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Embryonic Stem cells are primal, undifferentiated cells which have the unique potential to produce any kind of cell in the body, of which there are about 220 possibilities. Adult Stem Cells have limited use. Although obviously they are less controversial, they can produce only a few types of cell. Existing stem cell lines (the only ones that can currently be worked on in the US) are degrading, and so although they will have some benefit to research, it will not be for very long and the degradation can pooch the results. One of the most promising areas of research is Alzheimer's disease, the slow lingering disease that killed Ronald Reagan, and which prompted Nancy Reagan and all of her family, except for Michael Reagan, to mount a campaign to encourage President Bush to relax restrictions on embryo stem cell research. Fifty-eight senators, almost all Democrats, sent a letter to President Bush, urging the same action. The Republican problem with this is a moral one (although as can be seen above that position changes when it is your husband, wife, son or daughter that can benefit from the research). The question of when human life begins is the real bugger for the Pro-Lifers, who believe that life begins at conception. I can tell you that life ends at conception, at least the previous life of the parents. Personally, I don't give a rat's ass when life begins. I don't think of life as sacred. We are a fungus growing on the face of this planet and if some of it gets scraped off now and then, so much the better. But let's say for the sake of argument that we can differentiate between life and human life. Killing non-human life forms is okay - God knows, we're really good at it. So is an embryo a human life? What is an embryo?  This is. Or at least this is what is being used for stem cell research. When a woman undergoes in-vitro fertilization, she is given medication that causes her to produce perhaps two dozen mature ova. These are extracted and then fertilized, usually with sperm provided by her husband or male partner. About three days later, surviving embryos are at the blastocyst stage - a collection of 4 to 10 cells, like in the picture above. This embryo has no self awareness, memory, thought processes, or consciousness. (Which makes it difficult to differentiate them from the population at large) It has no brain, central nervous system, mouth, heart, lungs, or other internal organs. They are smaller than a pin-prick. They consist of a number of identical, undifferentiated cells which contain human DNA. They do have the potential to grow into fetuses and become newborn babies. But that is not what they are yet. Embryos that don't get used up in the fertilization process either get damaged in the freezing process of destroyed. They will never develop into human beings. They are simply a collection of 4-10 cells that carry information. A human being contains approximately 100 Trillion cells. Understanding all this, since they never were human beings and never will be anything other than waste, would it not make sense to try and do some good with these cells? President Bush will veto the bill that just passed the House to free up the restrictions on federal stem cell research. I guess there is no history of Alzheimers in his family.
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Name: Catpewk
Age: 43
Status: Separated
Kids: Yes
Cats: Yes
Fish: Yes
Dogs: No
Lemurs: No
Profession: Geek
Passion: Writer
Religion: In Progress
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