Opinion Formation

Annals of the Homestarmy

Thursday, June 29. 2006

Personal Entry Posted by Radar in Personal Entry

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Opinion Formation

I have hesitated for some time over whether or not to post this subject. But after much thought I have decided to do it. It should be stated that I do not wish to offend or divide the group dynamic in any way. I simply want to know what everyone thinks. Should you find this not to your liking, then please be respectful of others opinions and just don't read it.

I recently watched an episode of the West Wing, a highly liberal show with superb writing and acting. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys fine art, and drama. While I do not share the opinion of about 90% of the material discussed, I have found it to be an excellent launching point to several meaningful debates between Joey and myself. One of the topics of the show in question was the legality/necessity of Stem Cell Research. It was proposed by the sitting Democratic White House that we should delve into such territory to provide possible cures for many maladies. While the Republican controlled House vehemently opposed any forays into Stem Cell exploration, citing it as immoral and against God.

I have some ideas of my own on the subject, but I would really like to hear some of yours. Please take some time to think this over and reply to this over the next few days. Thanks

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Ancient Of Days on :

I've already shared my thoughts with Radar on the matter, but here there written down...

I don't fully grasp why this needs to be a divisive issue.

Fact: There are a large number of embryos which, if not dedicated to stem cell research, will be destroyed anyways.

According to a 2003 report published by the RAND Institute:
"Using a conservative estimate between the two conversion rates from blastocyst to stem cells noted above (27 percent and 7.5 percent), the research team calculated that about 275 embryonic stem cell lines could be created from the total number of embryos available for research." [1]

Fact: Stem cell research and treatment does NOT EVEN REQUIRE AN EMBRYO!

In fact, much of the current research has led to a line of thought that adult stem cells are generally more useful than embryonic ones in practical treatments. [2]

Fact: The ethical and moral concerns of the general public has actually spurred the scientific community to find entirely new branches of study in stem cell research, such as non-destructive methods to harvest the cells, and creating the cells without the use of an embryo. [3]

I suppose I don't see the counter argument. If you can enlighten me, please do.

[1] http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9038/index1.html
[2] http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=79461
[3] http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=16472

Wren on :

Wow, this is a topic that I'm passionate about, so I'm glad someone brought it up.

While it's true that many embryos who would otherwise be disposed of could be used for stem cell research, I still kind of feel deep down in my gut that using fetal matter for science is wrong. However, I'm the kind of person who, upon realising I have lung cancer or some kind of lethal heart disease, would refuse a transplant from a cadaver because it's icky and I'd rather die. So that's just my personal neurosis.

On the other hand, leaps and bounds have indeed been made in finding living sites of stem cells in places besides embryos. For example, certain stem cells are created in healthy bone at any age. The trick is getting to those stem cells--because it's really painful to peel away layers of integument, fascia, and periostium to be able to crack open the bone for the chance that you'd get some stem cells.

Another source of living and usable stem cells is the umbilical cord shortly after birth. In fact, I've heard recently of a new practice of mothers saving and banking their child's cord blood, in the case that in a few years a disease will manifest and the child's own stem cells can be manipulated for therapeutic means. This is really fantastic for three reasons: 1) the cord blood already has the child's DNA encoding so there's no risk of rejection and the child does not have to be on immune suppressants for the rest of his life. 2) It doesn't hurt anybody at all, and 3) there have already been in the past couple of years documented cases of cord blood stem cells *curing* children of otherwise disasterous conditions such as sickle-cell anemia, leukemia, and certain kinds of congenital heart disease.

I don't have any on-line sources for this, but I'll see if I can find some. Really fascinating stuff. But my overall opinion of stem-cell research runs along the lines of 'why the hell not?'

Ancient Of Days on :

I've also followed the research on cord blood usage. One online reference can be found here [1]. However, one of the concerns about cord blood usage is that they're not entirely certain that these stem cells remain viable after being in cryogenic storage for long periods of time. (I couldn't find an online reference to this, but it was in an issue of Nature magazine late last year).

There has also been some research on other ways to avoid rejection [2], and my earlier post references the story of a man whose own blood was used to generate the stem cells, which would be preferable to the bone-cracking you mentioned. :)


[1] http://www.newscientist.com/channel/sex/stem-cells/dn2949.html
[2] http://www.newscientist.com/channel/sex/stem-cells/dn7986.html

Wren on :

Do you subscribe to the newscientist.com website? And if so, can I borrow your username and password to read some of the articles?

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