Scientists Urge Embryonic Stem Cell Research; Despite New Technique Creating Embryonic-Like Stem Cells
Main Category: Stem Cell ResearchAlso Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 08 Jan 2008 - 10:00 PDT
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Although some experts "hailed" the November 2007 announcement that scientists in Japan and Wisconsin had "reprogrammed" mature adult human skin cells to produce embryonic-like stem cells that might eventually be converted into heart, nerve or other tissue as the "solution" to the U.S. debate over human embryonic stem cell research, private groups and state agencies that fund such research "see no reason to abandon their work," the Wall Street Journal reports.
Facilities that conduct embryonic stem cell research could be in even higher demand, according to Kevin Eggan, a stem cell biologist at Harvard University. Eggan believes that more research is needed on embryonic stem cells because the cells produced by the new technique are "genetically changed in a way that should make us worried about using them in animals or people or to model diseases." He added that embryonic stem cells "will be better" than the reprogrammed cells "even if they are more complicated politically" until the new technique is considered safe and stable enough for clinical trials.
According to the Journal, private donors have contributed more than $190 million to groups conducting research using embryonic stem cells. In addition, several states -- including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland and New York -- are funding research using embryonic stem cells, the Journal reports. Richard Murphy, president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, said CIRM still considers embryonic stem cells to be the "gold standard" in stem cell research. However, CIRM in an effort to "sort out the realities" plans to award $13 million in grants for research that does not destroy human embryos, Murphy said (Hotz, Wall Street Journal, 1/4).
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Stem Cell Debate Refueled By New Research Findings
posted by Gregory D. Pawelski on 2 Feb 2008 at 2:38 pmEmbryonic stem cell research was not curtailed in 2001 by this administration's failure to understand it. Private money at Harvard and Stanford has allowed this important technology to continue unabated. The newer (2nd generation) embryonic stem cell technology was first developed/reported in Japan and independently confirmed at these U.S. labs.
It is hardly a remarkable event. All cells from a single individual have the same DNA. It's only a matter of controlling which part of the total DNA is active. Everything is derived from a fertilized egg. There's no reason a cell can't be reprogrammed to return to precisely the state it was in which it was a primitive embryonic stem cell or the original stem cell - the fertilized egg itself.
In terms of them being 100% identical, save for the 4 extraneous genes introducted to turn the non-pluripotent skin (somatic) cell back into a true embryonic stem cell, these genes would either silence themselves spontaneously or could be silenced using already available technology (e.g. RNA interference).
Human skin cells have been duly reprogrammed to embryonic stem cells. These can conceptually be used to clone humans, just like embryonic stem cell derived from a fertilized egg. This is simple "2nd generation" embryonic stem cell technology which will vastly increase the likelihood that humans will be clone, yet everyone is praising it.
There are a number of reasons to believe that it might actually be easier to clone a human by going backwards (2nd generation technology) than going forwards (1st generation technology), which is based on introducing a somatic cell nucleus into a potentially "hostile" environment of an egg from a different person (who is not a clone of the individual from which the somatic cell nucleus was obtained).
There's no conceptual difference in a stem cell from a fertilized egg or a stem cell from a skin cell. If a fertilized egg has a soul, then why doesn't a reprogrammed skin cell? Hmmm!!!
The scientific wing of the Catholic Church has not figured this out and is basically embracing this "2nd Generation" embryonic stem cell technology as a fig leaf for withdrawing from the stem cell wars, which is a Genie which has forever escaped from the bottle.
The hypocrisy stemming from the Catholic Church is astounding. I guess God is in the test tube in the 1st generation process, but no where to be found in the 2nd generation process. God's will just has no bearing at all on the 2nd process.....go figure. Fear not, when the Pope figures out the mistake here, the Catholic Church will try to squash any support and make everyone's life miserable.
Every cell that composes a human body, from a fertilized egg to the cell at the tip of your nose, is alive, capable of carrying on the processes of life. And each living cell arises only from the division of another living cell. At least since the days of so-called Genesis, "spontaneous generation" has been a myth. Except for the evolution or extinction of a species, human or any other life never truly begins or ends, it just goes on and on.
According to the very best science, the neurological connections required for truly human thought, feeling, and awareness do not form within the brain of the human fetus until approximately the 28th week of development, depending upon the experiment and individual involved, that figure may vary somewhat, but by every account, it is within the third trimester.
How can one say that a being (not yet born) possesses a soul if he or she does not possess truly human thought, feeling, and awareness, the very essence of a soul, according to virtually every faith on Earth?
There are other "lives" at stake, the victims of Parkinson's Disease, spinal cord injuries, cancer, and other disorders who may benefit from research on embryonic stem cells, harvested from early human embryos. A "Force" gave us brains. If we use them in this emotional issue, we may discover our souls.
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