An excerpt from a news article I read this morning:

Researchers in South Korea have become the first to successfully clone a human embryo, and then cull from it master stem cells that many doctors consider key to one day creating customized cures for diabetes, Parkinson's and other diseases.
Embryonic stem cells may have great medical potential, but their use raises ethical questions. This is not cloning to make babies, but to create medicine.
It's sure to revive international controversy over whether to ban all human cloning, as the Bush administration wants, or to allow this ''therapeutic cloning'' that might eventually let patients grow their own replacement tissue.
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I'm curious to know how you folks feel about this. On a personal note, I watched my dad slowly die a very painful and horrible death due to Parkinson's Disease in its vilest form. Technology such as this may have saved his life. I am, therefore, leaning toward approving such research/development if, indeed, it can save countless lives and prevent anyone from suffering the way so many suffer with these dreadful diseases.

 

I've got nothing against it. The whole "we shouldn't be playing God argument" doesn't cut it for me, since that's just one opinion, and a lot of people have differing ones.

I was very young when I watched my grandfather wither away from Parkinsons. It's a rather frightening thing to watch as a youngster. If this can cure it, I'm all for it.

 

Oh, and regardless of what lawmakers in the US decide, research will go forward in other countries... and our top geneticists will move there to continue their research.

 

Yes - that 'Playing God' argument doesn't carry any weight with me - if I believed that, I wouldn't even be taking aspirin or keeping the rain off of myself by living in a house. Man's place in the universe IS to 'play God'.

Research will continue, regardless of any government's position or the opinions of the non-medical community. If somethig comes of the research, most who currently oppose it would certainly be willing to partake of its fruits, I'd bet.

JonasM

 

I have no qualms about the South Korea project. You can read more about it in the Seattle PI.

However, the science fiction horror of cloned humans walking about has gotten one step closer. I could do without that. Would they be named after their petri dish?

 

That's pretty much the way I feel about it.

 

I already have a clone. He and I have some major issues. For instance, I've lost much of my hair and I can't go to him for a hair harvest 'cause he's lost his too! What good is he?

But seriously, there are some frightening things about cloning that make it very risky. Cells "know" when to start and stop growing. They also know where they should be located relative to all other cells. For instance, the cells in your nose know they should be in the center of your face and not on your shoulder. They also know that the nose should point down rathner than up (so you won't drown). Cells also know how to perform over time. This the aging process.

Scientists have learned how to "start" a cell, but getting it to "stop" when and where it should isn't quite as easy. The few successfully cloned animals have had all sorts of cellular disfunctions. Almost all have experienced rapid aging.

I can't see how cloning humans at this stage of scientific understanding can be considered ethical. I do,however, think that cloning for stem cell research is entirely ethical.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Smokee
I have no qualms about the South Korea project. You can read more about it in the Seattle PI.