Stem Cell Research and the Media

[tinpra]

So I ran across this article on MSN last month. If you don't feel like clicking the link, it's about a breakthrough in stem cell research in which "skin cells [were] made to mimic stem cells." As someone who's against embryonic stem cell research, I have no problem with it. According to the article it's still risky and experimental business and

Comments

[randomposting]

What do you feel about the embryos that would just be discarded no matter what, from invitro fertilization clinics, etc?

[tinpra]

That's a great question, particularly since I hadn't thought about it. My first reaction is I don't know, but the more I ponder it the more I'm against it. The basis of my issue with embryonic stem cell research is probably the basis of anyone who's anti -- I believe that an individual's life starts at the moment of fertilization. An egg and a sperm, as separate entities, belong to the woman and the man. An embryo is neither egg nor sperm and belongs to itself. To destroy an embryo is to destroy an individual.

That of course brings up the larger question of what to do with viable in vitro fertilized eggs. I had thought that all viable eggs were placed in the mother b/c there's no way of knowing whether they will all take. Is that not true?

[jaguarx13]

No, they aren't. The majority of them are kept in cryogenic storage indefinitely.

[tinpra]

I thought it was something like that.

[jaguarx13]

I guess I'm a more up on the whole stem cell thing because my father had an autogolous stem cell transplant (using his own cells) as part of the chemotherapy he underwent in a clinical trial for mantle cell lymphoma. I read just about everything about it that comes out on the net, in magazines and scientific journals, so I think I'm more aware of the adult research than the average person, because it had a personal impact on me. Sometimes, I think the various articles focus on the embryonic research and forget to mention other adult findings because everyone knows about the former rather than the latter, and because it's the standard the adult research has to match. At least the researcher in that article actually talks about the ethics of his work, which to me is both surprising and refreshing. Too bad it's buried in the last two paragraphs.

[tinpra]

And it seems like you have to be someone who's personally interested in stem cell stuff to know any of the various options out there, controversial, ethical or no. Which I'm sure is true of many things, particularly things having to do with medicine and medical science. I also realize I'm probably asking a lot of the media, but I feel like so many people get all their knowledge and base so many of their opinions on what they see in the media that the media ought to be more responsible. But responsibility doesn't necessarily sell papers or generate clicks. And I guess I can't have everything all at once? *sigh* A coworker of mine always said I think too hard.

I missed you last night, btw.

[jaguarx13]

Sorry bebe - we had a guest over, so I was offline all day. *hugs*

I think the media should be telling us everything, but sadly, we only get to hear about what they want us to. I do more research on all things medical because I used to be a massage therapist, and I'm a medical herbalist. I quit doing it because I felt I needed more education - like a degree in naturopathic medicine, which I still may do one day. But I read all kinds of medical things voraciously, lol.