Scientists Outraged By Block on Stem Cell Research

ponder said:
The weird thing is a so called 'backwards' religion (some people opinions) like Islam for example has no issue with stem cell research, neither does Judaism. Maybe it's time we convert those yankees :D
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It isn't even the entire religion of Christianity. I'm sure if you asked the average Christian on the street how they felt about it they would say the potential benefits outweigh the loss of embryos. Especially when we consider that the eggs from which the embryos originated, given zero intervention by man, would probably not have been fertilised anyway as a women has a massive amount of eggs that are just never utilised.

Come to think of it we have a horrifically wasteful and inefficient reproductive cycle. Good thing we're so smart.
 
We know so little about consciousness, as it is. I don't mean just recognising ourselves in the mirror, etc. I mean - why do I experience everything from one unique perspective coupled to one blob of molecules in the universe? The molecules making up my body are hardly unique, at least compared to those of others. So why can't "I", whatever "I" am, experience other viewpoints? I can't see any mechanistic explanation for that... Certainly, my consciousness is flimsy and can be altered by anaesthetics, drugs, etc. But finding neural and other mechanisms doesn't alter the fact that I have a unique conscious perspective on the world, while the biological machinery is not unique.

I think this is enough reason to give pause when considering playing around with life that may turn out to be just as developed as we are.

(I know about the Minsky's etc who don't believe in consciousness. I find their conclusions hard to swallow, as it implies denying my most basic experiences - gathering data in a rational world - that precede being able to do science of any kind)
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
I think that you're misunderstanding the point. Americans are not unanimously against it - it's a vocal minority that are making decisions for the entire country. You can be damn sure that I'd be pissed if this happened in SA, since SA as a whole is not against it.
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SA as a whole is not against it? How would you know? SA as a whole is for traditional medicine - it's the minority that believes this is a stupid practice...
 
Ok seriously dudes, is it really necessary to get personal and tune a man about his job? :O That's a bit harsh..
 
smokey said:
SA as a whole is not against it? How would you know? SA as a whole is for traditional medicine - it's the minority that believes this is a stupid practice...
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Thankfully, common sense prevails for now :) I doubt that anybody advocating traditional medicine has any clue as to what stem cell research entails.
to0kenZA said:
Ok seriously dudes, is it really necessary to get personal and tune a man about his job? :O That's a bit harsh..
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Nobody would have mocked him about his job if he didn't constantly pull the "which field of science are you in?" card in every thread that he posts in.

He's welcome to have an opinion as the rest of us do, that's fine, but there's no need to act self-righteous as though he's an authority in every field.
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Nobody would have mocked him about his job if he didn't constantly pull the "which field of science are you in?" card in every thread that he posts in.

He's welcome to have an opinion as the rest of us do, that's fine, but there's no need to act self-righteous as though he's an authority in every field.
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Oh that!

+1.
 
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