Special Needs Mom

[SkinBasket]

They're playing a lot of commercials around here (we have a lot of private labs and NIH) saying the McCain is all for stem cell research. I wonder how long stem cell research would continue if anything ever happened to him?

Just long enough to resurrect his dead corpse, I'm sure, and return him to life as a zealot nazi zombie. Seriously, WTF? Oh, I forgot. You're "independent."

[MJZiggy]

The question isn't political leaning, it's that he is taking a stance that is obviously polar opposite to his running mate. Also considering that there may be a cure for Alzheimers in the stem cells perhaps I won't have to panic every time there's a word on the tip of my tongue and I can't get at it. That would be a nice thought...

[mraynrand]

The question isn't political leaning, it's that he is taking a stance that is obviously polar opposite to his running mate. Also considering that there may be a cure for Alzheimers in the stem cells perhaps I won't have to panic every time there's a word on the tip of my tongue and I can't get at it. That would be a nice thought...

Zig, you presumably have lots of useful neuronal cells that I can drag from your brain and use to treat people less fortunate. I'll be there to collect them tomorrow. Since there is the chance they might be useful for treatment, why shouldn't you let me use them?

[SkinBasket]

Well, there might be a cure for cancer in my seamen too, but when you strip away the politics from scientific funding, there's a lot you never knew about science. Unfortunately, the liberals aren't interested in my baby batter.

[MJZiggy]

The question isn't political leaning, it's that he is taking a stance that is obviously polar opposite to his running mate. Also considering that there may be a cure for Alzheimers in the stem cells perhaps I won't have to panic every time there's a word on the tip of my tongue and I can't get at it. That would be a nice thought...

Zig, you presumably have lots of useful neuronal cells that I can drag from your brain and use to treat people less fortunate. I'll be there to collect them tomorrow. Since there is the chance they might be useful for treatment, why shouldn't you let me use them?

It's not about people less fortunate, but nice try at spinning it. It's about using cord blood which is readily available since most parents don't think to store it and which is also loaded with stem cells and doing something useful with it. Skin, I gotta say that while your wife might have high hopes for your baby batter, there's never been any kind of research done that baby batter is good for much besides making babies as the cells only have half the genetic material needed. Sperm can be sperm, but stem cells can be anything (with the possible exception of sperm...)

Everyone's so quick to toss the idea out as they had been getting the cells from aborted fetuses, but guess what? The fetuses aren't any less dead now that the cells were left in them. They threw the baby out with the bath water, but if they'd have just thought about it a bit more, there are ways around the problem. My problem with Palin is that she'll never see that. She has her mind firmly closed from what I can see.

[mraynrand]

The question isn't political leaning, it's that he is taking a stance that is obviously polar opposite to his running mate. Also considering that there may be a cure for Alzheimers in the stem cells perhaps I won't have to panic every time there's a word on the tip of my tongue and I can't get at it. That would be a nice thought...

Zig, you presumably have lots of useful neuronal cells that I can drag from your brain and use to treat people less fortunate. I'll be there to collect them tomorrow. Since there is the chance they might be useful for treatment, why shouldn't you let me use them?

It's not about people less fortunate, but nice try at spinning it. It's about using cord blood which is readily available since most parents don't think to store it and which is also loaded with stem cells and doing something useful with it. Skin, I gotta say that while your wife might have high hopes for your baby batter, there's never been any kind of research done that baby batter is good for much besides making babies as the cells only have half the genetic material needed. Sperm can be sperm, but stem cells can be anything (with the possible exception of sperm...)

Everyone's so quick to toss the idea out as they had been getting the cells from aborted fetuses, but guess what? The fetuses aren't any less dead now that the cells were left in them. They threw the baby out with the bath water, but if they'd have just thought about it a bit more, there are ways around the problem. My problem with Palin is that she'll never see that. She has her mind firmly closed from what I can see.

Someone with Alzheimer's isn't less fortunate? My, you're cynical.

Cord blood stem cells is completely different from embryonic stem cells.

I like your Brave New World of scientists hanging around abortion clinics to harvest stem cells from developing humans destroyed in the name of 'choice.'

I think we should be able to use your brain cells for research. I promise to give you the kind of anesthetic to put you into a dreamless sleep before I blenderize your brain to get the cells. It won't hurt at all - certainly no more than harvesting stem cells from a three month old tossed into the dumpster out back of an abortion clinic. Why are your brain cells any more precious than those from 3 month old humans?

[MJZiggy]

Because I happen to still be alive. The sad fact is that abortion is legal and like it or not, people do it. It's better to throw them in the dumpster and let that little life be a complete waste? Nothing you do is going to bring them back and comparing taking the cells from a dead fetus to taking them from a living, functioning (sometimes) adult is a little silly. Besides, already formed adult cells will never offer the benefits that stem cells will.

[mraynrand]

Besides, already formed adult cells will never offer the benefits that stem cells will.

ahh, now you're both a world-famous scientist and a fortune teller. Tell me, molecular and cellular biology sage, how do you know that adult cells will 'never' offer the same benefits as stem cells? Which adult cells? Which stem cells?

[mraynrand]

Nothing you do is going to bring them back and comparing taking the cells from a dead fetus to taking them from a living, functioning (sometimes) adult is a little silly.

It doesn't really work that way. Cellular degeneration starts instantly following death, so to effectively harvest cells from a fetus requires that you start dissecting the baby essentially while it's still alive. Also, if you want specific cells, they you can't just toss the baby in the blender like a normal abortion, you'd have to deliver it as alive as possible and then start a careful dissection to get the cells you want. Where do you think the type of coordinated effort you would need to extract cells from a developing baby would lead?

[HowardRoark]

Because I happen to still be alive.

That seems to be the crux of the macro-debate. What about harvesting from real old people who's life doesn't have much value anymore......or is just a pain in the ass?

And then, what about healthy middle age pains in the asses?

[mraynrand]

Because I happen to still be alive.

That seems to be the crux of the macro-debate. What about harvesting from real old people who's life doesn't have much value anymore......or is just a pain in the ass?

And then, what about healthy middle age pains in the asses?

I have a new van that I purchased, that I painted up with the logo "STEM CELL VAN." I drive around Cleveland looking for homeless people that no one will miss anyways. I lure 'em in with an alcoholic beverage (which is actually an elixer to loosen up cell adhesion) and then I harvest stem cells. It's a two-fer - just like using aborted babies - I clean up the streets and provide stem cells to cure Alzheimers. It's easier than just collecting homicide victims, since I don't have to worry about lead contamination.

[MJZiggy]

Besides, already formed adult cells will never offer the benefits that stem cells will.

ahh, now you're both a world-famous scientist and a fortune teller. Tell me, molecular and cellular biology sage, how do you know that adult cells will 'never' offer the same benefits as stem cells? Which adult cells? Which stem cells?

Stem cells are valuable because they can be any kind of cell in the body. Adult cells are already differentiated. And don't get all snarky with me. I'm trying to have a discussion here and your comments about fortune telling and world class science are a bit silly as are suggesting that we just kill off functioning adults. If when Alzheimers takes my father, they can have his brain for research as far as I'm concerned and, yes, it is in my will and in my living will that my organs be harvested and what's left go to research, so, yes, in theory I've already donated my brain cells for harvest if they can find any worth taking...Woe be to the person who gets my myopic eyeballs...