Stem Cell Research good or bad?

What do you think about it?

Total Votes:

[ 0 ]

This poll closed on November 24, 2004.
No longer accepting new votes.

[[~Devils~PIMP~666~]]

Personaly I think it is a mixture of good and bad i think it is is good in the aspect on how you re making somebodys life better but i also think it is wrong because u have to take a life to help influence life. 3nodding

[usoki]

Stem cell, are you talking about hemocytoblast stem cells that make other stem cells? If so I think that it's a great idea cause then if someone is suffering from leukopenia they just might be able to use that person's stem cell to make leukocytes.

I feel that there are a lot of advantages to it. It covers, immunity, eurythrocytes, leukocytes and platelets and all of those in turn could better so many things that might be defective in the human body, just as an example, anemia or thromcytosis.

[Westonian]

Mr.Freeze

Personaly I think it is a mixture of good and bad i think it is is good in the aspect on how you re making somebodys life better but i also think it is wrong because u have to take a life to help influence life. 3nodding

Take a life? Whose life is being taken, here?

[LostinLiving]

no life is being taken. They are eggs and sperm that are sitting in a frezzer nothing for them to do but grow stem cells. I dont understand the debate. They let it multiply for a bit then take out the ones they need there is no form to it what so ever

[Mizugameza]

Stem cell research has the potential to grow and become a powerful tool for the medical field. These cells are essentially blank slates that, with the proper introduction of genetic information, can be used form cells from all over the body. These cells could then be used as treatments for many diseases, such as types of cancer or Parkinson's Disease, injuries dealing with the nervous system and the spinal cord, or repairing damage caused by heart disease. The cells could replace defective or infected cells, containing a disease and replacing damaged cells of which our bodies have only a limited supply.

Stem cell research means taking a life to save another? A very common misconception about this topic. ^^ Stem cells can be found in the average adult human being, although they are few and far between and not practical to collect. Every human being has stem cells within them, not just gestating embryos. An alternative with a lot of potential is the collection of stem cells from the blood contained within the umbilical cord and afterbirth that result from childbirth. This is an alternative that doesn't endanger a fetus, whether it is considered 'life' or not. ^^

[ReiDuck]

Mr.Freeze

Personaly I think it is a mixture of good and bad i think it is is good in the aspect on how you re making somebodys life better but i also think it is wrong because u have to take a life to help influence life. 3nodding

The lives are being taken anyway. This is merely being nonwasteful.

[tehdoombunny]

i did a whole debate on pro stemcell for civil law just last week. xd hell i even have my paper right next to me xd anywho i think its good xd
as for creating life just to take it away thing....
the fertilized egg cant grow into a child unless its in a womb. yes they do fertileze the egg in a dish, but it never goes anywhere near a womans womb. its like baking a cake. sure you mix all the ingredience into the bowl. but it will never be a cake unless its stick in the oven.
people say, its bad because the fertilized egg has the potential to grow into a child. but everything has the potential to be something diffrent. a piece of metal has the potential to be used to make a pipe bomb, but it can also be made into an IV needle, which could save someones life.

[Shiberude]

Personally I think that stem cell research is alright, but I don't believe that it should be done by taking cells from human fetuses. I personally don't believe that babies should qualify as people until they at least gain some sort of personality (Until that point I believe them to be nothing more than animals) However, because they have the POTENTIAL to become people, I don't believe that fetuses should be aborted or used scientifically in any way unless it has no chance of survival.

However, I've heard that stem cells can also be drawn from Umbilical cords. For this reason I greatly back the consept of preserving umbilical cords for stem cell research rather than disposing of them.

[gypsytea]

Shiberude

However, I've heard that stem cells can also be drawn from Umbilical cords. For this reason I greatly back the consept of preserving umbilical cords for stem cell research rather than disposing of them.

Jackpot. You sir, win 1000 gold. Not really, but anyway ....

I was watching the news a few weeks ago when I caught a segment that focused on stem cell research up in Canada. There's an organization that was newly created whose focus is to collect these umbilical cords, draw the stem cells from them, and have them readily available as donations. Kinda like a blood drive, except this requires more pain (labor). Personally, I applaud them and wish them the best of luck.

Stem cell research is probably one of the best things we can do. On a lecture I listened to about it, this could potentially lead to the overcoming of cancer, AIDS, and probably even death itself. Embryonic stem cell research is okay in my book, and I'm a pro-life Catholic, but to go with what the Church believes, I'll support the umbilical cord method much more readily.

[Munchkin84]

I have mixed feelings about stem cell research, but mostly am in favor of it. After all, you aren't really destroying a life, there isn't a life to begin with...they're just cells. I'm pro-life but I have a hard time believing we should defend the "life" of some cells in a petri dish at the cost of very innovative research that will save many lives.

[Ten Words]

Stem cells are mostly taken from rejected in-vitro cell clusters. No life is lost that wouldn't be thrown out in the first place. Stem cell research can cure or at least help treat diseases like Alzheimers and Parkinsons disease.

[Foetus In Fetu]

Shiberude

Personally I think that stem cell research is alright, but I don't believe that it should be done by taking cells from human fetuses.

We couldn't take them from human fetuses. Human fetuses are much too differentiated to have stem cells worth extracting. Stem cells are taken from a blastocyst of days old.

Shiberude

However, because they have the POTENTIAL to become people, I don't believe that fetuses should be aborted or used scientifically in any way unless it has no chance of survival.

They don't really have the potential to become people. They would be thrown out otherwise or even if left alone they would die from not being implanted in the womb.

Shiberude

However, I've heard that stem cells can also be drawn from Umbilical cords. For this reason I greatly back the consept of preserving umbilical cords for stem cell research rather than disposing of them.

Of course stem cells from the umbilical cord, adult stem cells, etc. are useful but there are some things that you just can't do with them because they're far too differentiated.

gypsytea

Embryonic stem cell research is okay in my book, and I'm a pro-life Catholic, but to go with what the Church believes, I'll support the umbilical cord method much more readily.

Doesn't the Catholic Church believe that the soul is bestowed at conception? I'm interested to know what your line of reasoning for supporting stem cell research is (but not for the sake of being nitpicky or anything like that, I'm geniunely interested).

Of course, I like this thread on stem cell research better: shameless self-promotion.

EDIT: Oops. Can you take lessons in quoting people correctly? I could do with some.

[gypsytea]

Foetus In Fetu

Shiberude

gypsytea

Embryonic stem cell research is okay in my book, and I'm a pro-life Catholic, but to go with what the Church believes, I'll support the umbilical cord method much more readily.

Doesn't the Catholic Church believe that the soul is bestowed at conception? I'm interested to know what your line of reasoning for supporting stem cell research is (but not for the sake of being nitpicky or anything like that, I'm geniunely interested).

To tell the truth, I'm not too sure about the church's belief on the soul, but I do know that it believes that life begins at that exact moment, which is why they're so heavily against abortion. I find it weird, though, that I'm both pro-life and pro-embryonic stem cell research. I think that the major reason is because I want to work the medical field in the future, and as such, I've accumulated a lot of information here and there over the years. Anyway, I say that sometimes, a sacrifice is necessary, even when it's the life of what could have potentially become a great human. But look at it--if Jesus never died, in Christian belief, we would never have been saved. My history teacher says the reverse is true, too (if George Bush, Sr. had died in WWII, we may never have had a 9/11).

Anyway, here's my logic. Sure, lives will be lost for this embryonic stem cell research, but think about all the lives that will be saved. It sounds Machiavellian, I know, but I really do think that the ends justify the means in this case. If the research goes right, we may have a cure for cancer within 10 years, AIDS in 30 ... and we may even be able to lengthen the human lifespan significantly within the century.

[Foetus In Fetu]

I think that the issues of stem cell research and abortion are seperate enough to support one and not the other but until now I didn't think anyone actually did. I think, though, that if you were to take pro-life as to be "for life" then you could easily justify supporting stem cell research to people who understood as much about the issue as you do.

[gypsytea]

The thing about the difference between abortion and embryonic stem cell research is that it comes down to one thing--the termination of life, as held by Catholic views at least. But Church always said that there is no greater love than giving your life for another ... well ... I don't know how to argue this point. I mean, you can say that through abortion, the child is sacrificing its life so that you may live (which is true in many cases ... my dad's friend was presented with the choice of aborting her child and living or giving birth and dying--she chose to give birth, though). I guess it's that stem cell research goes toward the greater good?