Re: [QUAD-L] stem cells, ethics, and greed

[DeLiMiTeD4]

The University of Wisconsin gets the money and sets the price on what are now contaminated ES cell lines. Limited funding? UW is building a huge facility for stem cell research. The facility far exceeds the so called funding. The limits are restricting the new ES cell lines means that even the labs not using federal money must use ES cell lines that are established. We will have to disagree on using embryos for research. If you prefer the hundreds of thousands of embryos be destroyed each year at fertility clinics, you should say it that way. Stem cell research holds the potential to change medicine. Diseases like diabetes, kidney failure, heart disease, cancer, traumatic central nervous system injuries become treatable. Stem cell research is the cutting edge of modern medicine. I have tried to understand the ethical dilemma that some people pop up with but I don't see stem cell research being anymore unethical than harvesting organs from the dying. We are simply harvesting cells from embryos that would otherwise be flushed down the drain. The South Koreans are doing some remarkable things in creating stem cell lines from many different sources but if you saw the dog in the news you will quickly realize that many of the stem cells being studied are not even from human origin. This points out that America is quickly falling behind. After all, Washington doesn't care who researches it or what is done with it as long as the right people get the money. This is the only ethics that exists within the beltway. If there was a moral high ground, I think it was shoveled off so we could perform a regime change in Iraq. Look at the profits going to GWB's friends. We will build a new street for wal-marts corporate headquarters for 35 million. There is a famine breaking out in Niger. We will build a 250 million dollar bridge to an island where fewer than 50 people live, and lets not forget 14 billion for oil companies. Yet it is necessary to cut back medicaid by an equal amount. I will do my best at this point not to argue over my opinion. Everyone on here can see the information on stem cell research and draw your own conclusions. You certainly don't have to agree with me.   In a message dated 8/10/2005 6:08:45 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: IF the president's policy, as YOU conclude, has nothing to do with anyone's beliefs but just greed to require other labs to use stem cell lines patented by UW then why limit federal funding? How does that put money into the pockets of friends of GWB? If the policy limited the use to those lines and increased federal funding to use those ES lines then your greed argument would make sense to me. But by limiting federal funding, as you pointed out, who is benefiting money wise? The president's policy only put restrictions on those receiving federal funding. Researchers receiving state or private funding are free to use stem cell lines from any source their funding source allows. While I personally don't think research should be done on embryos created from a human egg and sperm, I have decided I personally don't have a moral or ethical problem with stem cells derived using freshly harvested eggs and nuclear transfer technology. I don't consider that a human life. I find it interesting that the South Korean scientist Hwang's research was funded with less than $200,000 a year. The cost was equivalent to about one hundredth of the funds that scientists in the United States work with on similar projects. So who is profiting from all the money being spent? At 06:28 PM 8/9/2005, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have been reading a lot about the stem cell arguments. I have tried to stay open minded and not jump to conclusions. I was checking up some back grounds on positions regarding Embryonic Stem Cell research and ran into some interesting facts. Tommy Thompson helped to design the presidents policy on ES cells. He is a former governor of Wisconsin. University of Wisconson was the place where ES cell lines were first established in 1998. They were the first to patent the lines and processes to establish those lines. Tommy Thompson is a little more than an alumni of UW. The way the presidents policy works is by requiring other labs to use existing stem cell lines which the University of Wisconsin has a near monopoly on.  The ethical argument against ES cell research has nothing to do with anyone's beliefs. It is just greed. The government is using the religious right like a cheap hand puppet. This is about protecting UW 's patent. The ethical question that the country is faced with is how do we get rid of such immoral and unethical people as this administration. We are being milked like some stupid cow. Our money is going into the pockets of every friend GWB has ever had. He is killing American soldiers. He has elderly people going to Canada to get affordable meds. We are sending money overseas for oil faster than we can earn it. I AM SAD!   By the way, there are no uncontaminated ES cell lines. Total federal spending on ES cell research to date, just under 10 million dollars. The energy bill passed by congress has a provision to build a 250 million dollar bridge to an island where fewer than 50 people live. The words "ethics, morality, and Washington DC" should never occur in the same sentence.   john