Unfortunately, it’s not all about cures. One researcher is using stem cells (from the batches for which the President allows funding) to make a machine to monitor for chemical weapons.
http://www.lifeethics.org/www.lifeethics.org/2007/09/embryonic-stem-cells-for-chemical.html
http://georgiafaces.caes.uga.edu/storypage.cfm?storyid=3231
“It’s like a canary-in-a-coal-mine scenario,” said Stice, a University of Georgia animal science professor and Georgia Research Alliance eminent scholar in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
In collaboration with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Stice hopes to use his recently developed neural cell kits to detect chemical threats.
“They have a device that looks like a small tool box that contains neural cells and can detect changes in their electrical activity,” Stice said. “When these cells’ activity is altered, you know there’s something present that shouldn’t be and they don’t like it.”
Cell monitors
The system now being used in the monitoring device uses mouse neural cells. “The problem is,” Stice said, “mouse neural cells die out pretty fast on their own. So if you tried sending this device out with the troops, somebody has to change out the cells every couple of weeks. Plus, mice aren’t humans. They react very differently to chemicals than we do.”
Stice’s neural cell kits created from human embryonic stem cell lines last up to six months. “We’ve never tested to see how far beyond that they’re viable,” he said. “It could be much longer.”
Stice’s neural cell kits created from human embryonic stem cell lines last up to six months. “We’ve never tested to see how far beyond that they’re viable,” he said. “It could be much longer.”
That is sickening. Those are people’s sons and daughters. For shame on all of us.