Re: [TMIC] RE:THE STEM CELL POST FROM LAST WEEK

[JHarper33]

A few years ago there was a long and heated debate on the list about stem cells, and I certainly don't want to start that up again, but I feel I need to defend against charges of "ignorance" and not caring about people in pain and looking down on the disabled. My objection with stem cell research is the objection to using embryos, and I think that's the case with most people who have trouble with stem cell research. Believing that an embryo is a human life and not just a mass of cells, no matter how much pain I am in or how disabled I am, I couldn't think of ending that life to better my own any more than I could do my neighbor in to harvest his kidney. I think most people can understand the logic of that, even if they disagree with it.   I saw a headline the other day about someone trying to pass a law to protect unborn babies, to prosecute someone who harms a woman in a way to endanger her unborn child. I thought, how sad it is that whether an unborn child is protected or not depends on whether it's wanted.   That said, though, I've seen some very promising studies about adult stem cells and stem cells in umbilical cord blood and that kind of thing. So, it's not the issue of stem cells themselves that there are problems with -- just the use of embryos for it.   Barbara H.     In a message dated 3/4/2006 8:04:54 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: our best hope of beating this thing just may possibly be stem cells,but remember as long as the govt and the bleeding heart ignorant people who are able to go on with their everyday lives and look down on us and do not have to worry about the problems we face everyday have their hands in it,i dont think youll see the therapy in our country for along time.or at least untill an election year when promises are made but not kept.           jeff