Posted by Camille Dumont on May 30, 2005, at 22:50:38
In reply to Re: Whats wrong with stem cell research » Camille Dumont, posted by alexandra_k on May 28, 2005, at 21:09:48
> > If on the one side people argue that an embryo is a human being, even when it is composed of only a few cells and that at the same time they allow scientists to create those very cells that an embryo is built from (my understand, I'm no biologist so I may be wrong) then perhaps they might think that it will weaken their stance on the abortion front.
>
> Yup. I think I get you.
>
> But...
>
> Do scientists have to create those very cells in order to conduct research on them?
>
> I didn't think that they had to. I thought they could get them from present sources (miscarrages, terminations presently performed on medical grounds, something to do with the 'leftovers' of fertility treatments - sorry an awful way of putting it... - other people will know more about this than me).
>
> What I mean is that there are those kind of cells around just dying - why not let research be conducted on them?
>
> The issue of whether researchers should be allowed to *make* such cells could be a seperate topic...
>I'm not sure that the supplly could be predictable and / or important enough without growing more cells. From what I understand, the whole buzz about those cells is that they can be come anything.
If you take skin cell and make it duplicate itself, you get another skin cell, whereas a stemcell has the potential to become anything ... including things like neurons and nerves, hence the hope for some serious degenerative diseases and to repair damaged spines and such.
Skin cells are being produced, I think artheries are also being grown in a lab and cartilages as well ... all living cells in that they grow, duplicate and die ... so where does one draw the line? Is it more wrong to create one kind of cell or another? Where does the line between buch of cells and organisms lie? How many cells does it take to be considered a human being?
I don't think they "create" them from nothing per say. They probably come from sources but then they make them multiply themselves. Just the same way they do with modern skin grafts ... they take a small amount of skin and in the right conditions, the cells multiply and you end up with a larger supply of new skin to graft on burns or whatever. So I think its probably the "growing" part that's the problem.
poster:Camille Dumont
thread:504387
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20050509/msgs/505564.html