Obama Reverses Restrictions on Stem Cell Research

[Godless]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29554619/

Hurray for Obama! Now maybe shit can actually get done without Bible Boy Bush's born-again Christian policies impeding science. Kudos to our president.

[VanReal]

Too bad this didn't happen before octomom was allowed to implant her remaining embryos.....

I really hope this goes through without a massive uproar from the fundies, which is not likely.  This is a pivotal move for our new president, hope all goes well.

[curiosityandthecat]

Hooray for smart people having power!

[Twiddler]

Its nice to see science starting to make a comeback...

[karadan]

Yay!! That is definitely something to drink to when i go to the pub tonight.

Well done USA for electing someone with a brain!

[liveyoungdiefast]

Let the fundies roar, as long as they're powerless once again they can roar away.

This is a great victory for health, and common sense. I think anyone who seriously thinks an embryo created in a lab is a human being with a soul needs to check themselves into a mental institution as well.

[Hitsumei]

This is excellent news indeed. I was very very pleased to hear that he would be over turning that decision so early in his term. We know that the us has at least two solid years of medical advancement ahead of her.

[Lilbeth]

I say YAH, as well! I was moved to tears when he signed that......Finally, the Bush regime is over for now, unless Jeb is waiting in the wings for the future.....GHOD, I hope not....Obama is my man, too.

[Kodanshi]

I read about this a few days ago and it really thrilled me. It seems America has indeed elected a decent president. Now why couldn’t he have taken over from Gordon Brown instead?!

[McQ]

In a way, this is more important as a socio-political advancement than a medical breakthrough, since pluripotent stem cells can be gathered in several ways. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for it. But from a medical standpoint, we were doing pretty well with learning to gather stem cells from sources other than fetal tissue or embryos.

But this will help lift a big burden and bad stigma off of the research that's being done and allow researchers a wider range of options. That very good. So +1 for this decision!

[verybigv]

liveyoungdiefast: I'm an agnostic/atheist.I am very humanist. I don't believe in god. But I do believe that an embryo created in a lab very well might be human. I don't believe it has a soul (unless it came from the James Brown stem cell line). What's going to happen to these embryoes if they are allowed to develop a little further for the advancement of science?  When will they be human enough for legal,moral and ethical protection? I'd rather err on the side of caution and say "now".

[Sophus]

But I do believe that an embryo created in a lab very well might be human.

It's only as much human as the egg you ate for breakfast is chicken.

[verybigv]

Sophus: Then why don't they use chicken embryoes for stem cell research? This is obviously a rhetorical question. We all know that a chicken embryo develops into a chicken. With any luck, and compassion, a human embryo develops into a human.

[Hitsumei]

Depends on what you mean by "human", if you mean a member of the hominid family, then I would say as soon as they have the correct twenty three chromosome pairs (this is of course hyperbole, so if anyone feels the need to throw down syndrome at me, refrain), but then it is not really relevant. A hominid with a liquefied neocortex is no less a human, but I have zero qualms with not keeping their body alive.

If you mean a "human" in the sense of having the attributes of a person, then a child is not fully a human until roughly the age of five, when they have a fully developed self-awareness. Before the age of three, any mentally healthy adult ape is more of a person, and within the first six months to a year, pretty much any mentally healthy adult mammal is more of a person.

[Sophus]

Sophus: Then why don't they use chicken embryoes for stem cell research? This is obviously a rhetorical question. We all know that a chicken embryo develops into a chicken. With any luck, and compassion, a human embryo develops into a human.

Well you answered your own question. And that's percisely my point: It will develop into a human. It would be difficult to transform into something if you're already that something. QED.

Depends on what you mean by "human", if you mean a member of the hominid family, then I would say as soon as they have the correct twenty three chromosome pairs (this is of course hyperbole, so if anyone feels the need to throw down syndrome at me, refrain), but then it is not really relevant. A hominid with a liquefied neocortex is no less a human, but I have zero qualms with not keeping their body alive.

If you mean a "human" in the sense of having the attributes of a person, then a child is not fully a human until roughly the age of five, when they have a fully developed self-awareness. Before the age of three, any mentally healthy adult ape is more of a person, and within the first six months to a year, pretty much any mentally healthy adult mammal is more of a person.

Not to be rude but you're just plain wrong.