The UmBlog

Bloggers seemed to benefit from ebbing tryptophan blood levels this past week. As always, you can subscribe to my shared feeds where I cull these winners from or simply visit the blog regularly and look at the list at the top. The headings link to other posts on mine on that topic. Church A pastor responds gracefully to the strip club with a nativity on its roof at the Ooze. Titles and offices and gifting in church. Pastor or what ? Another way of understanding Willow Creek's  Reveal survey results. Human Rights Delay tactics in India's courts continue for Christians in the untouchable Dalit class. Interview with Jim Dawes, author of  That the World May Know: Bearing Witness to Atrocity . Effects of illegal immigration . Is it a federal priority ? Stem cells The skin cell method is simpler as well as ethical than embryonic stem cells. Mormons Two gospels ? Native Americans How casinos affect the way tribe members are treated .

Joe Carter reports In a remarkable medical breakthrough , scientists from Harvard and Wake Forest report that they have discovered a new source of stems cells that have the ability to create muscle, bone, fat, blood vessel, nerve, and liver cells in the laboratory. These newly discovered stem cells, which they have named amniotic fluid-derived stem (AFS) cells, may represent an intermediate stage--“halfway houses”--between embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. The research, which has been ongoing for the past seven years, was reported in yesterday’s Nature Biotechnology .... ESC: [embryonic] Requires destruction of a human embryo to obtain cells. AFS: [amniotic] Obtaining cells is ethically unproblematic. ESC: If genetic matches for transplantation could be obtained at all, it would come from the creation and destruction of cloned human embryos. AFS: Genetic matches for transplantation can be obtained from discarded placentas. ESC: Therapeutic uses impeded because they ar...

the Christian Cadre points out the recent successes with stem cells that didn't involve killing a baby.

in adult dogs... Two dogs that were severely disabled by the disease were able to walk faster and even jump after the treatments. The study was published online Wednesday by the journal Nature. It used stem cells taken from the affected dogs or other dogs, rather than from embryos. For human use, the idea of using such "adult" stem cells from humans would avoid the controversial method of destroying human embryos to obtain stem cells.

another from the Boundless blog... we have the technology, why kill the babies?

From the Christian Cadre This discussion always needs to be kept in context: no one of which I am aware is opposed to stem cell research generally . If a disease can be obtained from research on stem cells, then that's okay by virtually everyone. But, here's the issue: researching on embryonic stem cells takes a human life . Embryonic stem cells come from one place: embryos. To get the stem cells from the embryos kills the embryo. The embryo is undoubtedly a living human in an early stage of development. Thus, logically it is clear that the killing of an embryo is the killing of a human being... A couple of facts about embryonic stem cell research need to be hightlighted. (1) To my knowledge, there has been no treatments yet developed from the use of embryonic stem cells. Meanwhile, there have been upwards of 50 treatements from the use of adult stem cells. Thus, embryonic stem cells is somewhat of a theoretical dream that these embryonic stem cells can somehow produced treatme...

Stella Matutina : "The Vatican Speaks Out Against New Way Of Making Stem Cells 'Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, the Vatican's top official on bioethical questions, said in an interview with Vatican Radio on Saturday that the method of making stem cells devised by scientists at Advanced Cell Technology Inc. in Alameda, Calif., remains an in-vitro form of reproduction, which the church opposes.....'"

i guess the lesson learned is to read the press release...

In New Method for Stem Cells, Viable Embryos - New York Times : "Biologists have developed a technique for establishing colonies of human embryonic stem cells from an early human embryo without destroying it. This method, if confirmed in other laboratories, would seem to remove the principal objection to the research." it's gratifying to hear that science is responding to ethical concerns. there are important voices who are objecting even to this method. but i appreciate the effort. i'm not sure why the resistance to more adult stem cell research.

stemcellresearch.org - Fact Sheet: Adult Stem Cells (64) v. Embryonic Stem Cells (0) HT, Justin Taylor