Well I'm not pro life and I don't really have an issue with the using the embryos or disposing them after ...

but that's really interesting. I don't even know what to think of it. Cow's eggs and human cells........ weird.

Ummmm...NO. I don't really think we should tamper with the local animals, Dr. Moreau.

My GOD! Millions of people, many of them children and babies, are suffering unspeakably and dying all over the world, and this research could save some of them!

You don't want to tamper with the animals? How do you think almost all medical research is done?

FIRST of all, I think that using animals for research is barbaric and disgusting.

SECOND of all, I think the idea of combining genetic materials from different animals is horrifying. Have you hever seen a mouse growing a human ear on its back? That is a freakish abomination! Just because we CAN does not mean we SHOULD do something.

THIRDLY, YES millions (billions, actually) of people all over the world

are consuming it at a rate which is completely unsustainable. We are like hideous locusts who will completely decimate this entire planet and then look around and say "uh,,, wot we got to eat then?" Because there are TOO MANY OF US! Because we have too many children and we have used technology to sustain the lives of sooo many people that in the end it will kill us all....IMHO

Three cheers for research to cure chronic dieseases!

Three boos for animal research!

This gets 1.5 of each.

Futureshock, for myself in regards to animal related research, I find it hard to reconcile that while animals are so different from humans that it's okay to do research on them (morally) but since animals are so different than humans then why are we doing research on them for medicinal human purposes?

Did that make any sense?

I actually have very ambivalent feelings about animal research. I protested against it in college and almost went to jail.

Animals are not very different from us, which is why we can extrapolate research data to the human population.


Sillyakchick,
Please accept my apology. I very badly misread your meaning in your post.

That's OK. Even if you vehemently disagreed with me, it'd still be OK!

I'm glad you went to jail....I mean, I'm glad you believed that much in it that you were willing to protest and be jailed for it. I haven't done that yet, but it's something I would like to do before i get old. Somehow, they just never see a 5 foot chick as menacing enough to arrest.

I have a problem with this...

The animals genetics could introduce something into the human that is unwanted, and even undesirable.

I worry about the possibility of diseases, etc..


We should stick to embryonic stem cells

Do you mean the mitochondria? (sp?)

I was curious about this also, and here is an answer as to why scientists would want to do this in the first place, and what effects the new dna would cause:


"Because human egg cells are difficult and costly to retrieve from women's ovaries—and because human egg retrieval poses risks to the donors—scientists have been wanting to know whether animal eggs may serve as well. A major question has been whether the remnants of mitochondrial DNA that typically remain in an animal egg would be compatible with the nuclear DNA contributed by the human cell.

The new work suggests that the answer to that question is yes, scientists said—though with a number of caveats. Most important, researchers said, the paper stops short of proving beyond a doubt that the stem cells retrieved from the hybrid embryos are truly capable of growing for long periods of time in lab dishes, and that they can turn into every known kind of cell.

Even so, said Douglas Melton, a Harvard University cell biologist and cloning expert, the work is a big advance because it offers a new system for exploring the mechanisms by which egg cells get adult cells to act in embryonic ways. That could provide deep insights into human development, wound healing and tissue regeneration."
http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2003/Human-Rab bit-Clone-Embryo14aug03.htm

I agree. Stem cells are the way to go!!!

These are embryonic human stem cells, in the animal hybrid model. Did anybody read my previous post?

YES, but 99.9 is not 100%

I became pregnant on BC that was 99.9% effective..

That small percentage could introduce NEGATIVE ANIMAL DISEASE into the mix.

I believe we should STICK to 100% human stem cells, whether from adults or humans.

You didn't read my post. It explains why scientists are turning to these hybrids.

"Because human egg cells are difficult and costly to retrieve from women's ovaries—and because human egg retrieval poses risks to the donors—scientists have been wanting to know whether animal eggs may serve as well. A major question has been whether the remnants of mitochondrial DNA that typically remain in an animal egg would be compatible with the nuclear DNA contributed by the human cell.

I agree 100% with this

I read and understood this. I still advocate using human stem cells and not mixing with any animal parts.

If it helps, I also advocate eating food that is not genetically modified.....etc.

Well then I undestood it differently from you, I guess. I take this article to mean that OBVIOUSLY 100% human embryonic stem cells are the best, but

"Because human egg cells are difficult and costly to retrieve from women's ovaries—and because human egg retrieval poses risks to the donors—scientists have been wanting to know whether animal eggs may serve as well."

[quote=]But opponents believe mixing of human and animal genetic material defies nature.

They are also unhappy about the destruction of embryos that such research inevitably entails.


but the embryos will never be implanted and the cells won't be used for therapy - this is about studying the development of diseases in a Petri dish." [/quote]

Cautiously in favor of this line of research. It will chill the PL OMGZ you're killing a BABY!!1!1! nonsense but open a door for the "you're playing god" routine to start up. This is science.. religion has no place in it. It has the potentional to do much good; the resultant embryo's will be destroyed; not implanted so I see no problem with it.

Harvesting human egg cells and stem cells are two totally different things.

Stem cells come from many places, and can be very easy to obtain. Such as embryos, fetal cells (taken from aborted fetuses), umbilical cord blood, the placenta, and certain adult tissue.

yes human egg retrieval isn't easy, but the point was I think they should just use stem cells and avoid the whole human/animal mix.