This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

I would expect if there is a "cure"using embryonic stem cells those who are opposed to it on moral grounds would not accept the treatment. Anyone care to respond????

I would not undertake the treatment if it requred the use of embryonic stem cells.

i know some people have reasons not to, can you explain them

The science never stopped, it hardly even slowed. The ban did not exist elsewhere in the world.Science has used the time of the ban to do more research, and can now make stem cells from adult sources. Even your own. The process uses autologis stem cells(your own) and they make them behave like the embryonic. It's safer that way for the person whose body both donates and receives
the therapy.

Obama to Lift Embryonic Stem Cell Funding Ban

This Monday, President Obama will lift the nearly 8-year-old ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

It's about time. He should have done this on the afternoon he was inaugurated.

Of course, he's had a few other problems to deal with, such as The Great Recession, two wars, and trying to decide what kind of puppy to get, but let's face it, I have a vested interest here.

Quite simply, stem cell therapy offers my best, and, quite possibly, last hope at beating back this fracking disease. I don't expect that stem cells will ever cure MS (but then again who the hell knows, since no one knows what causes MS, so whatever it is, maybe stem cells will cure it), but they very likely will help repair some of the havoc wrought by the disease on MS damaged nervous systems, which for now is good enough for me.

I realize many people are morally opposed to embryonic stem cell research because they believe the destruction of a human embryo is tantamount to the taking of a human life. Quite frankly, if the embryos were five-month-old fetuses, I might agree with them. But the embryos in question here are zygotes, clumps of at most a few dozen cells. In order to be useful for stem cell research, these cells cannot have differentiated into specific types of tissue, such as bone, cardiac, skin, or nerve. In other words, these zygotes bear as much commonality to a human being as a clump of iron ore has to the Golden Gate Bridge.

The "embryos" in question are smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. Most of them are the byproducts of in vitro fertilization, and would literally be thrown away if they weren't used for research. Not using them to advance the cause of medicine and help put an end to scores of horrendous maladies would seem to me to be the greater sin, if sin is the question here.

Furthermore, in an age where cloning has become an everyday reality, any living cell holds within it the potential of becoming a fully formed life. Every time I scratch myself or pick my nose, I'm destroying thousands of such cells. Should those acts be prohibited as well?

Adult stem cell research also holds much promise, as is endlessly pointed out by embryonic stem cell foes. Most serious research scientists, though, say that embryonic stem cells hold by far the greater potential to do good. There are myriad problems yet to be overcome in using them, but all we've so far succeeded in doing is wasting the better part of a decade in learning how to solve these problems.

So get to signing whatever it is you need to sign, Mr. Obama. Time's a wasting, as are my nerve cells and my ability to move my muscles. This isn't an exercise in theoretical morality. There are people dying out here, so let's stop fucking around and just get on with it.

thanks wilson, i'm still undecided. so with embryonic stem cells you are killing a possible baby if you use them?

I'll say again, embryonic stem cell research has never been banned, ever.
People are speaking in CNN sound bites here..
The 'restriction' on embryonic stem cell research simply was that every Ton Dick and harry, has to prove where the cells came from as there was a carefully monitored and identifyable number of embryo genotypes available. IN THE UNITED STATES
Don't you think that if someone in the world came up with a stem cell transplnt that was sure to work, that thousands of US citizens would be racing off to that country???
The use of the stem cells, no matter where they came from, has all along been a life threatenting procedure, and will continue to be so.
As dysfunctional our immune systems are we still need them, and they are destroyed by chemotherapy in the process. It takes months for them to begin to work again, then you wait to see if the stem cells worked.
There are people doing the procedure right here in Chicagoland, I work with someone that had it done.
She was an ideal candidate (I don't know the criteria) her son was not..he' died shortly after receiving the transplant.
AS an aside the Dr. who is doing these here is not a neurologist, or even and MD, he's a biologist.
Granted the man's a genius, BUT, big BUT he works at Northwestern University Hospital. A huge prestigiious place.If they had a "cure" for MS don't you think we might have heard about it????

Robbie, are you asking when life begins? I can safely state that not one human being on this planet holds the facts to this answer. However, I know that some of us BELIEVE that life begins at conception and they based their opinion on religious text. So, does that mean it is safe to dismiss embryos as nothing more that a bunch of ordered, grouping of cells if you don't believe? What is your thought on this?

Great job, Mark. Appreciate your opinion. Hope folks understand.
We can't legislate morality.
Our personal beliefs cannot deny others their rights. I may personally disagree with invitro fertilizaton, abortion, embryonic stemcells and euthanasia ...that's my right.
But it's not my right to deny these to anyone else. Or to judge anyone else in their personal and private choice.
We now have a president who is unafraid of science, and unafraid of individual rights.
A true peacemaker.
AC