Because it’s so much better to flush them down the toilet
Tony Snow on why embryos scheduled to be discarded anyway can’t be used for stem cell research:
“The President is not going to get on the slippery slope of taking something that is living and making it dead for the purpose of research.”
So…what does he think happens to the embryos once they’re in the sewer system? Do they grow up to become Sewer Monsters?
23 Responses to “Because it’s so much better to flush them down the toilet”
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Chris says:
Oh, like I’m gonna be able to sleep now.
July 19th, 2006 at 2:46 am EST -
promenea says:
He doesn’t mind making stuff that was living into stuff that is dead for political gain or his own ideological gain, just for research.
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Bonnie says:
What was the name of that story? (Thinks hard) Oh yeah.
“Croatoan,” a short story by Harlan Ellison, addresses this very plotline. A man discovers, in the sewers of New York (a takeoff of the familiar flushed alligator myth) a society of aborted fetuses who have survived.
Maybe you ought to send a copy of that to this idiot.
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Infidel says:
Since Nature distributes human characteristics “normally,” that is, at random, She is as likely to produce stupid, ugly, mentally deficient, tone deaf, disease prone, cowardly babies as not. Intervention through manipulation of genetic variables allows people to determine what characteristics to transmit into the next generation of babies. By selecting those genes which produce desirable qualities and extinguish undesirable ones, the possibility exists for parents to improve the human species by rational selection rather than by random selection.
THIS IS LOGICAL AND WOULD IMPROVE HEALTH AND THE ORGANISMS NOT SELECTED WOULDN’T EVEN EXIST YET IN ANY FORM WHEN THEY ARE REJECTED. -
Violet says:
Bonnie, are you serious? I’d never heard of that story. I thought I’d thought up the sewer babies myself.
Hmmm..I’m currently working on a story about a future space traveler who goes back in time to Depression-era America and discovers that this woman he falls in love with has to die because if she doesn’t she’ll prevent the U.S. from entering World War II — or something like that; still sorting out the details. Better check to see if anybody’s thought that one up already.
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Infidel says:
Captain Kirk had a tough time with that.
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Bonnie says:
Yes, I’m quite serious. It’s the leadoff story in his collection “Strange Wine.”
I recommend this book highly. Very thought-provoking stuff.
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CaptDMO says:
“Do they grow up to become Sewer Monsters?”
It’s more what they DON’T do. They don’t become
financial incentive for embryo farming and disposal
for fun and profit. -
Infidel says:
$$$$MONEY!!MONEY!!!MONEY$$$$
We pay top dollar for potential Embryos
Totally Legal-Totally Private
Completely Safe!!!
Take a break from your daily grind
All we need are your eggs.
In by nine out by five.
Viability not a factor
Men..We’ll make you come.
Just show up, get off, and get $$$$MONEY$$$ -
Promenea says:
If men can be sperm donors for money, why can’t women donate eggs and embryos?
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Infidel says:
They can. The most forceful way to regulate is to outlaw. Sperm production numbers are greater than egg by a bit- That’s One For the JuJu.
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Violet says:
There is no question here of creating new embryos for profit; the issue is that there are countless unused embryos now that could be used and instead are simply being discarded. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for those to-be-trashed embryos to not be used for stem cell research.
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Infidel says:
I agree in part. There is no reason. “Absolutely and whatsoever” is the “slippery slope”- once you use those existing “to be trashed” embryos all other “to be trashed” embryos created in the mean time are fair game, then perhaps industries are popping up(because hopefully stem cell research pans out and cures are discovered) and there is an embryo shortage and congress has to decide whether embryo donation is ethical and/or lawful.
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Violet says:
The embryos are needed for stem cell research: a wider variety of cells from the existing stock provides more DNA and possible lines. There is no question of treatments made out of embryos — it’s not like they’re going to use embryos to make medicine and then there will be an embryo shortage. Do you understand? No, obviously not.
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Timothy Shortell says:
Is there anything more obscene than politicians parading around young children as “former embryos” to score political points with the fundamentalists? The sanctimony of the “I did it for the children” Republicans makes me really angry.(So angry, in fact, that I just burned my finger while making a pot of coffee. That Brownback needs a swift kick in the shins.)
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Infidel says:
The cure for paralysis then which requires some property of stem cells to be manifest in existing or grafted cells would never require some component of actual stem cells?
The cure for Parkinsons disease, after it is determined from the research stem cells provide, couldn’t require stem cells?
Degenerative diseases which might require generative properties to combat would never get those properties from stem cells?
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will says:
Lawyers, Guns & Money said it best, if they really thought these embryos were humans, then they should be attempting to stop their slaughter!!!
http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/
Pardon me while I cry for the embryos.
Maybe this reasoning is why women cry more during their periods and why republicans cry when they orgasm.
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Infidel says:
“Embryonic stem cells, which can form all types of functional adult cells, provide the hope that one day such cells can produce the cells or tissues to grow entire hearts, liver and even kidneys, thus solving the problem of the shortfall of organ donors.” -some googled bit of info of which there is a plethora.
In China stem cells(Adult, Umbilical, Etc.) are injected directly into the patient- this is the existing therapy. Cells are injected.
Shortage of cells? If the demand for injection exists and the supply is insufficient.
There is already a shortage of cells for research. Wouldn’t there be a shortage if cells were used for treatments?
Do I understand? No obviously not.
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Infidel says:
Check this out Violet. http://www.medicalnewstoday.co.....wsid=15535
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Violet says:
I’ll say you don’t understand, since the article you posted is about harvesting cells from fetuses which will not be necessary if stem cell research pays off. Please go read about stem cell research and stop posting stuff you don’t comprehend.
The reason there’s a shortage of stem cells is because of Republican twits like Torture President.
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richard cherry says:
probably scared they’ll use stem cells to come up with a cure for Bush
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Infidel says:
Ideally there would be the perfect stem cell from which any tissue might be grown and that tissue would be the perfect retina, or liver, or myeline sheath- it would also have the ability to be grown so an endless source of that perfect line of stem cells could be available.
Stem cells derived from defective donor embryos would genetically retain their defect- so an embryo with a hereditary disease could be counted on to grow a diseased liver. The more embryos the better I say, lets get the right stuff. -
Infidel says:
Dr Stephen Minger, from King’s College London, said: “The current state of the technology is such that literally hundreds of human ooctyes (eggs) from young women will be required to generate a single human embryonic stem cell line.
“Therefore we consider it more appropriate to use non-human oocytes from livestock as a surrogate.
