The Imperfect Community

prescott · Posted: Fri Oct 29, 2004 8:18 am Post subject: The stem cell issue

Honestly, I think Bush has found that God polls well, and he's made a big point of it that he's a "believer". A lot of evangelists stayed home in the last election, he's trying to not let that happen again, IMO.

Mr. Nibbs · Posted: Fri Oct 29, 2004 11:16 am Post subject: The stem cell issue

Shrimp and Grits told me about this thread so I thought I would make a guest star appearance, kinda like Ricardo Montalban on an episode of Columbo.

For those who don't know me, I'm her husband and have worked in the biotech and pharma industry for close to 20 years now. First in the research labs and now on the business end.

Having read through all the posts I would first like to say that it's been a very good discussion on issues that people can get pretty fired up about.

My comments really just underline others, but here goes:

1) Someone made comment that adult stem cell research is more promising than embryonic. That is not true. The majority of stem cell research done to date has been done on adult cells, but that is simply because that material is more widely available. I believe we should pursue research in both types. Having said that, I do think that an inordinate amount of press is given to this ONE avenue/technology. There are many other approaches to medical research that are at least, if not more promising (in my subjective opinion) than stem cells. Gene therapy some years ago shared a similar spotlight. Many thought disease cures were right around the corner and it just didn't happen that way.

2) The pharmaceutical sector develops drugs based mostly on the basic research funded by tax payers. Without basic discoveries of how the body and disease works out of the public sector, many fewer drugs would come out of the pharma sector. Pure research is a miniscule portion of the budget at a pharma company. Most of the R&D dollars go into clinical development and manufacturing development. For the most part, the public sector discovers the targets and pharma develops the compounds to neutralize them.

3) I do think that the best and brightest scientists stay in pure research. In fact I would say that there is a continuum of intelligence from mathematics to physics to physical chemistry to chemistry to biochemistry to biology to enginneering. My theory is that the pool of folks in the more abstract sciences are smarter than those in the more applied.

4) If everything that happens in is god's plan, then if we allow gays to marry, abortion to remain legal, dogs and cats to live together, etc.... that is all okay by god. So what exactly is the argument there?

5) I have no point number five but I'm excited about the Incredibles movie.

Jessica · Posted: Fri Oct 29, 2004 11:24 am Post subject: Re: The stem cell issue

kathyjm · Posted: Fri Oct 29, 2004 4:04 pm Post subject: The stem cell issue

4) If everything that happens in is god's plan, then if we allow gays to marry, abortion to remain legal, dogs and cats to live together, etc.... that is all okay by god. So what exactly is the argument there?

I dont know if you were trying to be sarcastic here, but the truth is, you're right... if abortion is to remain legal, it is gods plan for the time being, if gay people can marry, then it's god's plan for the time being. It never was an argument... I simply made a statement at the end of my initial post and for some reason my mention of god's will got some people fired up. because I believe in the lords will does not mean I think abortion should be illegal nor does it mean I think gay people should not be allowed to get married. Being christian doesn't mean I'm automatically against those issues and it certainly doesn't mean I believe there should be laws around them...

Bow2PrincessAnnabelle · Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:28 am Post subject: The stem cell issue

To my understanding, Bush isn't outlawing embryotic stem cell research, he is denying more federal funding to scientist who want to create embryo's for the specific purpose for destroying them. I personally have no problem with fertility clinics donateing leftover embryo's to science with the parents approvial. I agree whole heartedly with Bush though.. life should not be created specificly to be destroyed. It's just seems so wrong!

Bow2PrincessAnnabelle · Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:37 am Post subject: Re: The stem cell issue

[quote="kathyjm"]4) If everything that happens in is god's plan, then if we allow gays to marry, abortion to remain legal, dogs and cats to live together, etc.... that is all okay by god. So what exactly is the argument there?

None of those things are "okay" with God. He gave humans free will so that they could decide for themselves wether they wanted to serve His devine purpose or stray from Him and do things their own way. It was not in God's plan for Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge but because he gave them free will they disobeyed Him and were sent away from Eden. We live in a world of sin and although he allows these things to happen it doesn't by any means mean he approves of it. He must let us be tempted by satan to prove we are worthy of Him.