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Originally Posted by El Blanco
isn't that a redundancy?
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Nope. You can get a BS or an MS in Chemical Physics. Not that many people would want to.
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Originally Posted by BurntToShreds
How is humanity supposed to progress if we use potential human beings as a commodity? I mean, with adult stem cells, you won't have to deal with religious activists...
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The problem, B2S, is that adult stem cells are non-differentiable. Stem cells from hair follicles can be made to grow hair, but will not make a bit of a difference in the quality of life of one who suffers from Parkinson's Disease. Embryonic stem cells are at the other end of the spectrum, and can be "teased" into nerve ganglia, alveoli, brain, pancreatic and adrenal tissue - the whole shebang.
As for the commodity aspect, you are wonderfully naive. Most basic research in its infancy used techniques and materials that we wouldn't even dream of using in our enlightenment today. For example, do we still use mercury vapor to develop photographic plates? My point is that while the research will need to be carefully monitored by bioethicists, the research is a means to an end. Eventually, researchers will be able to find embryonic stem cells in existing tissue, or perhaps can learn to "grow their own" in a petrie dish, or use some totally new and unforeseen technique that we can't even fathom at this point in time. Without an impetus to start the process, however, the projects can never get off the ground.
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Originally Posted by pac-man
What I can presume (based on what smart guys say) is that embryonic stem cells have the potential to help people who are suffering, whose quality of life is substandard, and who burden their families. Not saying that all people with the conditions stem cells can help aren't satisfied with their lives, but if I lost the use or control of my limbs or mind or what have you, I would want to regain use/control of them.
Religion should never, ever dictate government policy (especially in a country that has no official religion), and if you do believe in an all-powerful, omniscient god, then let him handle things. You think he's going to put the spark of life into cells that he knows aren't going to grow to maturity? I don't. God gave us the power to choose, to invent, to improve our lives, and to find ways to improve the quality of our lives.
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A-fucking-men, brother!