[ExI] Foes of stem cell research now face tough battle

[spike]

>>		There are no foes of stem cell research, only foes of
embryonic cell research.  


>	Are we sure? From a consistent bioluddite point of view, stem cell
research is per se a Promethean effort to fiddle with the fundaments of life
and to alter the course of nature...Stefano Vaj 


Sure there is a fringe that would oppose stem cell therapy, but they must
oppose all medical technology, in which case they would have much bigger
battles to fight.  There is a fringe that opposes all transplants, even
blood transfusions, on some mysterious ethical grounds.  Stem cell therapy
should be easier for them than a transplant, since one is one's own donor.
It would be more analogous to taking a vein from the leg and transplanting
it in the heart.

Those who oppose embryonic cell therapy on the other hand have an actual
argument.  It is one with which I disagree (that embryos are human life, and
creating them to heal another is wrong.)  But at least they have an actual
case, one which has plenty of followers.

The thing I find disturbing is that stem cell tech and embryonic cell tech
seems to be intentionally conflated, perhaps for political reasons.  If they
are being unintentionally conflated, then the medical tech community has a
huge job ahead: to educate the masses on the critical difference between
stem cell and embryonic cell tech.
	
spike