Cord Blood Stem Cells Information

Why is it OK to clone an animal and kill it for meat, but not OK to use stem cells from an embryo?

A little follow on from one of my previous questions. The FDA in the US has approved cloning animals for meat production, but the government won't approve taking stem cells from human embryos which would be destroyed anyway. Presumably they are more concerned about their food. emp, if you think you are "more equal" than a cow, you need more humility. midnight.... read your own link. There is a whole list of research which is not funded.

Public Comments

1. Catholic lobby.
2. only the bible thumpers can answer that one
3. You are wrong on all counts. We don't raise children to eat them as food. The US government is not stopping anyone from doing stem cell research. President Bush is not willing, on moral grounds, to use tax money to support embryonic stem cell research. I am not willing on practical grounds. The research has not proved any positive results. Comparing animals to children is the ultimate in lack of logic.
4. Neither is wright. But killing human fetus for science is beond sick. Adult stem cell will do every thing Embryo stem cell will do. It is all about money and murder.
5. I say both are wrong.
6. just the thought of cloning animals for food would concern me.....not in the we are becomig Gods fear, but "why" do we need to clone animals and do genetic modification to create animals we deem more productive???? and what is the long term benefit or detriment??? what happens when we create health issues from our scientific meddling??? as for the embryos, it all falls onto the harvesting and ethics... only time will tell.... it would be nice to instead of trying to fix health problems find answers to fullfill life with soltions that lead to healthier lives....
7. What makes you think using stem cells is illegal? They are used every single day, and in fact the tax payers pay for that research. ALL stem cell research is legal and is used. We just don't pay for research from the stem cells derived from abortions. Don't let those with the agenda feed you incorrect information to further their cause. Always check your facts.
8. Lets see...compare animals to humans. Stem cell would be used by egotistical rich people to create other human beings in their image or a perfect race..i.e. Aryan race ...that Hitler wanted! Clone animals would lead to a better burger! I take mine with a side of Fries and gravy! Tagger
9. Do you think a cow is equal to you? If so, you need more self-respect. The whole thing deals with when do you consider a fetus in it's development, a human being. I don't think support for human research would be wide spread if we had to cut the guy in half to do it. This is exactly what you do to that embryo.....cut it in half. Needless to say, the embryo dies. Now if you believe that the embryo is human....that is murder. If you don't, then that is science. Until we address the discrepency of when human life begins, we will always be arguing about it.
10. because by cloning animals with humen stem cells you are effectly making another race : animal humen. It would bring down every single rule in law and ethics, how would you feel if you were in the postition to create a whole new race? cloning animals for meat is different becuase we are doing it and then ending their life straight away so its not a major deal.
11. Because people in this world are ignorant.
12. Get some education. Embryonic stem cell research is completly legal, and in some cases federally funded. Seriously, do some reading. http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/faqs.asp
13. I would like to correct a misconception one of the previous posters has. To my knowledge embryonic stem cells are totipotent while adult stem cells are only pluripotent. The difference is that in a totipotent cell, virtually any type of cell can be specialised from it. Pluripotent cells, however, can only be specialised into a limited number of cells.
14. Animal, human - notice the difference? I think personally humanity is in morally questionable territory with cloning and human/animal chimera. Just because Science has discovered a way, doesn't mean we should.
15. no. they are much more concerned about voters. It's politics and not science.. "religious lobbies, spokesmen of "traditions" and "communities" enjoy privileged access not only to the media but also to influential committees of the great and the good, to governments and school boards. Their views are regularly sought, and heard with exaggerated "respect" by parliamentary committees. You can be sure that, if a royal commission were set up to advise on cloning policy, religious lobbies would be prominently presented" . And if catholics rather recently aproved birth control, why should they agree to another form of destroying a life? Because they could argue that increase in the number of abortions is actually because of a wish to contribute to science or be famous.. the question turns out not to be so simple afterall :)
16. It's because stem cell research will provide cures for long term conditions and rob pharmaceutical companies of precious customers
17. It is because humans are ignorant and greedy. It makes me laugh when people say it is ok to eat animals for food as they are made of meat and are below us in the food chain. Funnily enough we are animals too (Homo sapien sapien) and are made of 'meat', these individuals should check out human anatomy. It is double standards all the way with most humans, I do not see the difference between the death of a cow or human it is murder in my eyes.
18. You're going to hate this answer but it's true: Because one thing has government funding and the other does not. The reasons are because people on congressional committees hire experts to be part of a panel, and those experts research the subject and report their findings to the congressional committee. The experts really are smart people, but often have conflicts of interest. This is because only the people DOING the research and PROFITING from it know enough about it to say anything relevant. Most peoples' and pundits' thoughts on the subject are woefully uninformed because most of the cloning and stem cell research is a trade secret anyway. Therefore, even the experts can't say the most relevant things about it because it's a trade secret and if they give it away, then they lose their legal protection for their trade secret. That's why these things don't make sense. Nothing that makes millions for big multinational corporations will make much sense. We, the peons, can be horrified by scientific coldheartedness all we want. We can entertain ourselves by making a big moral deal about it. We can point out the ironies, and discuss it endlessly on blogs. But science has historically found a way of marching on anyway. For more info, see the sources below...