Korea goes where the World dares not tread - stem-cells

MrBishop

MrBishop

Well-Known Member
South Korea has taken a step towards the use of stem-cells and their cultivation that the rest of the world was not and continues to not want to take. They claim to have cloned human cells and removed the stem-cells for research purposes.

The project was directed by Dr. Woo Suk Hwang and Dr. Shin Yong Moon of Seoul National University. Joining the two Korean doctors at the final stages of the project was an American scientist, Dr. Jose B. Cibelli. While an American firm, Advanced Cell Technologies, had claimed to be first to clone human embryos, that experiment led to the death of the embryos before stem cells could be extracted. In a Korean experiment, 16 women donated 242 eggs, but produced only one cloned stem cell line. Nevertheless, the fact that the Korean scientists were able to coax an embryo into the blastocyst stage, thus producing the much sought after stem cells, was a scientific milestone. The scientists had used 176 selected eggs, removing the genetic material from the eggs and replacing it with genetic material derived from cumulus cells--cells attached to the egg itself.
Click to expand...

This opens up a whole Pandora's Box of problems, both socially and morally. Stem-cell research is needed...it will most likely lead to the cure for many of the worlds incureable diseases and ailments (including AIDS, Blindness, Spinal-cord injuries etc.), but the cloning issue and the moral implications of it are clouding the results.

The question: In light of Korea's successful cloning of the human-cells for forward-reaching research, will, or rather, can the rest of the world allow Korea to be the sole place where stem-cell research exists (and human cell cloning), or will some human cloning have to be allowed in order to allow the world to compete?

In other words...can our morals stand up to the stress of giving Korea a monopoly on the next step in modern-medicine?
 
Professur said:
Like there weren't enough Koreans to start with.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

They aren't trying to clone humans...just human cells. You let them grow for a few days and extract the stem-cells. Use the stem-cells to cure the diseases, fix problems etc...

They've decided that instead of using abortuses for medical research, that they'd grow their own.
 
Yes: they're also trying to harvest stem-cells off the unwanted embryos left over from artificial insemination. Problem is: studies are showing that freshly harvested stem-cells are better than frozen ones. Guess it comes down to that fresh meat versus frozen thing, huh? Also, since the clones aren't inseminated with sperm, and they don't attach to the uterine wall (ie grown in a petri dish), they're also theorising that the clones probably wouldn't make it to term if they were trying actually clone a human. As it is, they're not - they're just cloning body parts.
 
Don't they know Dubya thinks that shit is sacreligious and unamerican? We should attack them post haste. Maybe tomorrow morning. :eek6:
 
MrBishop said:
They aren't trying to clone humans...just human cells. You let them grow for a few days and extract the stem-cells. Use the stem-cells to cure the diseases, fix problems etc...

They've decided that instead of using abortuses for medical research, that they'd grow their own.
Click to expand...

So far, Bish, so far. I'll remind you that I said a while back that it doesn't matter whether we think it's wrong or we won't do it, somebody will. In fact, I've been saying it for years. You just can't put the genie back itn the bottle no matter how hard you try.
 
Yeah...it is a Pandora's Box, but in this case, one with a huge slippery slope and the Americas have decided to close the whole ride.

If you restrict the whole idea of stem-cell research because of the source of stem-cells, you stop the research. If you put restrictions on the goals of stem-cell research and cloning, then the ride goes on, but with some controlable rules.

Ie.
You can clone 'fertilized' cells for 3 weeks only
You can clone single organs, but not whole systems
You can clone skin but only to a maximum size of 10x10ft
You can clone muscle,bone and cartiledge, but not a combination thereof
You cannot clone a whole human, nor more than 25% of one
You cannot clone the human brain
You cannot clone reproductive organs

etc...
 
chcr said:
So far, Bish, so far. I'll remind you that I said a while back that it doesn't matter whether we think it's wrong or we won't do it, somebody will. In fact, I've been saying it for years. You just can't put the genie back itn the bottle no matter how hard you try.
Click to expand...

Creating and/or finding a source for stem-cells is far more lucrative and useful than cloning a whole human being. I'm not saying that no-one will try it (if fact, I believe that it's already been tried and someone claims to have done it succesfully)...but human cloning is not the Korean's goal...as Prof alluded to.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top