[gurps] Cool Nerve cell growth info

[Syndaryl]

--- "Chris J. Whitcomb" <rekres at gmail.com> wrote:
> Susan Koziel wrote:
> >   Somehow it's not a suprize about China getting the
> > brightest minds in the field of stem cells... you
> > could see that coming as soon as they passed the
> > massively restrictive laws about stem cell research in
> > Canada and the US. Eventually Canada/US/Europe will be
> > the 3rd world in terms of new biomedical procedures if
> > they keep passing laws telling people what they can
> > and can't research. Alas.
> 
> It's generally called ethics.  I'd rather our government not support
> turning women into baby factories just so they can make money selling

> the aborted fetuses.  Sure there may be some wonderful discoveries 
> just around the  corner, but at what price are we willing to make 
> those discoveries.

At the risk of starting a bit of a political side-thread here, you've
created a horrific strawman to knock down here. 

1) Quibble - AFAIK a fetus is useless for stem-cell research, it's
differentiated too far. If you're going to use a technical term in your
emotional argument, use the right one. Otherwise, just call them
"babies" and be done with it.

2) The major plan to source research was, as far as I know, to use the
discarded embreos from currently used and fully legal fertility
treatments. You know, the ones where they generate ~10 embreos in
vitro, implant the healthiest looking 2 or 3 and hope that one takes,
and then INCINERATE the left overs? Sometimes repeat 3 or 4 times
before the couple actually gets pregnant.

These embreos are being discarded as medical waste, and are not the
results of ethically-dubious "baby factory" women pumping them out. In
a society that encourages organ donation, it would to me seem
consistant if it were legal for a couple getting fertility treatment to
choose to donate some of the stem cells from one or more of those
embreos to research science. 

> China has been less than concerned with human rights in the past, and
> obviously seems to be continuing in that regards....

I've heard absolutely no reports that anyone in China is setting up
baby farms to pump out embreos. While I'll be the first to admit that
their track record is bad, that seems rather out of character for the
government there. Please source your rather grotesque accusation, or
withdraw.

Emily

--
Emily Smirle
"I hit him so hard he fell off the Internet." - Penny Arcade