[extropy-chat] Christopher Reeve Foundation: Request

[Reason]

> With regard to stem cell research -- does Bush intend bans that would
> affect research elsewhere in the world? Is stem cell research the best
> short-term avenue to improved medical technology, or merely one among
> several to be pursued in parallel?
> -- David Lubkin.

The US administration has made, and will continue to make, attempts to
enforce a therapeutic cloning ban at the UN. Banning therapeutic cloning is
pretty much equivalent to banning the most promising stem cell research:

http://www.longevitymeme.org/projects/oppose_global_therapeutic_cloning_ban.
cfm

Some high level thoughts on stem cells, regenerative medicine and where it
fits:

http://www.longevitymeme.org/topics/stem_cells_and_regenerative_medicine.cfm
http://www.fightaging.org/archives/000006.php

Stem cell medicine seems to be the fastest course to repairing arbitrary
damage to the body, although some organ replacement needs will probably also
be well served by prosthetics. From a high level view, researchers are
attempting to learn fundamental cellular processes in order to manipulate
them to a desired result - repairing damage in situ in the body.
Understanding and modifying the existing toolset to accomplish our ends, in
other words.

My guesstimate - assuming no crackdown - is that we are 10 years away from
commercial availability of simple applications, such as nerve and muscle
repair, and 20 years away from complex uses, such as growing organs on
demand. These could easily turn out to be 20 and 30 years if efforts to
repress the technology continue, and I'm not convinced that the US is going
to be a very healthy part of the world economy 20 years from now.
Constraints on medical development and commercialization are becoming more
European with every passing year - and more of that means less meaningful
research:

http://www.fightaging.org/archives/000027.php

Reason
Founder, Longevity Meme