the verge of a moral collapse. People have been living as though there is no God or have no regard for Him.
But the Bible states what will happen clearly.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
We can see this already happening. Removing God out of the equation is a fatal flaw.
Scientist have promised an answer for all our woes. But they have failed because man cannot replace God.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Advancing science is encountering new questions which may further undermine the definition and value of human life. Americans must rediscover the importance of human life before that life is completely trampled through their own selfish hunger for cures at any cost.
God said the desires of man are evil all the time. Man is selfish and thinking otherwise is foolish.
If we continue to ignore God, we will become distestable in his sight.