There goes one of humanitys leg shackles

[Garrdor]

http://www.reuters.com/article/politics ... 1M20090309

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

Personally I think this is a step ahead in the right direction of eradication of certain types of cancers as well as illnesses and afflictions (type 1 diabetes ?). I think if there had been a system in place for the adequate storage of donated cord blood that we'd be several steps ahead, and I have no problems with people donating their own embryo's for research purposes. The problems that will occur is the lines between what is a life and what is not. IMO there's certainly a difference between an embryo with a heartbeat and one just several days into gestation. However I'm pro-choice, and if the embryo's are simply going to be disposed of anyway then why should they not be donated to science ? Maybe that's also the difference between an organ donor and someone who's not. Very fine line here, it'll be interesting to see what happens, but personally I think it's a huge step in the right direction of medical break through

[Klast Brell]

For all the hoopla about "snowflake babies" left over fertilized eggs are most often just discarded. You want to keep paying to store that shit until someone volunteers to pay thousands to have some stranger's kids implanted?

[Partha]

I vote we implant them all in the 18 kid woman's hooha at once.

[Taxious]

I get the super-fundie mass emails because they are fun to read sometimes. Mostly they are about "OMG GAY AGENDA" but the latest news letter addresses this stem-cell issue.

Obama OKs embryonic stem cell research; actions are immoral and ineffective
March 10, 2009
Dear Jasper,

President Obama has given the ok to destroy human life in the name of scientific research.

Embryonic stem cell research is immoral and ineffective. It is immoral because it destroys human life at its earliest stage of development by harvesting the stem cells for body parts. It is ineffective because it has yet to be used a single time in any therapeutic application.

Researchers must get their funding from taxpayers for embryonic stem cell research because they can't convince private sources to invest. Private investors know there are no proven uses for embryonic stem cells. It's all hype, hope and theory.

But adult stem cell research, on the other hand, is ethically benign and is already being used to treat over 70 diseases and conditions. If taxpayer dollars are going to be spent on stem cell research, that's where it ought to go.

By reversing funding restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, Pres. Obama is making every American taxpayer complicit in immoral, life destroying research. This is a terrible example of political ideology trumping sound science.

[Taxious]

I get the super-fundie mass emails because they are fun to read sometimes. Mostly they are about "OMG GAY AGENDA"

Just a side note on this, a couple newsletters ago, there was a big ordeal about how their show "Silencing the Christians" had gotten banned from TV. They were all huffy about it and I ended up watching this video (with the bf no doubt): http://www.silencingchristians.com/

The biggest surprise of that video to me was their attitude of "we are at war with the homos." It's kind of shocking to live in a liberal area for a while then watch a video like this where it's very them-vs-us. I didn't realize I was in a giant war with these people, but damn, they sure think so...

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

There are about 18 things wrong with that email message, including the fact that all their facts disagree with each other ... thats the kind of thing that makes me want to write to someone. I won't, but i'll sit over here and get a little huffy about it.

Tax didn't you know you're at war with TEH CHRISTIANS !

[Ddrak]

Researchers must get their funding from taxpayers for embryonic stem cell research because they can't convince private sources to invest. Private investors know there are no proven uses for embryonic stem cells. It's all hype, hope and theory.

That's bullshit. There's lots of private investment, but the issue is many universities don't like the riders that go along with that investment - ie the investors tend to get rights to the treatments developed. The largest problem the Bush rules caused was stem cell researchers had to literally duplicate all their equipment - they had to have "federally funded freezers" and "non-federally funded freezers" complete with separate power metering etc. Same thing for microscopes, glassware, lab space itself, everything. It was horrendously inefficient and ridiculously slowing as it all had to be accounted.

Add to the fact there's lots of promising results from stem cell research, whoever wrote the pamphlet is plain and simple breaking the commandment "THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS". Whatever you believe about stem cell research, lying about the facts puts you on the wrong side of every argument.

Dd