clone sheep "Dolly" creator

[WWJD]

"Dolly Creator Rejects Cloning
This past weekend, the movement to ban cloning got some help from an unlikely source--the scientist most famous for attempting it. Professor Ian Wilmut, the creator of Dolly the sheep, publicly announced his decision to abandon "therapeutic cloning" and turn his attention to pro-life alternatives such as those being perfected in Japan with adult stem cells. He believes the "socially acceptable" approach "represents the future for stem cell research," rather than the nuclear transfer method he and his team used 10 years ago in creating Dolly. Although Wilmut was given the go-ahead to pursue human cloning in 2005, the professor has since declined. His decision, on the heels of last week's news that scientists had successfully cloned primates, should put a serious damper on any enthusiasm for projects that require the creation and destruction of cloned embryos. For all of the hype surrounding the monkey breakthrough, a couple of key details were lost on the media. For starters, the team leader of the Oregon primate program, Dr. Shoukhrat Mitalipov, admitted that the "efficiency is low" for the research and it is "not yet a cost effective medical option." Also, some reports estimated that it took over 15,000 monkey eggs to yield just two lines of embryonic stem cells, only one of which is normal. Meanwhile, as scientists waste precious time and resources on a procedure that the majority of the world considers morally unacceptable, pro-life alternatives are effectively treating everything from juvenile diabetes to spinal cord injuries--without the ethical headache. We can only hope that Wilmut's conversion will pull the wool from the eyes of the public, which should result in Congress turning away from spending more taxpayer money on embryonic stem cell research that is both unethical and ineffective."



an underlying truth people are blinded from is that our striving for "perfection" is exactly the thing that is wrecking our lives. it's unneeded and not part of who we really are. we ARE imperfect. if we were all the best, we would be all the same and void of any value.

if I recall, there was someone in the past that wanted to create the PERFECT RACE too. who was that again, and why was it wrong?

an underlying truth people are blinded from is that our striving for "perfection" is exactly the thing that is wrecking our lives. repeated on purpose

 

[VaBusa]

Just remember, he's not turning his back on stem cell research entirely, which by the way is proving to help many in need of alternative therapies...he is turning his back on using embryonic stem cells, those that do indeed destroy embryos. I would venture to say that what he once thought was the "only way" to get from point A to point B was disproved, he opted for the route that would create the least amount of controversy. I'm sure the science behind what he'd initially envisioned is intact, he's just changed the way he goes about it.

Whenever people that are completely against stem cell research chime in, it seems that they forget there are alternative avenues to collecting viable stem cells for research that DO NOT destroy human embryos, and they seem to bypass the simple fact that the goal of stem cell research is NOT to just try to clone beings; there's much that can be done for people with leukemia and sickle cell anemia, new frontiers on the horizon every day that benefit from the use of stem cell research. I've banked my youngest son's stem cells, obtained during his delivery...I hope I never have a need for them, but the research is there to show that stem cell therapy IS helping people from all walks of life with many diseases.

If you go with the line of thinking that we're all flawed and we should just live with it, I guess the entire race would have been wiped out by the plague centuries ago, or TB, why bother trying to find the next "superbug" and fight it? I think science is available to advance our knowledge and extend precious lives, but I do agree there are lines that likely should never be crossed because they do border on the immoral and unethical at the cost of other precious lives.

 

[LA Busa]

I support human cloning.

I want a clone of myself so I can check out my own a**!

SOMEBODY STOP ME!!!

 

[VaBusa]

I support human cloning.

I want a clone of myself so I can check out my own a**!

SOMEBODY STOP ME!!!

 

[WWJD]

Just remember, he's not turning his back on stem cell research entirely, which by the way is proving to help many in need of alternative therapies...he is turning his back on using embryonic stem cells, those that do indeed destroy embryos. I would venture to say that what he once thought was the "only way" to get from point A to point B was disproved, he opted for the route that would create the least amount of controversy. I'm sure the science behind what he'd initially envisioned is intact, he's just changed the way he goes about it.

Whenever people that are completely against stem cell research chime in, it seems that they forget there are alternative avenues to collecting viable stem cells for research that DO NOT destroy human embryos, and they seem to bypass the simple fact that the goal of stem cell research is NOT to just try to clone beings; there's much that can be done for people with leukemia and sickle cell anemia, new frontiers on the horizon every day that benefit from the use of stem cell research. I've banked my youngest son's stem cells, obtained during his delivery...I hope I never have a need for them, but the research is there to show that stem cell therapy IS helping people from all walks of life with many diseases.

If you go with the line of thinking that we're all flawed and we should just live with it, I guess the entire race would have been wiped out by the plague centuries ago, or TB, why bother trying to find the next "superbug" and fight it? I think science is available to advance our knowledge and extend precious lives, but I do agree there are lines that likely should never be crossed because they do border on the immoral and unethical at the cost of other precious lives.

yup. I agree he is researching better methods of cure. life needs to be valued. I think "human cloning" should never happen, but cell research for fixer uppers is fine. we've been doing that from the beginning, using other names for it, but i don't think we've ever grown hosts like all the sci-fi movies suggest. at least not yet. not PUBLICALLY that we know of.

I've had my teeth straitened, and will get corrective lens in the near future, but I won't accept someone else's mouth or eye balls. I am, what I am: a temporary physical being, flawed ONLY according to the world's view, but perfect as a living spirit.

the more we focus on our physical part, the less time and attention we spend on our "spirit" if yo u want to call it that, that which makes us who we really are.

I call it misdirection

We weren't designed for long term life. We grow, we fade, we die, and if you believe in it, we live again

I wish science would focus more on things like world hunger, war, depression, emptiness, what makes people happy for a long life.... maybe all those scientific brain cells could come up with some logical solutions if they thought about it.

 

[VaBusa]

And I'd love to say that I can fully agree with your sentiments up there WWJD, but once kids came in to my life, everything changes. If I found out my child has leukemia or any other childhood disease that far too many suffer with, that falls under a realm of "please let there be some way to save my child"...it's not about extending life in general, for me it's about giving a fair shake to children that don't get one...no one should suffer from the childhood diseases that ravage far too many, and I for one would do nearly anything to help get my kids healthy if they were ever stricken...

For many, I'll admit, there's almost an underlying ideal that "man can conquer anything" and many scientists envision a time when we just go on and on and on, but at what cost? I'm not interested in living forever, but I am interested in giving each being a fair chance at what life has to offer. If that were ever a given in life, I think many parents would rest easy at night.

...just depends on where you're coming from I think...I see your side, but I feel very different having kids to worry about

Brings to mind a question for you though - how would you feel about being the beneficiary of organ donation? Are you and organ donor yourself? It's certainly not the same, but you made mention of not wanting anyone else's "parts", so if your liver goes south, would you get yourself on the list for a transplant? For or against the science that got us to the point where we can "share" organs? What about the science behind "growing" parts like ears? Everyone's seen the mouse with a human ear springing from its back, right? Should you need a part like that, would you take it? Just conversing...I know you enjoy my company so much

 

[FastBusa]

Marlina Detrick once said "I want to be a clone"

 

[WWJD]

the real problem here might be terminology. generally speaking "Cloning" invokes thoughts of recreating someone exactly like they are, or GROWING someone with the specific purpose of STEALING their parts for the living. If we can grow ears or legs [some reptiles do this now without offing another life] by stimulating growth in ontherwise inanimate bolbs of cells, I'm all for it. more people benefit the better. I'd love it if the people that benefit from prosthetics could get REAL arms or legs attached.... but if we grab some eggs and bring them to life only to kill them and take their parts, I think that is wrong. Maybe mostly because..... *I* could have been that egg!

but I'll eat a cow burger without even thinking about it. why? we ARE the dominant humans on the planet and it's the cycle of life. canniblism is not part of that circle. I don't care what the "animals" do.

I am an organ donor, after death, and if needed, I would accept a donated organ if from a deceased volentary organ donor or - and i don't know enough to say this correctly - a live donor if volentary and practical... don't people donate spare livers or something? Not sure how that works. But again, take a potential life, stimulating it into growth, harvesting it, and letting it die is wrong. In MY opinion.

I hear ya on the children thing. And totally agree. To a point. If your child was missing a leg, I don't think you would be crazy enough over it to go to a mall and kidnap some other kid and have his leg removed and attached to your child. Would ya? That's all I'm sayin.

now, I'f off to have some cloned veal... .mmmMMMMMmmmmmm

That was Baa-aa-aa-aa-aaD

 

[VaBusa]

Nope, wouldn't go for the cloned leg WWJD

We're on the same page, just looking at it from different angles...

I was watching about the "cloning" issue just last night, and I agree, it's a misnomer in some ways...the term cloning comes in because stem cells can turn in to any kind of cell, therefore the "cloning" is essentially allowing the smallest part of our bodies (cells) to "regenerate" with the help of stem cells. The term cloning and the creation of Dolly years back automatically puts that "Star Wars Clone" army to mind

While there will always be fringe scientists that envision a day when we can all have our own "Steve" (referencing the copy-of-a-copy in the movie Multiplicity), I hope that most scientists are working more at the cellular level to combat diseases, not trying to make the human race "perfect".

Scientists (American and Japanese) have found a way to use manipulated cells from our own skin, bypassing the very controversial use of embryonic cells. There is a downside; these cells have a changed DNA sequence in order to make them suitable substitutes for embryonic cells, so they believe they may be more prone to cancer...

For every three steps forward in science, seems there is the potential for a step back, but without science working on such things, we would have possibly been wiped out a long time ago by the diseases of the dark ages...

 

[WWJD]

Word, girl.

The whole thing is always about VALUE of human life to me. Although, I will always joke about getting my own clone to work or go to boring family functions in my place, I'd never want that. I am one of a kind and therefore priceless with my unique ways and the variety of experiences that created who I am socially. No interest in someone that could take my place on this ride.

That said, 10,000 years from now when science has abolished all pain, all deformity and disease and everyone is perfect and all look exactly the same, I hope MY clone is the one that fights the system, and goes back in time to try to warn us of our ways

future human race, perfected:

 

[VaBusa]

future human race, perfected:

Isn't that guy being housed somewhere in Area 51?