[sonsofliberty2000]

I will withhold judgement only because this is one topic I know absolutely nothing about. I need to read up on it. Any Freepers got some Stem Cell For Dummies links?

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[rockrr]

I probably know as little (or as much) as you, but I know that I know enough to recognize that the Federal government has no business underwriting STR.

We can condone it, we can even (passively) endorse it, but pay for it - I think not.

This doesn't stop private industry from doing speculative research, just not paid for by my (and your) taxes.

[Republican Wildcat]

Stem Cell Treatments

Adult Stem Cells	Embryonic Stem Cells
Cancers: Brain Cancer Retinoblastoma Ovarian Cancer Skin Cancer: Merkel Cell Carcinoma Testicular Cancer Tumors abdominal organs Lymphoma Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Acute Myelogenous Leukemia Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia Cancer of the lymph nodes: Angioimmunoblastic Lymphadenopathy Multiple Myeloma Myelodysplasia Breast Cancer Neuroblastoma Renal Cell Carcinoma Various Solid Tumors Soft Tissue Sarcoma Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis POEMS syndrome Auto-Immune Diseases Multiple Sclerosis Crohn's Disease Scleromyxedema Scleroderma Rheumatoid Arthritis Juvenile Arthritis Systemic Lupus Polychondritis Sjogren's Syndrome Behcet's Disease Myasthenia Autoimmune Cytopenia Systemic vasculitis Alopecia universalis Cardiovascular Heart damage Ocular Corneal regeneration Immunodeficiencies X-Linked hyper immunoglobuline-M Syndrome Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome X-linked lymphoproliferative syndrome Neural Degenerative Diseases/Injuries Parkinson’s disease Spinal cord injury Stroke damage Anemias/Blood Conditions Sickle cell anemia Sideroblastic anemia Aplastic Anemia Amegakaryocytic Thrombocytopenia Chronic Epstein-Barr Infection Fanconi's Anemia Diamond Blackfan Anemia Thalassemia Major Red cell aplasia Primary Amyloidosis Wounds/Injuries Limb gangrene Surface wound healing Jawbone replacement Skull bone repair Other Metabolic Disorders Osteogenesis imperfecta Sandhoff disease Hurler’s syndrome Krabbe Leukodystrophy Osteopetrosis Cerebral X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy	NONE
References The Facts - Prentice, D. "Adult Stem Cells" Appendix K in Monitoring Stem Cell Research: A Report of the President's Council on Bioethics (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2004), 309-346. The Facts - Addendum, October 2004

[GovernmentShrinker]

Any Freepers got some Stem Cell For Dummies links?

Trouble is, it's an extremely complicated field, and even the top researchers who specialize in it don't pretend to know what types of research and techniques will lead to what kinds of medical advances. Most want the freedom to pursue all avenues, and steer their research in whatever direction looks most promising for the particular condition they're hoping to treat.

Any time you hear somebody claim that they know that adult stem cells will work just as well or better, or that they know there's no way to make any significant medical advances without using embryonic stem cells, you can be sure you're listening to an ignorant ideological ranter.

I know a bit about this stuff, and can only say one thing for sure: the line between an adult stem cell which is being manipulated for medical purposes and an embryo which could grow into a full-fledged human being is getting thinner every day, and will fade away quite soon -- almost certainly within the next 10 years. As soon as researchers get an adult stem cell to the point where it can develop into any type of cell or organ needed for a treatment (and I'm virtually certain they will), they'll also be sitting on a cell which can develop into the whole package. It's just a question of which switches they choose to flip. So they've got this cell that came from an adult stem cell, that's beginning to divide on its own, and if they put it in the right medium for a few days, and then drop it into a woman's uterus it will grow into the whole package and come out wailing for a nipple to suck on. But if the flip the switches for "turn into a kidney only", it turns into a kidney only and saves someone from a shortened life filled with endless hours hooked up to a dialysis machine. Did they kill a "baby" when they chose to flip the "kidney only" switch? Or is a clump of cells that has the potential to become a baby not a "baby" if it came from an adult stem cell?

There was news out today of another important discovery by Harvard researcher Jonathan Tilly. He has discovered stem cells in bone marrow (of mice at this point, but most mouse things turn out to apply to humans too) that can travel to the ovaries and start producing new eggs. He's only tried this with females, and only inside an actual mouse body at this point. But it's not hard to see how there may be comparable stem cells which can produce sperm. Or even that the same cells could produce both, if injected into a male and a female, or if put in two petri dishes with the right broth. If you take two adult stem cells and put them in a petri dish and they hook up and start dividing into a regular embryo, is that a clump of "adult stem cells" or is it a clump of "embryonic stem cells"?