Dr. Kerry Feeding Off Alzheimers/Stem Cell Research Hopes?

[Penn]

Meet Dr. Kerry and His Cure for Alzheimer's

Teresa Heinz Kerry isn't the only spouse in this year's presidential race who can let fly. Quiet, ladylike Laura Bush seems to have finally had it with John Kerry's playing doctor. Specifically, his repeating the words Stem Cell Research like a magic spell that'll cure Alzheimer's and maybe every other ill the flesh is heir to.

Dr. Kerry recites his mantra like a magician saying Abracadabra! What he doesn't emphasize is that he's advocating experimentation on human embryos.

It all got to be too much for our usually quiet-spoken, every-hair-in-place First Lady, who suddenly morphed into Scrappy Wife of Presidential Candidate. "That's so ridiculous," Laura Bush told an AP reporter.

And it is. No reputable scientist I've ever heard of (as opposed to Dr. Kerry) is claiming that experimenting with human embryos is going to cure Alzheimer's.



Seems to me I heard this arguement last week in one of our threads?

[geminigrl]

Originally posted by penncam
Meet Dr. Kerry and His Cure for Alzheimer's

Teresa Heinz Kerry isn't the only spouse in this year's presidential race who can let fly. Quiet, ladylike Laura Bush seems to have finally had it with John Kerry's playing doctor. Specifically, his repeating the words Stem Cell Research like a magic spell that'll cure Alzheimer's and maybe every other ill the flesh is heir to.

Dr. Kerry recites his mantra like a magician saying Abracadabra! What he doesn't emphasize is that he's advocating experimentation on human embryos.

It all got to be too much for our usually quiet-spoken, every-hair-in-place First Lady, who suddenly morphed into Scrappy Wife of Presidential Candidate. "That's so ridiculous," Laura Bush told an AP reporter.

And it is. No reputable scientist I've ever heard of (as opposed to Dr. Kerry) is claiming that experimenting with human embryos is going to cure Alzheimer's.



Seems to me I heard this arguement last week in one of our threads?

When you say "human embryos" are you referring to cord blood? Or the stem cells that come from cord blood?

[Toxick]

Originally posted by geminigrl
When you say "human embryos" are you referring to cord blood? Or the stem cells that come from cord blood?

Are the stem cells found in cord blood considered "embroyonic" stem-cells?

[Penn]

Originally posted by Toxick
Are the stem cells found in cord blood considered "embroyonic" stem-cells?

I couldn't say. I'm not a geneticist(sp?) or medical scientist, I'm into hardware: nuts and bolts.

Maybe we have people on the forums that can shed some light.

[geminigrl]

Originally posted by Toxick
Are the stem cells found in cord blood considered "embroyonic" stem-cells?

I don't know, but I don't consider getting blood from a cord "embroyonic" for stem cells, to be used later in life, because the blood is taken after the baby is born, but I would have a problem if the blood was being taken while the baby was still in the uterus.

if that make sense...

[Ken King (Premo)]

Originally posted by geminigrl
I don't know, but I don't consider getting blood from a cord "embroyonic" for stem cells, to be used later in life, because the blood is taken after the baby is born, but I would have a problem if the blood was being taken while the baby was still in the uterus.

if that make sense...

They aren't taking blood they are talking about growing an embryo for several days and then killing it to use the stem cells at that stage of development.

[Toxick]

Originally posted by geminigrl
I don't know, but I don't consider getting blood from a cord "embroyonic" for stem cells, to be used later in life, because the blood is taken after the baby is born, but I would have a problem if the blood was being taken while the baby was still in the uterus.

if that make sense...

Yes, that makes sense.


But the thing that has me wondering now, and what I was asking was from the rhetorical standpoint.

It seems to me that the reason these right wingers, most notably President Bush, are opposed to embroyonic stem cell research was because Embryo == Human Being. Same reason they're against abortion.


What I was wondering was if they were calling Umbilical stem cells "embryonic" and opposing that based on a turn of phrase. Because I'm all for stem cell research. I'm not, however, in favor of killing children to do so.

[Ken King (Premo)]

Here is the NIH site for stem cells: http://stemcells.nih.gov/index.asp

[Tonio]

Originally posted by Ken King
They aren't taking blood they are talking about growing an embryo for several days and then killing it to use the stem cells at that stage of development.

I was under the impression that in vitro fertilization produces "surplus" (I hate the thought of it) embryos because only one can be implanted. Accurate?

[Ken King (Premo)]

Originally posted by Tonio
I was under the impression that in vitro fertilization produces "surplus" (I hate the thought of it) embryos because only one can be implanted. Accurate?

Not sure, I have always procreated the old fashioned way. But don't they place a number of embryos in the host hoping that at least one will take hold (which is why there are sometimes multiple children born using fertilization techniques such as this)?