[extropy-chat] Stem cell breakthrough claims

[The Avantguardian]

--- Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com> wrote:

> And the Korean lab 
> found faster and safer ways  to cull stem cells,
> using far fewer donated 
> eggs -- about 20 per try.   They also eliminated the
> use of mouse "feeder 
> cells" that have been used to nourish most human
> stem-cell lines, thus 
> obviating concerns about contamination.

Does it bother anyone else that S. Korea is
establishing itself as the world leader in this
technology while the most "modern" country in the
world wrings its hands in moral reflection? Even if we
started therapeutic cloning today, we might not be
able to close the gap. A pity since the economy of the
United States could have used the extra revenue that
would be generated when this process hits the market.
Fortunately I know how to speak basic Korean, so I may
still be able to do this stuff after all.

 
>          It's also sure to revive international
> controversy over whether to 
> ban all forms of human cloning, as the Bush
> administration desires -- or to 
> allow cloning for medical research, so-called
> therapeutic cloning that 
> South Korea has committed by law to pursue.

Interestingly enough, I am pretty certain that the
percentage of Christians in Korea are approximately
the same as in the US if not higher. Obviously they
are more educated and/or do not legislate their
morality. 

> Culling
> stem cells destroys 
> the days-old embryo harboring them, regardless of
> whether that embryo was 
> cloned or left over in a fertility clinic.

Hmmm... does growing an oak tree destroy the acorn?

> Because
> opponents argue that is 
> the same as destroying life, President Bush has
> banned Federally-funded 
> research on all but a handful of old embryonic
> stem-cell lines and the 
> South Korean work spotlights the frustration many
> U.S. scientists felt at 
> being left behind.

Hey everybody, lets give Bush some applause here. He
considers the lives of 5 day old blastulas sacred and
the lives of 21 year old soldiers and criminals to be
expendable. Do you think he would feel differently if
the embryos came from black people, like many soldiers
and criminals do? He is in so tight with God that he
can afford to be out of touch with reality. After all,
once we start drowning in debt, he can just pray for
it to part, like Moses did the red sea.

> They don't yet know how
> to control which types 
> of tissues -- brain cells, bones, muscles, etc. --
> the stem cells form, 
> something the Korean lab is studying next.  "I
> didn't think they would be 
> at this stage for decades, let alone within one
> year," said Dr. Gerald 
> Schatten of the University of Pittsburgh, who acted
> as an adviser to the 
> Korean Lab in analyzing its data for U.S.
> publication. "All of us in the 
> biomedical communities owe our colleagues in Korea a
> tremendous debt of 
> gratitude."

So how long will it be before we owe our South Korean
friends a tremendous debt of money? Gee I hope I can
afford enough Won on the 4X to get some ES cells made
for myself.

The Avantguardian 
is 
Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"The surest sign of intelligent life in the universe is that they haven't attempted to contact us." 
-Bill Watterson


		
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