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Stem Cell Research: For or Against?

Are you for or against stem cell research?

  • For

    Votes: 56 94.9%
  • Against

    Votes: 3 5.1%

  • Total voters
    59
I approve of stem cell research... always have.
 
I support stem cell research. I do not support abortion, but since we have abortion anyway at least we can put the dead babies to some use, other than a political talking point. When life give you lemons, you should make lemonade, that's what I was taught.
 
100% for it. It has so much potential for good, I just shake my head at anyone who doesn't support it.
 
I've always found the research creepy, but it's hard to ignore the possibilities. As long as it doesn't involve preventing a child from being born (and as far as I'm aware, no research has even come close), I'm all for it.

This is pretty much my opinion on it.
 
We already have that. Non-embryonic stem cell research has produced around 70-odd therapies to date... embryonic has, last I checked, produced none.

That's because embryonic stem cell research has not been tried in humans, and only minimally in mammals.

But, the theory is that embryonic stem cells have ability to turn into any cell of the body, whereas adult stem cells do not have that ability.
 
That's because embryonic stem cell research has not been tried in humans, and only minimally in mammals.

But, the theory is that embryonic stem cells have ability to turn into any cell of the body, whereas adult stem cells do not have that ability.

If this is scientifically true, I support embryonic stem cell research.
 
If this is scientifically true, I support embryonic stem cell research.

And the embryos come from extra embryos which are used for in vitro fertilization. A couple can choose to donate the extra embryos for research.
 
And the embryos come from extra embryos which are used for in vitro fertilization. A couple can choose to donate the extra embryos for research.

If these stem cells can be manipulated, turned into many different cells for the sake of improving well-being, this needs to be done. These chains the more zealous in our country have on scientific progression need to be cut.
 
This is a hypothetical. Let's say that stem cell research did not involve the use of embryos but involved something else which had the same potential and success as embryonic stem cell research. There would no embryos or human life destroyed in the use of stem cell research.

Would you support or oppose stem cell research?

You know whats interesting?

About 2 days ago, a dr. John B. Gurdon (has funny hair) and a jap called Shinya Yamanaka, got the Nobel Medicine award for developing an experimental way to turn matured cells back into stem cells. And not just any stem cells, but embryonic stem cells. The kind that babies have in the first 10 days of conception... because after that they evolve in some other kind of cells. These are the most valuable kind of cells because pre-natal embryonic stem cells can mature in basially ANY KIND OF HUMAN CELL.

So yes, I do support fully stem cell research when this method becomes fully operational.

UNTIL THEN: I only support stem cell research from post-natal stem cells that are mostly harvested from the umbilical cord. It is important to note that embryonic stem cells only have a 10 day lifespan after the fecundation process is made.
 
If these stem cells can be manipulated, turned into many different cells for the sake of improving well-being, this needs to be done. These chains the more zealous in our country have on scientific progression need to be cut.

Also, the embryos that are used for embryonic stem cell research are very early forms of embryos called 'blastocysts'. A blastocyst is essentially a mass of about 20-30 cells.
 
I support stem cell research 100% of the time.
 
I don't understand why these people are stopping us from reaping these scientific benefits. Imagine if certain cells could be manipulated in order to cure certain diseases and disabilities?

There needs to be more of a push to break these chains.
 
I support stem cell research regardless of where the cells come from.
 
I support stem cell research regardless of where the cells come from.

Really?

Let me paint you a picture. What if... you were a single child and you wanted to have a baby brother or a younger sister to play with. You then find out your mother is pregnant because you hear them speak about it... then, they go and kill your baby brother in order for him stem cells to be harvested for scientific research.

How would that make you feel? Would you still support them regardless of where they came from?
 
I'm for it and I don't care where the cells come from.
 
Really?

Let me paint you a picture. What if... you were a single child and you wanted to have a baby brother or a younger sister to play with. You then find out your mother is pregnant because you hear them speak about it... then, they go and kill your baby brother in order for him stem cells to be harvested for scientific research.

How would that make you feel? Would you still support them regardless of where they came from?

I think he meant whether they came from embryonic stem cells or adult stem cells, it doesn't matter. And the way you have described it here certainly is not how they get embryonic stem cells.
 

Yes, really.

Let me paint you a picture. What if... you were a single child and you wanted to have a baby brother or a younger sister to play with. You then find out your mother is pregnant because you hear them speak about it... then, they go and kill your baby brother in order for him stem cells to be harvested for scientific research.

Entirely fine with me. A child has no control over the reproductive rights of their mother. What idiot would think otherwise?

How would that make you feel? Would you still support them regardless of where they came from?

Damn straight.
 
I think he meant whether they came from embryonic stem cells or adult stem cells, it doesn't matter. And the way you have described it here certainly is not how they get embryonic stem cells.

Shhhh, don't confuse them with reality.
 
Absolutely for. As long as funding is done through the private sector. Don't care how the research is done.
 
I don't understand why these people are stopping us from reaping these scientific benefits. Imagine if certain cells could be manipulated in order to cure certain diseases and disabilities?

There needs to be more of a push to break these chains.

For the former, people would obviously agree. For the latter, most people would agree, but never underestimate the limitations surrounding the assumptions of the non-disabled. There are plenty (certainly not all) of disability categories where it is a grave insult to promote the cure.
 
For the former, people would obviously agree. For the latter, most people would agree, but never underestimate the limitations surrounding the assumptions of the non-disabled. There are plenty (certainly not all) of disability categories where it is a grave insult to promote the cure.

Plenty of disability categories where it is a grave insult to promote the cure? What to do you mean?
 
Plenty of disability categories where it is a grave insult to promote the cure? What to do you mean?

If you were to somehow use our scientific knowledge to proclaim that "we can end Autism" and the media and the streets cheer, you have possibly (and I say "possibly" because it is more of an individual matter than many might credit) indicted the millions that have it and the many of those who view it as central to their identities, something they have come to accept and even love. The same had been experienced by the Deaf community many times over, and still is a problematic proposition.
 
If you were to somehow use our scientific knowledge to proclaim that "we can end Autism" and the media and the streets cheer, you have possibly (and I say "possibly" because it is more of an individual matter than many might credit) indicted the millions that have it and the many of those who view it as central to their identities, something they have come to accept and even love. The same had been experienced by the Deaf community many times over, and still is a problematic proposition.

I definitely agree with you to a certain extent. However, in your example, autism is a spectrum disorder, so someone who had Aspergers would be different than someone who had a more severe case of autism.

But, consider something like say, cystic fibrosis. I can't imagine many people who have CF who would say that they wouldn't want to change anything about them if they had the opportunity.
 
I definitely agree with you to a certain extent. However, in your example, autism is a spectrum disorder, so someone who had Aspergers would be different than someone who had a more severe case of autism.

But, consider something like say, cystic fibrosis. I can't imagine many people who have CF who would say that they wouldn't want to change anything about them if they had the opportunity.

True, those with Aspergers are different (and each person with that label is different from another) from those with other disabilities in the spectrum, however, I have to still suggest that the kids I know who do have what the medical community considers a more serious condition of autism are also happy with themselves and their lives. I grew up with some of them, and others I came to know through a conference we sponsor every year and play games with them. Some of them have specifically relayed in one way or another that they like themselves, being different along with being the same as the other kids. In fact, I am thinking right now of a little boy and his shy smile, and a cute little girl that loved to give me high fives and beamed each time we did something right in a team competition. Every kid in the spectrum is different, some more easily communicative than others, some of them share more hope than others. But they are just as human and they are experiencing life.

I claim no knowledge over cystic fibrosis, and offer any sympathies to those who would quickly remind me of my place in such an instance. But I will say that we have to tread carefully down this path. Their lives are worth living. Sometimes it's the rest of us that have to reorientate ourselves and our conceptualization for what constitutes a good life.
 
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