Stem-cell research

[niceniyati]

stem cell does not follow clonning only.look at the good points too.i can be helpfull for fighting cancer n many other diseases tht r not curable...  

[Isho Von Ra]

To me I find this funny, because of how the world works in the end it does not matter what you think or do. You could lead a full on job & get stem cell ban in your own country, in fact you could get a United Nation ban on it. It will still be done. because if it get banned the research just goes underground to somewhere which is more relaxed about it.

To my knowledge somewhere in southeast Asia they already got human cloning (they just don't a press conference just to tell people about it). There they got clans of family working on selective breading programs, which cloning is a great help to them. I would not be surprised that other(US Super Soldier anyone) would not support it being done in back rooms. People doing this are not doing this for credit, they are just doing to get payed so they will not publish their work for the mass public because there is no need, just show it to who also see cloning as beneficial to them. It happen, that how this world works.

Now when it come to about when does a embryo/baby become life is very big question, in fact the human baby is one of a few thing that is not conscious or sentient. When compare to other animal birth cycle the human baby pop out 15 month early, this is due to the fact that when human decided that stand up was a good idea, the woman birth carnal changed. The main changed is that is that the pelvis shrank so we can run, if it any bigger we can't move on two legs that well. Because of this in order for the baby to fit though the small birth carnal it has to pop out 15 month early. In short the baby come out barely alive, hardly conscious & deferentially not sentient(baby can't pass the "AI" test till they are 15 month old).

The way I look at stem cell, it is/will be a very good tool in fight many diseases & other condition, but it is not a cure-all for everything. I doubt it will help in the fight with the common flu.  

[chibi_kasumi_108]

Dogs and cats have a gestational period of only 2 months. Does this mean that they cannot feel? They may not be entirely sentient but they can certainly feel pain and pleasure. So can a human baby. I don't know how early that starts in utero, but it is most certainly before birth. I'd say at least by 20 weeks gestation (the halfway point for humans) A zygote, maybe not, but but by the time it becomes a fetus, probably.  

[Isho Von Ra]

chibi_kasumi_108

Dogs and cats have a gestational period of only 2 months. Does this mean that they cannot feel? They may not be entirely sentient but they can certainly feel pain and pleasure. So can a human baby. I don't know how early that starts in utero, but it is most certainly before birth. I'd say at least by 20 weeks gestation (the halfway point for humans) A zygote, maybe not, but but by the time it becomes a fetus, probably.

Well the gestational period is based on final mass, animal with a final mass similar to us(human) have a gestational period of over a year. the point I made was that human baby unlike other animal, have a two parts to there embryonic growth, inside the womb & outside the womb. The other bit to this is that a baby's consciouses & sentient does not happen just when the baby pops out, but is a different stage of growth, be it be in the womb or outside.

Because of this I don't see shadow_alchemist92 army of unconsciouses manufactured clone actually happing. (hey I back on topic-ish)  

[Efstathios]

Baby's become able to feel pain around the 28th week. In the third trimester.

Isho has a point. At the stage that they're being used for stem cells they wouldn't have recognizable body parts. They'd just be a mass of cells.

And the age old, even if it isn't sanctioned, it is gonna go on in the underground.
All good points.

I wish this wasn't even a question. Something that has the potential to save millions of lives right now and over the course of history untold billions for as long as it is necessary and humans are around.
And people have to say "EEeeek! You're killing a mass of cells invisible to the naked eye! It will lead to human clones!"
Honestly, stop watching so much Arnold Schwartzenegger, and read up on a little science.  

[chibi_kasumi_108]

You've never been pregnant before, have you? I had an ultrasound at 18 weeks and you can see the baby turn away because of the sound waves. They wouldn't have those instincts if they couldn't feel anything. I'm not a crazy pro lifer bible thumper saying stem cell research and abortion in aboninable. I'm just saying people don't give a fetus enough credit on what it is actually capable of. I realize this is a little off topic.

A little group of cells is not a baby or a fetus. It is at most a blastocyst or a zygote which cannot feel anything on a human or animalistic level so I see no problem with using them for research.  

[Efstathios]

Good god, I'm 16. I was about to say "Of course I've never been pregnant" Then realized that some people have at that age. redface

A fetus has no cognitive capacity at 18 weeks. It may have seemed to turn because it 'felt' the sound waves, but that is almost impossible. I realize it's heart starts beating at 21 days and all that, but it doesn't have a functioning Central Nervous System.
I've seen my mom get ultrasounds for my little sister and heard her heart beat with a stethoscope. All fetuses move in the womb, not all move exactly when there's any stimuli.
Sorry for the off-topic. I'm a bit of an arrogant a*****e and I overreact when people assume that I don't know something. All fetuses develop at different rates, perhaps yours was a deviance from the norm.

Yeah...The blastocyst isn't even a foetus, so the 'murder!' arguement shouldn't even be brought up.  

[Israk]

If stem-cell research leads to cloning, what does cloning lead to? The creation of anti-clones? Exact opossites of what they came from, to the point of being artificial anti-matter, thus leading the possibility of wiping out all humanity, or just genocide of a people, the possibilities are endless.  

[Israk]

Sorry, but a zygote is a living thing, so it may not "feel" as we feel, but it does feel. All living things can "feel" wether provable or not, how can I say this? Simple, if a tree can die, it can "feel" death, thus, it has "feelings". Same applies for any biotic things.  

[Buroabenteuer]

Don't ask me to cite anything, but I remember reading somewhere that stem cells no longer need be harvested from fertilized eggs anymore, that normal tissue can be induced to produce then. So I'll have to do more reading, but its possible that the whole 'murder' thing may no longer be valid.  

[Efstathios]

Buroabenteuer

Don't ask me to cite anything, but I remember reading somewhere that stem cells no longer need be harvested from fertilized eggs anymore, that normal tissue can be induced to produce then. So I'll have to do more reading, but its possible that the whole 'murder' thing may no longer be valid.

My SO sent me an article about how they can now make stem cells from bone marrow! Exciting stuff in my opinion. Science always fascinates me, even answersingenesis.com style "science"

Also, Lol @Israk. For the anti post
and about the one after that, say you go to the hospital to have blood drawn, techincally all those little platelets are alive, but do you truly think they can feel pain? feeling pain requires not only nerves, but also a nerve cluster or "brain" to interpret the electrical signals as pain.  

[Dragonsoulj]

I'd just like to say that stem cell research will be able to save lives, and although it may seem wrong to clone, think about it this way:

Religious people say it is wrong to kill a human being. God created Human Beings. If we clone humans, they aren't created by God then, they are created by us. Therefore, wouldn't it be killing our own creations that are in the likeness God had created?  

[the architect101]

stem cell research is not only used to improve human lives but its also used in studies to see if it could go against incurable desease like alzaimers and parkinson,not to mention cancer.  

[Iconoclast Enthusiast]

Israk

If stem-cell research leads to cloning, what does cloning lead to? The creation of anti-clones? Exact opossites of what they came from, to the point of being artificial anti-matter, thus leading the possibility of wiping out all humanity, or just genocide of a people, the possibilities are endless.

...WTF? Umm, that's quite the ******** stretch, there.

ANYWAY. The primary focus of stem cell research at this point in time is NOT cloning, so stop jumping all over that! The primary concerns of stem cell researchers are alleviating and/or curing serious and problematic diseases (such as Alzheimer's) through the cloning of TISSUE and ORGANS, not people. It's certainly possible that stem cell research might eventually develop into human cloning research, but at this point, that's not the main goal.  

[Riiko777]

The human embryo is growing to begin with. That's how it first gets separated as an embryo in the first place--that's how it gets classified as something significantly different than the other sperms--because it's growing. Growth is the ultimate sign of life. Plain and simple. In my opinion, the fetus has been labeled as something that is not truly "alive" simply because people do not want to feel guilty about destroying it. Responsibility is key, here. Sure, not in all cases (such as rape, of course), but that does not automatically grant people the right to commit murder. Because that's what it is. People don't like looking at it that way, and that's why they've labeled the fetus as 'lifeless', and therefore do not feel guilty about granting and/or receiving abortions or about stem cell research.

The embryo stem cell has been granted superior life and capability for a reason. Did anyone ever pause to consider that perhaps that reason was to maintain the life of a growing human being?