Caplan in MSNBC on the Korean Experiment
Writes Art:The critics of cloning embryos for research would have you fear the Korean breakthrough by gravely intoning that cloned people are next. But, it is not really there worry because if it were the solution — a ban on reproductive cloning is readily at hand. No, the critics are really arguing is that it is just plain immoral to make and destroy a cloned embryo from cells taken from your skin, tongue or the lining of your mouth that might, if stem cell research is allowed to go forward, help cure you of Parkinsonism, spinal cord injury, diabetes or the damage done by a heart attack. That view, if allowed to prevail, means that you can look forward to a lot more announcements from South Korea and other countries and a lot fewer cures for you and your family. And where is the ethics in that?
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It's plain wrong to manipulate members of our species at any stage of life unless it is with reasonable expecation of benefit to the subject himself.
And are they kidding? "One woman" per cure? And this is supposed to be good for women, how?
I love the fact that we now have research on in progress using umbilical cord cells, placental cells, autologous cells from bone marrow, skin, fat, nasal mucosa, blood, and virtually all organs, but Caplan and AJOB continue to act as there must be *this* and only this funding.
Did anyone else read the Nature article on the antigenic properties of insulin and the fact that the leukocytes of diabetics attack their own insulin, while the leukocytes of normal controls serve to regulate insulin?
Or the Lancet article on live-donor islet cell transplants?
Who cares? We must advocate cloning. We must advocate cloning. We must......
- by Beverly on May 21, 2005 at 1:55 PM | link