WP,pg1: 2 Stem Cell Options Presented: Human Embryos Wouldn't Be Killed

[DeepModem Mom]

2 Stem Cell Options Presented
Human Embryos Wouldn't Be Killed

By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 4, 2004; Page A01


The panel of experts that advises President Bush on bioethical issues heard descriptions yesterday of two new laboratory techniques that may give scientists a way to get large numbers of medically promising stem cells without creating or killing human embryos.

The two proposals were greeted enthusiastically, with several panel members saying the techniques, still in the experimental stage, may hold the promise of solving one of the most contentious bioethical dilemmas of the past decade....

***

In one technique, scientists would harvest viable cells from embryos created to treat infertility but which have stopped developing and are functionally dead. Taking the cells -- which can grow into stem cells -- would be analogous to removing organs of brain-dead accident victims for transplant.

In the second technique, scientists would intentionally sabotage a cloning process called "nuclear transfer" so that the resulting bundle of cells is not an embryo but still has stem cell precursors. They could then be removed and used.

The purported advantage of both techniques is that neither involves an embryo with the potential for growth. In the first, the embryo has already died; in the second, it never existed....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33766-2004Dec3.html?sub=AR

[cornermouse]

1. Prediction:

Its only a matter of time till we start having funerals for embryos. The neos won't approve of either of these options.

[Sin]

10. Man if they do

The embryo coffin business is a wide open area I'm sure a few well placed adds near fundie Churches would suck in tons of cash. lol

+ an off shoot of that is they might as well start trying woman for attempted murder every time they menstruate with out conception.
then again shouldn't be giving them ideas.

[Mike Niendorff]

2. "killing embryos"

My, what an interesting choice of words Mr. Brown makes. Repeatedly.


MDN

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Yep: [e-mail]

[sherilocks]

4. The devil is in the details

<snip>

Agglomerations of cells such as this, known as teratomas, sometimes arise spontaneously as tumors from human egg or sperm cells. The teratomas contain partially or fully developed tissue, sometimes even teeth. But they are structurally disorganized and nonviable.

In Hurlbut's concept, the cells could be removed and then have their inactivated genes restored, making them functionally normal and presumably capable of developing into usable stem cells.

"If we could biologically mimic what goes on in teratomas, that would be what I'm after," he said.

Enthusiasm for the two ideas was not universal.

Paul R. McHugh, a psychiatrist from Johns Hopkins University, told Hurlbut: "What you propose, really, is to build a weird genetic hybrid. . . . Is that right?"

He added that he had not "finished my thoughts on this. But a few red flags come up."

[Petrushka]

5. A third option . . .

"Baby teeth provide life-giving stem cells":

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=9001636

[frustrated_lefty]

6. Unbelievable.

The bumbling idiots are using semantics and chicanery to find a backdoor which allows the use of embryonic stem cells, but think of a way which makes it far more difficult for scientists to actually use the damned things. First we have to correct the cancer???? And then trust that genetic modification did not somehow corrupt the line?

Jesus christ on a popsicle stick. :( So continues the decline of American science.

[sonicx]

7. "In the first, the embryo has already died"

Jesus will still have to kill puppies.

[Blue Gardener]

8. I didn't realize embryos had a heartbeat

Wouldn't it actually have to BE alive before you could kill it? These people are just plain cuckoo.

[Warren Stupidity]

9. It is far better to

throw the embryos harvested from women for fertility treatment out in the garbage than to 'kill them' for stem cell research. Where is my cluestick? Somebody needs a whackin'. Fergit the stick. Honey git me the cluegun, this is serious business.