Experts discuss Prop. 71 ethics

Mercury News ^ | 11/10/04 | Lisa Krieger

[NormsRevenge]

The most controversial aspects of Proposition 71 will have strict oversight, experts speaking at a Stanford University forum said Tuesday.

A procedure called nuclear transfer, or therapeutic cloning, is central to research on stem cells. Because it involves the creation and destruction of embryos to study diseases and cures, ``it may offend some people,'' said Paul Berg, professor emeritus of molecular and genetic medicine at Stanford and a 1980 Nobel Prize winner.

---snip---

Berg said therapeutic cloning -- in which stem cells are harvested from a cloned embryo -- provides greater scientific opportunities than other methods of obtaining stem cells.

While some embryos will be donated to scientists from in vitro fertilization clinics, those offer ``only a small slice of genetic diversity'' seen in the human race, he said.

Possible developments

Stem cells might be used to develop therapies for illnesses like Parkinson's disease or diabetes. Therapeutic cloning could also provide stem cells that would be immunologically compatible with the donor of the adult cell, reducing risk of rejection.

[NormsRevenge]

"therapeutic cloning".. :-\

Because it involves the creation and destruction of embryos to study diseases and cures, ``it may offend some people,'' ..

---

Nawww.. we'll just tell ourselves it's a special effect , besides clones aren't special interests and have no money to buy politicians off anyway.

[trashcanbred]

While some embryos will be donated to scientists from in vitro fertilization clinics, those offer ``only a small slice of genetic diversity'' seen in the human race, he said.

Reading between the lines here... this statement means that the embryos from the fertilization clinics won't be enough... soooo... We need to buy them from the abortion clinics. There ya have it folks.

[tallhappy]

Hey, forget the ethics -- follow the money. 300 million a year is a huge amount of money. There aren't enough researchers in either academic or private labs to even sustain that amount of funding.

[TheDon]

There is something disturbing about a former Austrian presiding over the systematic murder of human beings.

So much for "Never Again".

[cgk]

This whole scenario was fictionalized in Charles Colson's book Gideon's Torch nearly 10 years ago. That book, written around government funded & Hollywood endorsed Regeneration Centers was written off as "fantasy", "anti-woman Turner diaries for the 90's", and "monstrous science fiction from the dark ages."

We are now saddled with Prop. 71: taxpayer funded, government endorsed, and Hollywood celebrated, and the eerily real-named "Institute of Regeneration".

I am just sickened that it has come to this. Adult stem cells have been PROVEN to be working in treatments of diseases. Embryonic and fetal stem cells have never been proven to treat anything. We had people holding the "eligible" lines of stem cells sitting and waiting for someone to call them to use them for research. Waiting and waiting. Now that someone else is going to pick up the tab, it's a free-for-all.

I am someone who was targeted in this campaign. And labeled "selfish" because I voted against Prop. 71. Selfish because I choose to accept and live with my disability, rather than destroy life so I might have a bit more comfort? Maybe?

[cgk]

Read even further between the lines and you get to bottom line: in order to secure fetal stem cells (like you said they aren't all coming from in-vitro clinics), we are going to be paying women to extend their pregnancies to later-term abortions so that we can harvest their more mature cells.

[cgk]

I can't even formulate a response to your very astute observation. That statement is just surreal.

And he is undecided on assisted suicide I read? I am just sick.

[CAluvdubya]

I tried my hardest to get some of my "leaning left" friends to understand theis prop. All they could see was Edwards making Reeves walk. They are so uninformed and didn't believe me. HOPELESSLY IGNORANT!

[cgk]

I received some of the same response. All they could remember was Michael J Fox shaking on TV, pleading for help.

[MHGinTN]

Reading between the lines here... this statement means that the embryos from the fertilization clinics won't be enough... soooo... We need to buy them from the abortion clinics. There ya have it folks. Sorry, but you need to work on your reading comprehension, if you intend on fighting this burgeoning abomination. What is clear from the comments by the scientists now 'left to their own devices' is the desire to get past the silly notion of building embryo stem cell research on 'leftover embryos' in freezers of in vitro fert clinics. The scientists now freed up to generate ANY LIFE THEY CHOOSE TO EXPLOIT with prop 71 will be conceiving genetically designed embryo beings who will then be ripped open for their stem cell body parts so that the scientists may focus upon specialized lines of study ... with the ultimate goal of generating tissue lines to be held by 'corporate cell banking' so that cures will be dependent upon the holding companies for cell cultures specifically designed for cures. It is wholly cannibalism, but will appear benign because the cell lines will be one stage removed from the once alive beings cannibalized for their body parts. [Liberals should be heartily congratulating Ahnold for his enlightened support for their favored cannibalism. Ahnold, of course, will never see the obvious.]

[trashcanbred]

Two things:

1) Paragraphs are your friend.
2) I am not sure I disagree with you. You just took it one step further than I did.

[murphE]

And yet the left refers to President Bush as Hitler. Now we will be creating people for spare parts and experimentation. Welcome to our Brave New World.

[MHGinTN]

The fetal tissue harvesting industry is now well over the billion dollar business level annually.

Stem cells from embryos are the goal of the scientists in the Prop 71 universe.

Stem cells from serially slaughtered unborn children have been available to researchers for lo these many years.

The scientists who will exploit Prop 71 want to generate cell lines that will be tissue bank sources for treating diseases. These cell lines will be categorized by genetic characterisitics that a narrow class of individuals may have ... and there will be many cell lines banked for tapping in treatments, each cell line genetically defined for specificity and thus exclusion, so another cell line in the bank will be necessary when one cell line is not appropriate.

The goal of the Prop 71 research is to generate cell lines from cloned humans whose body parts (stem cells at the embryo age) are exploited to generate cell lines that may be 'banked' like we now 'bank' blood.

The entire new abomination is cannibalism, pure and simple. But it will be characterized differently by the leftist, soulless media who want this degenration of moral fiber in America. To fight this evil one must be specific and accurate in their countering characterizations.

[MHGinTN]

A ping to the reality of Prop 71 in Kalifornia

[RightWhale]

It's going to be done; it is being done. It can be justified as utilitarian, but there is an amount of the Galileo Effect involved and it is in an area of messing with human life that maybe we shouldn't go. We might not be human in a couple hundred years, then we can ask what it means to be human if anybody remembers.

[cgk]

Pro-life/pro-baby ping...

[E.G.C.]

BTT!!!!!

[cgk]

I was trying to tell my husband the other night that Mary Shelley was so very prophetic. Her most famous "Frankenstein" is heralded as a horror classic for all the wrong reasons.

[Mr. Silverback]

ProLife Ping!

If anyone wants on or off my ProLife Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.

[Reagan Man]

Let's kill potential human life in the name of advancing the human race. Full speed ahead.