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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2011 20:54:50 GMT -6
Not paranormal, but not your run of the mill science either. French scientists took the embryo of a couple and genetically altered it to NOT have the disease that is killing his siblings. I'm not sure how I feel about having a child for the sake of saving it's brother/sister but at least they're just using umbilical stem cells and not harvesting parts. I think one would have to be in that situation to make that call. Since I'm a God groupie I figure if he didn't like it the child wouldn't have lived nor would the scientists have succeeded. news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110207/hl_afp/francehealthbabyreproduction
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2011 2:06:52 GMT -6
Wow. Yea Jo, I'm kind of against stem cell research too... the main reason why I'm against it is because of the implications it may have on society.
If this technology is fully researched then we will effectively have created "The Fountain of Youth". Overpopulation of the civilized world will become a major problem. Wars over water and food sources.
After a while, we will see government mandated birth-control similar to what happens in the novel "Brave New World" by Huxley. People will then start having illegal babies and madness will ensue...
I can see good things come out of it in the short term... fixing my father's heart which was damaged by a virus for example... but the long term implications are what frighten me the most...
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Post by bewildered on Feb 9, 2011 5:57:49 GMT -6
I'm not entirely certain if the outcome of successful stem cell therapy can be foretold in any predictable manner. The world is overpopulated as it is, without the aid of such an amazing thing prolonging life where before it might not have endured. Black markets already exist for organs and other tissue of the body, and have been around since organ transplantation became a reality...crimes of this sort are beyond gruesome, but it's already happening. Producing organs and other body parts is a matter of cloning, not the aim of stem cell research or therapy. There is no denying, however, that the two are linked in some ways.
The difference between the two might be one of quality, perhaps. Stem cells already exist in your body...and researchers have discovered that adults possess them in plentiful supply, whereas previously they only thought that children did. These stem cells are thought to be the agents responsible for sudden, seemingly miraculous recoveries from brain damage that was deemed irreversible in some very rare cases...perhaps they are even responsible for healing damage done to the spine, as well.
I see no harm whatsoever in medicine seeking solutions to injury and disease. This does not impart any sort of immortality to us, that we might suffer misfortune and recover from it due to the wonders of stem cell therapy. It does not symbolize any more control over our lives than using penicillin to cure infections that killed off our ancestors does. If you were to adopt that logic as it should be properly applied, then you should never, ever visit a doctor, take an antibiotic, use a seat belt in a car, or employ any of the many other things modern humans use in order to avoid death by accident, injury, or sickness. And yet despite our efforts death comes, in one form or another, and there is nothing we can do about that.
I don't see that ever changing. Let's say that somehow, the process that actually causes aging is discovered and changed so that the body never tells itself that it's time for the lights to go out. The body might not...but what about ourselves? Life is much, much more than a chemical process or a DNA code, and we know that. We have a tendency to project our fears into the future because the future is an unknown, and human nature abhors unknowns. It prefers predictable and familiar. Funny how that works, because life is anything but predictable and a known quantity.
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Post by bewildered on Feb 9, 2011 6:08:50 GMT -6
...Wars over water and food sources. That has been going on for thousands of years already. China has practiced such a thing for many years. I don't say that to justify such a thing, mind you...just that it's already happened (and happening) in the world. I think it's both healthy and commendable to consider the long-reaching consequences of human behavior. I wish those who seek to fill their pockets with wealth would be struck by such a conscience. If only...
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