Opinion on stem cell research

[Graidis]

You know we don't even have to use egg cells anymore.

They've figured out how to make stem cells from already living cells.

God Damn it.

I was going to post this but then my Internet decided to phase out of existence.

 

[shadow_pirate22]

It's arguments like this that make America seem more like a Theocracy than a democracy. All this time, I thought there was a separation of church and state.

P.S., I'm all for it. If the dead (or the not-quite-alive) can aid the survival of the living, then why not?

 

[Alex_P]

 

I probably should've added "... for research" above. Sorry.

I don't disagree.

-- Alex

 

[Brett Alex]

If it can be used without killing the child, then good.
If it requires killing the child and preventing him from living out his life, then we have crossed the line.
It is murder if you kill an unborn child for another human being already alive.

When do you decide whether the child is alive or not? Like how many months pregnant?

 

[Brett Alex]

Semen, though non-thinking, is still alive. The scientific jibber jabber behind it matters not.

So every time someone uses contraception during sex or masturbates you rate that as murdering thousands of people?

 

[Alex_P]

If it can be used without killing the child, then good.
If it requires killing the child and preventing him from living out his life, then we have crossed the line.

It is murder if you kill an unborn child for another human being already alive.

Is a blastocyst a "child"? It's a couple hundred unimplanted, undifferentiated cells. IIRC, technically speaking it barely qualifies as an "embryo."

It could become a child. It could become two or three children if it splits. It could fail to implant and the potential mother won't even notice because the blastocyst is microscopic and isn't really interacting much with her body at this point.

Is an egg fertilized in vitro and then never injected into a patient a "child"?

...

Semen, though non-thinking, is still alive. The scientific jibber jabber behind it matters not.

The microbes in my GI tract are alive, too. Does that make them morally equivalent to a person?

-- Alex

 

[Brett Alex]

Millions, actually.

Are you being serious here or are you having a laugh?

'Cause even the Vatican has softened its stance on condoms after finally realizing the utter stupidity of claiming that every sperm is a potential life.

 

[werepossum]

If it can be used without killing the child, then good.
If it requires killing the child and preventing him from living out his life, then we have crossed the line.

It is murder if you kill an unborn child for another human being already alive.

The problem is that while these are living, genetically unique blastocysts, the vast majority of the fertilized eggs will never become children. While I agree in general that we shouldn't use children for parts, I just don't see a lot of difference between using surplus fertilized eggs and, say, cultured human skin cells for basic research. I don't know when the human soul enters the body, but I have faith that G-d can take care of fertilized eggs if necessary.

 

[stompy]

Several successful therapies have been tested using adult stem cells harvested from one's own body

I'm just adding this with something I saw on this show called Beyond Tomorrow: this man had a heart attack, leaving more than half his heart effectively dead. Stem cell research, donned in spandex and a cape, comes along and restores his heart to normal by taking stem cells from his spine and implanting it into the space of his dead heart cells.

 

[fulano]

Let's just say I'm against anything Mel Gibson says...

 

[cleverlymadeup]

Damn, I really hate it when people refer to the US as "the States."

Firstly because it's just annoying to have people refer to me and mine in a way that I do not, but more rationally because everything with territory and a ruling body is technically a state.

there's a difference between the state and the States, there is an s on the end

It's arguments like this that make America seem more like a Theocracy than a democracy. All this time, I thought there was a separation of church and state.

you'd think that but with the fight over whether or not intelligent design, which has been proven in court to be religious, should be taught in public school still rages on