Hi Joanne
Joanne Wrote:
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> A cure for diabetes will be healing a human
> pancreas,
as this article shows
[
news.bbc.co.uk]
one of the more promising lines of research is from cells harvested from the pancreas of a dead donor. This is promising stuff!!! Now imagine if you can remove the dead person from the equation and grow them on demand. Wouldn't that be great!!!
Now again in this example they are using a serum derived from cows that isn't as effective, but this technology, if progressed could solve that!
> After all, will the cells be
> fully human or have a couple of sheep enzymes here
> and there?
Sorry Joanne you are scaremongering in the most unfounded way! Surely the answer is to do proper controlled research not to lock all the ideas away in a draw, stick your head in the sand and pretend it never happened.
> There was an interesting debate on stem cell
> research on the Catholic TV channel that I watched
> a couple of months ago, and posted links here. I
> don't know if anyone else watched it. One point
> that was made was that there are different kinds
> of stem cell research, and most of us do not know
> about it. Cells from embryos are one kind, but
> adult stem cells can also be used. According to
> this show, it is only the adult stem cell work
> that is yielding good results. Embryonic cells
> are different from adult cells in that they are
> harder to control and more like cancer in some
> respects. The adult cells behave better for the
> researchers. Aside from morality issues, which
> the Catholic church has, there is this other
> practical difference which no one talks about. I
> had hoped that someone who knows more than I do
> about biology (looks around for Pete) had watched
> and could comment.
Though I didn't see the program you talked about (I'm not Catholic so with greatest respect have no wish or need to watch a TV channle like that... just about the only thing I watch now is the new Dr Who, now Cassanova has finished). Did read an article a while back which was taking about stem cells harvested from adults, and I'm fairly certain it was from bone marrow (or at least somewhere in the bone!). A very interesting area which, as I feel with everything in this topic, needs full exploring.
>
> >
> > Ask the question! What is the difference
> between
> > an animal harvested for food and an animal
> > harvested for organs?
>
> Quite a difference, because the animal harvest for
> food is all animal, not part human.
so because its growing one seperate organ for another species its now part human... I think you are blurring the line too easily!
>
> >
> > Nothing its still serving our needs at the
> end of
> > the day.
>
> Is that why animals exist? To serve our needs?
> Or are we all part of an ecosystem that works best
> if we cooperate with it, understand it, and
> respect it?
>
Please... really don't try and take the moral highground with me about eco-systems. I've spent many holidays actually doing things to try and save eco-systems as opposed to just talking about it and 'morally' supporting it like most people do (and please note I'm not accusing you of that, if you actively work and help and put time to that cause thats GREAT!). BUT a sheep being reared in captivity is not part of a natural eco-system. Its seperate. It is neither predator nor prey. It is build for one purpose.
Again I think you are unnecessarily trying to blurring the line
MikeS