Ronald Reagans wife fights Bush on Embryo research

[obd]

Nancy Reagon, the wife of former president Ronald Reagan, has officially stated she opposses Bush's ban on stem cell research, calling it "a waste". Apparently, Bush is too much of a religious nitcase even for the Reagans.... here is the link:

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20040509033709990001

[Argyll]

WTF has this got to do with a Military site?..................moved to off topic.

[Seoulstriker]

If you think that someone is a nutcase for wanting to prevent harvesting of children, then you are truly clueless.

3.Proponents of cloning advocate its use for reproduction and therapy. The proponents believe that if a couple cannot reproduce normally, such as problems with sperm or ovum production, they should be allowed to produce biologically related children. So instead of accepting donor egg or sperm, the cell of the mother or father will be fused into an enucleated ovum and the child would develop. The proponents also believe that cloning should be used for therapy. Because the greatest problem with transplanting cells back into a human is immunorejection, transplantation can be most efficient if the cells to be transplanted are genetically identical to the patient. So, the patient can be cloned and the blastocyst of the clone can be harvested for embryonic stem cells. These stem cells can be grown into organs or tissues for transplant into the patient. (Bioethics.gov)


4.Opponents believe that cloning for research involves the creation of life for the purpose of its destruction and believe that allowing any cloning will encourage researchers to go beyond the blastocyst stage and research the full development of clones. Opponents argue that if the embryo is respected as an equal of a full human being, then the destruction of a large number of embryos for the specific purpose of treating a patient or for research would be absolutely horrible. This harvesting of embryos would reduces intrinsic human dignity to a resource. Opponents also argue that the use of the blastocyst for the inner-cell mass is an early step in the possible research of cloning. So, researchers could clone humans and allow the development of the child past the blastocyst stage. If the stages past the blastocyst are considered equal with humans, then the creation of the clones for the sole purpose of seeing it develop is as ethical as growing life for its destruction.


5.I am against all forms of cloning because cloning inherently involves destruction of life. Research and therapeutic cloning both involve the creation of human life for the purpose of destruction of that life. Reproductive cloning is especially dangerous. The inefficiencies of cloning mammals to be grown to mature adults are staggering: the ratio of live births to attempts is 1 out of 100 for pigs (Bioethics.gov). Even when the clone is birthed, the clone will encounter severe problems throughout its life. Dolly, a fully functional and normal cloned sheep, encountered lung disease at a very early age (Sciencemuseum.org). The chances that a human is cloned successfully and grows into a healthy adult are dismal. The quality of life of cloned individuals would be horrible because of all the diseases they would face.


6.I support clinical use of xenotransplantation only when the problems of animal viruses infecting humans through the transplant are solved. The threat of viruses which only infected animals then moving on to infect humans is extremely serious. Although clinical trials have been very successful and there were no problems of animal viruses infecting the trial subjects, other clinical tests have shown that it is very easy for the animal viruses to spread to human cells.


7.Xenotransplantation must follow certain guidelines for clinical use and research. First, the transplants must not carry any animal viruses that could infect human cells. Infection from viruses that have never infected humans would pose a very large risk to patients who already have weakened immune systems following surgery. Second, transplants must be as efficient or more efficient than organs transplanted from other humans. If the rate of rejection of xenotransplants is higher than human transplants, then the risks of undergoing surgery and relying on a rejected transplanted heart would outweigh the benefits of the new transplanted heart. Third, the treatment of the animals used to grow the transplants must be proper. The animal should not be made to suffer greatly from tests done on it as was revealed in the one case of a baboon suffering daily from its own xenotransplant (Frontline).

Works Cited
“Dolly the Sheep” Science Museum. 2003.
<http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/dolly/index.asp>
“Frontline: Organ Farm” PBS. 2001.
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/organfarm/>
“Genetic Engineering” Greenpeace. 2003
<http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/campaigns/intro?campaign%5fid=3942>
“Genetically Modified Crops and Food” American Medical Association. 2000.
<http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/print/article/2036-3604.html>
“Human Cloning and Human Dignity” President's Council on Bioethics. 2002.
<http://www.bioethics.gov/reports/cloningreport/background.html>

[NcDeuce]

obd just wants to start a flame war, you are a man of few words and even fewer brain cells.

You been served...

http://www.comedycentral.com/gallery/chappellesshow/images/cs_samjackson2.jpg

rofl

[Seoulstriker]

Was that at me?

[Midtown]

YES

[Rilence]

http://www.comedycentral.com/gallery/chappellesshow/images/cs_samjackson2.jpg
mmm mmm bitch!....yes they deserved to die and i hope they burn in hell! rofl








;) :P

[Seoulstriker]

NcDouche, that was from an assignment I wrote previously. Copy and Paste isn't too difficult. :bash:

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

So whats the score with Nancy wanting to repeal the ban on stem cell research is she getting a bung out of this.

[NcDeuce]

NcDouche, that was from an assignment I wrote previously. Copy and Paste isn't too difficult. :bash:

?

Edit: I was talking to obd but in that case...make me a banana coniac biatch!

http://www.comedycentral.com/gallery/chappellesshow/images/cs_seas2pics_9.jpg

rofl

[obd]

Soelstriker, she wasnt talking about cloning...... Stem cell research in the way it is being proposed is for research into solving genetic desieases that kill thousands every year, including Ronald Reagans disorder......it has nothign to do with cloning human beings................and Bush opposses it.

I oppose cloning as well Soelstriker but I dont oppose stem cell research to save lives and prevent horrible genetic desease.....

[Seoulstriker]

Soelstriker, she wasnt talking about cloning...... Stem cell research in the way it is being proposed is for research into solving genetic desieases that kill thousands every year, including Ronald Reagans disorder......it has nothign to do with cloning human beings................and Bush opposses it.

I oppose cloning as well Soelstriker but I dont oppose stem cell research to save lives and prevent horrible genetic desease.....

What's kind of funny is that people don't understand the science of stem cell research. You see, embryonic stem cells are built such that they can mutiply exponentially without any hinderance on their ability to multiply in the future. In essence, if you have one line of stem cells, you are able to do as much research you possibly want on those cells. If you want more research, you just grow more cells. There is very little offered with using brand new stem cell lines for research.

What's also funny is that Bush never put a ban on stem cell research. He put a ban on all types of cloning. He also supports the funding of stem cell research done on existing stem cell lines. There is research being done on stem cells and is being funded. People don't understand what was originally stated by President Bush in 2001...

[JiJoMacLE45]

Is Nancy trying to find a way to keep Ron kicking for another 20 years. Let the man go Nancy, just let him go. Put him on a horse and let the guy ride off into the sunset.

[Ratamacue]

Seoul, I would've expected more intelligence from you. You can't harvest clones at this point of technological achievement, otherwise we would be doing so with animals. What Bush has really ****ed over is embryonic stem cell research, which isn't solely important to cloning. With embryonic stem cells, you can grow entirely new organs for people using their own genetic material. That means that tissue rejection would become very rare, and waiting list for a donor would not be until someone dies with a compatible organ of your need but rather until you can get a person's stem cells shipped out, an organ produced, and shipped back. Obviously this isn't entirely possible right now, but that's why the technology needs to be pursued. What Bush has done in the US is disallowed the creation of stem cell harvests from new genetic material because the embryo is "killed" in order to do so.

My opinion is that cloning needs to be banned, not embryonic stem cell research. Cloning is not only extremely impractical but its success rate is very poor and often results in birth defects - not to mention that there are virtually no practical benefits from it.

[Seoulstriker]

Seoul, I would've expected more intelligence from you. You can't harvest clones at this point of technological achievement, otherwise we would be doing so with animals. What Bush has really f*** over is embryonic stem cell research, which isn't solely important to cloning. With embryonic stem cells, you can grow entirely new organs for people using their own genetic material. That means that tissue rejection would become very rare, and waiting list for a donor would not be until someone dies with a compatible organ of your need but rather until you can get a person's stem cells shipped out, an organ produced, and shipped back. Obviously this isn't entirely possible right now, but that's why the technology needs to be pursued. What Bush has done in the US is disallowed the creation of stem cell harvests from new genetic material because the embryo is "killed" in order to do so.

My opinion is that cloning needs to be banned, not embryonic stem cell research. Cloning is not only extremely impractical but its success rate is very poor and often results in birth defects - not to mention that there are virtually no practical benefits from it.

Embryonic stem cell research can and does go on. When they get the cells to differentiate into liver cells and then use those liver cells and create a liver, call me up, and then we can discuss whether or not there should be harvesting of embryos for the cells needed for the actual treatment.

Remember, you don't need to harvest new cells to do the research. But you do need the cells of the patients' embryos if you want to be able to treat them.

(Cloning of cells is just induced mitosis.)


(The cloning thing from my first post was just something from the assignment I wrote. I didn't read it over again when I posted. Just now I realize that I also included something about xenotransplantation. :oops: )

[Durandal]

I have to say, I am on Nancy's side on this one. The common sense "legal" answer to all of this would be to make "full human" cloning illegal.

http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,57944,00.html