The embryonic research debate is not as easy as its opponents suggest.
According to the Advocate, “There’s no question we are dealing with the human species,” said Gene Mills, executive director of the Louisiana Family Forum.
“You decide where we draw the ethical line, and the moral line … not doctors who want to get research dollars.”
Nobody will argue that Gene Mills is very passionate on this issue and has many rights to be.The entire right-to-life issue versus right-to-choice is quite contentious with religion getting caught in the mix.
However, in this particular debate, there is also the rights of those who hope that embryonic research could be the answer to an assortment of debilitating diseases such as diabetes.
Those proponents who feel the research outweighs the risks are often very thoughtful, are not killers, do not believe in maiming for the sake of hurting or destroying the lives of others.
They are just looking for answers they reasonably believe can cure their loved ones and perhaps themselves from dreadful diseases and disabilities.Many are God-fearing, religious and thoughtful individuals who are seeking solutions to problems they did not cause or desire.
But for lobbyists and organizations to suggest that the only argument is that doctors want to get research dollars and that is the basis for the debate--is simply unfair.
It is not right to demonize the argument and suggest that it is the doctors who want to benefit and not consider the desperate pleas of those who are looking for answers, wherever they can find them.
If there are reasonable and equally practicable alternatives to doing damage to the human species, we should pursue those alternatives.But, to blame doctors as the scourge of the debate is unwarranted, unjust and moves an honest discussion to one of embryonic emotionality, where very little, if anything ever gets decided.
Cutting, but to the point I suppose....... It would be a shame if our society to ever drop to that level of motus operendai, or be forced into that type of thinking..... or those kind of actions....... TNWO philosophies at their best I suppose...... Written by Soylent Green
on 4/15/2008
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Kill two birds with one stone. Give a pregnant woman on welfare some reward to have an abortion, and then use the remains ("embryonic matter" if you prefer) for stem cell research. Written by Whew, that was easy... next problem!
on 4/15/2008
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The TV ad Scalise ran against Burns attacking him for voting to allow the destruction of embryos was really about stem cell research but Scalise's ad didn't mention that because some Republicans do support the research. Written by David Quidd
on 4/14/2008
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I do not know, but for some reason I feel the need to bring you poor lost souls up to date so you are squarely standing on at least page 12. I already showed you what you need to be on page one, but it isn’t appreciated by the ‘policy makers at large’ that you like to pizz and moan about. I do not know how many of you are familiar with chicken farming. Chickens are actually really easy to proliferate through breeding and incubation processes. Quails are too, but I don’t want to confuse you to much, so lets focus on this one irrefutable fact: When chicken populations become too large, and they can’t all be fed, the farmer usually culls the flock…………………… Now I hate to see ya’ll running around like a bunch of chickens with your heads cut off, but facts are facts. And another fact is this, the worlds population is bursting at the seams. Food is mighty scarce in other parts of the world, and getting downright over expensive in this part…… A fact of nature is that water always takes the easiest course down hill……… I am not going to disappoint you TW, I am going to stop at this point and let you figure out what I am getting at being as I do appear to be one of your favorite pounding boards. I still wonder what you serve. Written by
on 4/11/2008
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Oh, almost forgot, the IVF also needs a willing sperm donor as well, hey Diaperman, want to add in????? It might help relieve some of the stress and tension you seem to be laboring under, nayuck-nuck-nuck-nuck..... Written by
on 4/11/2008
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Uhhhhhh, no Dan, it is not like using a heart or a liver from an accident victim/donor. You see, those two items came from a 'host'. Much in the same fashion that In Vitro Fertilization needs #1 a donor, and #2 a host to carry it to term........ Or in other words, a nice, safe, warm, comfortable, healthy womb...... Scientists will find that short of grafting a replicated body part augmented through initial stem cell propagation and proliferation to a host body (And that is the key phrase of the day, HOST BODY) they will need to find alternate ways of accomplishing this nurturing requirement via alternative methods, and no pitre dishes are not a viable alternative, nor are embryonic fluid holding tanks another. So, the whole topic of Stem Cells becomes void when cloning is considered as the viable alternative for acquiring 'new body parts'. The only thing that comes close to fulfilling the needs stem cell research is hoping to facilitate at this point in time are organ donors. But in its most purist form, one abstract is currently in existence. That is kidney donor/kidney transplant from a live donor... And of course we usually are blessed with two functioning kidneys, one which can be considered a spare, but then again, just because we have two eyes, I sure wouldn't consider one of those a spare....... Enter the double helix, and strains of DNA that can be segregated and proliferated through the aid of stem cell research. Those two, with a womb can provide for the advent of a clone, and viola!!!! A host body that will 'grow' replacement parts. Question...Does that clone have a soul? Is it human? If it thinks, therefore it is?/Does? On to genetic replication and the fundamentals to make a paradigm such as this come into advent. Money........................... Those without get none, and those with it all chart the future and course of the world.......... Now if you can give all those clones prefrontal lobotomies, well, now there is a horse of a different color, or an image of a different frame, or a slave of a different nature....... Written by Watch that Pandora's Box oh ignorant one or two
on 4/11/2008
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IVF is legal. If the cells are being thrown away anyway, why not use them for research? It is JUST like using a heart or liver from a person who died in an accident. Written by Dan
on 4/11/2008
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Stem cell research is necessary to unlock the final puzzle of "How does one clone a human being successfully". Written by ...As an after thought, connecting the dots
on 4/11/2008
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It would also be interesting to note; throughout history, billions of people have wanted to live forever, and every one of them died trying................ Written by ..........Ahhhhhhhh,,, Such is life...............
on 4/10/2008
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Ahhhhh, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"......... Hmmmmm a Pandora's Box paradigm?????? Coma is a fairly good book to read. Interesting.... And as a foot note I suppose it would be fair to say that the person I saw on the news last night as it would relate to this 'article' was a state legislature, and it was not the morality of stem cell research, but rather the concern on his part was that money from federal DHHS funds could be missed out upon..... It was not a doctor that was stating this concern, although doctors are always concerned about funding, ask anyone who has ever gotten one of their outrageous bills. And Louisiana wants more hospitals...... It is quite the Corporate jungle out there. Kaiser Permanente, HHMI, Charity Hospital, or how about HCA? Did anyone out there realize that Acadian Ambulance Service Inc. is the largest ambulance service in the United States? And then there are the deals with tow truck companies and the police departments and fees charged, and of course let’s not forget the traffic light cameras, and it goes on and on and on. Now consider, cloning, suspend them from wires, harvest body parts. Who lives? Who dies? What is life? Some of our politicians think that life is theirs for the privilege of taking, wasting or taxing..... When does a good thing go bad? Oversight by legislative bodies? I think they are incapable of grasping the complexities of the issues. More money from the feds? Louisiana is always begging for more. I don’t even think many of the legislatures even remotely comprehend what stem cell research encompasses. I don’t even think they would know the differences between a double helix and a double standard. Of course we have our wonderful media in there stirring the crapper. Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Written by If you clone a drone would its identity be known?
on 4/10/2008
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The embryonic research debate is not as easy as its opponents suggest.
