Fetal Farming of Mouse Cell Experiment Potential Ignored
The Washington Post reporter, Robert Weiss, tries mightily to turn this story, about cells from infant mice being implanted into other mice and partially restoring sight, as an embryonic stem cell-boosting report. He even quotes the discredited Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology, who lied so egregiously about having created ES cell lines from single embryo cells that did not destroy embryos--meaning, I guess, that if you are on the "right" side of this debate, the media will trust you no matter how many times you have misled them.
But the real story here, is that the best way to get the particular immature cells in humans would not be through ES cells, which may never work, but rather, either from infants being killed in eugenic infanticide or fetal farming. I am not being alarmist. The mainstreaming of infanticide is growing, with a UK medical school actually calling for legalization. (I will be writing more on this soon.) I can hear the arguments now: If we are going to kill them anyway, why not get benefit from their tissues?
Secondly, New Jersey has explicitly legalized cloned fetal farming already--even before it can be done technologically.
Am I being paranoid? I think not. The arguments we hear today for transforming some humans into natural resources strongly support both suggestions above. Besides, you know the old saying, just because you are paranoid that doesn't mean they are not really after you.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 9:20 AM
7 Comments
7 Comments:
If I'm not mistaken the "successful" Parkinson's mice experiment that then led to "uncontrolled" cell growth, had not only ESC but fetal "immortalized" glial cells
"In this experiment, however, Dr. Goldman and his team overcame the volume problem by tricking the embryonic stem cells into behaving like they were growing in the developing brain. To do this, they harvested glial, or brain-support cells, from the precise brain region of an aborted fetus that would, at 11 to 22 weeks gestation, trigger the development of the dopamine neurons needed."
This experiment didn't deal with ES cells at all, but the eye cells from infants. Weiss tried to turn it into an ESCR story by writing that stem cell researchers are trying to morph these cells out of ES cells.
Differentiated fetal cells used in human Parkinson's patients did not cause tumors but led to terrible side effects. A case in China did cause tumors, the cells were embryonic, but not just stem cells.
For clarification, but you consider fetal "farming" intentionally killing a fetus to harvest its organs?
Contrast this with a fetus that has died for another reason, and we harvest the organs in a similar manner that we would a deceased adult?
Am I correct in that you would see a moral difference between after-haresting a fetus that died of natural causes v. say, an abortion?
I'm just trying to get a better sense of what you mean by "fetal farming."
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To me, all of the above.
Even harvesting "natural causes" would be distasteful though not strictly immoral from my religious bias. I can just hear it now "Pardon me, can I BUY your miscarriage... Excuse me, your baby was born stillborn. Can we take her?". I understand though that this could be analogized to our donating of organs upon death but I think you might find it a hard sell. Besides, such damaged "goods" may not be what you want, unless you're looking for abnormalities and dysfunction.
But really, fetal farming involves the creation and harvesting of fetuses intentionally for the use of their component parts, what is termed "commodification", the use of human or potential humans as a product even in a research application. It may also include experimentation of development and drug testing - you could call that "fetal PHARMING"
Royale: I see such a difference.
Well, yes and no. If we kill them to get their body parts, how is that not evil? And making humans for the purpose of using them as a cattle herd...we haven't seen such things in the USA since slavery.
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