Quote:
Originally posted by Razor
Since I can't pass up an opportunity to stir the pot here in a 'when does life begin' discussion, what are folks' feelings on embryonic stem cell research?
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I have never worked with any stem-cells (embryonic or human), but I do not personally believe in pure genetic determinism in development. A few medical breakthroughs seem promising as of recently, including rat research with human stem cells to treat Parkinson's or other neurodegeneratives. Research in adult stem-cell is much behind the technologies developed in the 20 years of embryonic stem cell work. There are very few pluripotent cells in adults, and we dont really know where to look for them, or how long they can be cultured for.
The only three full-time biomedical research scientists on President Bush's bioethics committee were replaced. But anyways, science also exists in the private sector, and scientists often spend their own money to do their work. For example tthere are scientists who are still producing new lines of embryonic stem cells, and there are researchers still studying them, and they of course receive NO federal funding.