At least this means the research will go on. Why don’t people bug the fertility clinics over their wasted embryos?
At the end of a passionate debate, which pitted liberal and conservative countries against each other, Germany dropped its objections and threw its weight behind the compromise. This will allow individual member states to continue to spend money from the EU’s £37bn science budget on research into human embryonic stem cells.
This article was followed by another predicting an American brain drain:
A week after George Bush limited federal funds for the highly sensitive area, the EU warned Washington that “disillusioned” US scientists will want to make the most of Europe’s more liberal rules.
Why is it that the only issue Bush has any spine on is this one? Where was his veto pen while the GOP spent us into the poor house?
That only deals with a small percentage of the waste. Good idea, but it doesn’t make the problem go away. Stem cell research is no different.
Milo: I was just telling you what Bush did. This was back in 2001, and if you look back, you will find that even then he was focused on funding adult stem cell research. Also, remember the climate at the time. Stem cells were going to cure every disease and disorder known to man, as is promised with every new technique. Bush had to compromise on some level. As for my personal opinion on his choice, I’m not sure. It’s a really messy issue.
“Stem cell research is the next step (up or down) from using animals for research. No matter how far human research goes using animals, it will never go as far as if they experiment on real humans, embryonic or not.”
We experiment on humans all the time. We just generally start with mice, move to non-human primates, and then move to humans. This avoids as much harm to humans as possible. Also, as adults, we can decide whether to take part in these studies. The main concern from critics is that there is not choice involved when disposing of lives this young, as in abortion.
37 “…it will never go as far as if they experiment on real humans, embryonic or not.”
Agreed.
Fen-Phen, Vioxx, and Thalidomide come to mind…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide
The failure of these tests to discover the drug’s disastrous consequences highlighted the inadequacy of testing methodologies in use at that time. This resulted in a dramatic increase in animal testing across a broad range of species in varying stages of pregnancy and lifecycle.
Fen-Phen, Vioxx, and Thalidomide come to mind…
And DES…
Kevin: Bush is funding fetal stem cell research and that is ‘fundamentally’ inconsistent with his rhetoric about the “culture of life”. If Bush is “against funding research using fetal stem cells only” why does he do it?. Where did it say that he “had to compromise”. He was riding massive opinion poll leads and had the support of Congress at the time you say that he “had to compromise”. Who did he have to compromise with?
37: “We experiment on humans all the time. We just generally start with mice, move to non-human primates, and then move to humans. This avoids as much harm to humans as possible. Also, as adults, we can decide whether to take part in these studies. The main concern from critics is that there is not choice involved when disposing of lives this young, as in abortion.”
That is entirely my point. Rats and mice, “non-human primates”, all have no choice. Now, humans also have no choice.
think of it this way… in the bible “revelations” perdicts that you will be raised from the dead and if you lived a moral life be given life eternal. well step right up… soon they be able to capture enough dna from any grave to clone the person… then with saved fetal stem cells the said person can be kept alive eternally. so… is the bible so wrong? 😉