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Couples Cull Embryos to Halt Heritage of Cancer
NY Times ^ | 09.03.06 | AMY HARMON

Posted on 09/03/2006 1:55:46 PM PDT by Coleus

As Chad Kingsbury watches his daughter playing in the sandbox behind their suburban Chicago house, the thought that has flashed through his mind a million times in her two years of life comes again: Chloe will never be sick.

Not, at least, with the inherited form of colon cancer that has devastated his family, killing his mother, her father and her two brothers, and that he too may face because of a genetic mutation that makes him unusually susceptible.

By subjecting Chloe to a genetic test when she was an eight-cell embryo in a petri dish, Mr. Kingsbury and his wife, Colby, were able to determine that she did not harbor the defective gene. That was the reason they selected her, from among the other embryos they had conceived through elective in vitro fertilization, to implant in her mother’s uterus.

Prospective parents have been using the procedure, known as preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or P.G.D., for more than a decade to screen for genes certain to cause childhood diseases that are severe and largely untreatable.

Now a growing number of couples like the Kingsburys are crossing a new threshold for parental intervention in the genetic makeup of their offspring: They are using P.G.D. to detect a predisposition to cancers that may or may not develop later in life, and are often treatable if they do.

For most parents who have used preimplantation diagnosis, the burden of playing God has been trumped by the near certainty that diseases like cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia will afflict the children who carry the genetic mutation that causes them.


(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; babies; babyfarms; babykillers; cafeteriacatholic; cancer; dna; embryo; embryos; geneticdefects; genetics; ivf; moralrelativism; murder; nytreasontimes; pickandchoose; playinggod; selectivereduction; selfcentered; selfishness; slipperyslope; treasonmedia
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To: jas3
Why did it not work?

Because it takes too much redefinition.

361 posted on 09/05/2006 7:13:46 AM PDT by syriacus (Why wasn't each home in New Orleans required to have an inflatable life boat?)
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To: jas3

It's not true to alchemists and assorted ideolgical moonbats. In science, it is a statement of fact. Embryo's are capable of living which is the defintition of viable. The defintition of viable is NOT 'will live'. The science is clear, real science that is.


362 posted on 09/05/2006 7:15:19 AM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: jas3
Not even a majority of embryos are viable.

The real question is:

How many cat embryos are viable human beings?

Answer: None.

363 posted on 09/05/2006 7:16:27 AM PDT by syriacus (Why wasn't each home in New Orleans required to have an inflatable life boat?)
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To: jas3
And now back to my previous question.

Kangaroo or ostrich?

364 posted on 09/05/2006 7:16:51 AM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: jwalsh07
An acorn that has undergone three cell divisions is a tree at that stage of the tree's continuum. When you were three cell divisions old were you a kangaroo or an ostrich?

I was not a kangaroo nor an ostrich nor a human, nor were you. An unfertilized egg is part of the continuum too, but few argue it deserves legal or moral protection. So being part of the continuum is not the deciding factor.

jas3
365 posted on 09/05/2006 7:18:27 AM PDT by jas3
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To: jwalsh07
And now back to my previous question.

Kangaroo or ostrich?


Please try to be more paitent. It sometimes takes more than 5 minutes to answer your post.

jas3
366 posted on 09/05/2006 7:19:33 AM PDT by jas3
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To: syriacus
The real question is:

How many cat embryos are viable human beings?

Answer: None

That is NOT the real question, because few people aruge that cat embryos deserve moral or legal protection.

jas3
367 posted on 09/05/2006 7:20:48 AM PDT by jas3
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To: jwalsh07
It's not true to alchemists and assorted ideolgical moonbats. In science, it is a statement of fact. Embryo's are capable of living which is the defintition of viable. The defintition of viable is NOT 'will live'. The science is clear, real science that is.

Is that why so few scientists are opposed to IVF and to destroying fertilized embryos?

jas3
368 posted on 09/05/2006 7:22:11 AM PDT by jas3
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To: syriacus
Why did it not work?

Because it takes too much redefinition.

I disagree.

jas3
369 posted on 09/05/2006 7:23:06 AM PDT by jas3
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To: syriacus
It is a big stretch to suggest that a blastosphere "contains" a small child. It is proper to suggest that it might develop into a child, but there is no miniature child inside the blastosphere, so your analogy of an actual child inside a building is not apt.

I like my analogy. At least it involves humans.

Stating that an embryo contains a small child is not an analogy. It is a falsehood.

jas3
370 posted on 09/05/2006 7:25:08 AM PDT by jas3
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To: syriacus
I know you value human life. Why do your comparisons seem to involve lower forms of life and inanimate objects?

Because all forms of life are "lower".

jas3
371 posted on 09/05/2006 7:26:08 AM PDT by jas3
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To: jas3
I was not a kangaroo nor an ostrich nor a human, nor were you

LOL. What can one say to this scientific pronouncement? I'm speechless but still curious, just what the hell species did you belong to?

372 posted on 09/05/2006 7:30:58 AM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: jas3
Is that why so few scientists are opposed to IVF and to destroying fertilized embryos?

Not really. One can take an honest position, acknowledge that embryo's are nascent human life and still advocate killing them for utilitarian purposes. I don't agree with that postition morally but at least it is a scientifically honest one. The crap you and the other clown are selling is simply dishonest bs.

You see the difference?

373 posted on 09/05/2006 7:34:26 AM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: jwalsh07
> No Mr Luddite. ... your Alchemy 101 text book.

That's apparently the best you can do, cast lame insults. And what's worse... it's not that good at all. It's not accurate, it's not relevant and it does not aid your arguement. But the worst part is that it's not witty. That's just sad.


374 posted on 09/05/2006 7:46:01 AM PDT by orionblamblam (I'm interested in science and preventing its corruption, so here I am.)
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To: orionblamblam

It doesn't take my best or anybody's to dispose of you and your security bunny. Just average will do.


375 posted on 09/05/2006 7:47:59 AM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: jwalsh07

> Similarly dead cells can not be reanimated into live cells through natural processes.

And what "natural process" allows half a dozen cells in a petri dish to transmorgrify into a ten-pound baby?


376 posted on 09/05/2006 7:49:55 AM PDT by orionblamblam (I'm interested in science and preventing its corruption, so here I am.)
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To: jwalsh07

> It doesn't take my best or anybody's to dispose of you ...

Dispose of me. Hmm. Interesting choice of words.


377 posted on 09/05/2006 7:50:46 AM PDT by orionblamblam (I'm interested in science and preventing its corruption, so here I am.)
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To: orionblamblam

LOL, you are truly dim. It please me no end when the technocrats reveal just how dim they can be. Keep digging! :-}


378 posted on 09/05/2006 7:51:54 AM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: jwalsh07

> you are truly dim.

Believe as you wish.


379 posted on 09/05/2006 7:54:07 AM PDT by orionblamblam (I'm interested in science and preventing its corruption, so here I am.)
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To: orionblamblam
Dispose of me. Hmm. Interesting choice of words.

Only to loons sitting in their dugouts wrapped in foil and crooning to their security bunnies.

But if you feel aggrieved, report me to the admin folks. I'm sure they will enjoy laughing at you as well.

380 posted on 09/05/2006 7:54:16 AM PDT by jwalsh07
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