Ghoulish gimmick offers to turn sibling embryos into body parts.A California biotech company, StemLifeLine, is peddling a service that offers to transform "spare embryos" into stem-cell lines that clients "may one day use to create personalized per·son·al·ize tr.v. per·son·al·ized, per·son·al·iz·ing, per·son·al·iz·es 1. To take (a general remark or characterization) in a personal manner. 2. To attribute human or personal qualities to; personify. therapies for themselves and their families." StemLifeLine admits on its FAQs page that "the stem cells stem cells, unspecialized human or animal cells that can produce mature specialized body cells and at the same time replicate themselves. Embryonic stem cells are derived from a blastocyst (the blastula typical of placental mammals; see embryo), which is very young most commonly used in therapy are adult stem cells Adult stem cells are undifferentiated cells found throughout the body that divide to replenish dying cells and regenerate damaged tissues. Also known as somatic (from Greek Σωματικóς, of the body ." Also, the company will not guarantee that it can create a stem-cell line out of the 10 necessary embryos that would need to be cannibalized in the process. However, StemLifeLine claims to have successfully completed pilot studies that validate its service offering. But since no therapeutic application of embryonic stem cells Embryonic stem cells (ES cells) are stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of an early stage embryo known as a blastocyst. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4-5 days post fertilization, at which time they consist of 50-150 cells. ES cells are pluripotent. has yet to be found anywhere in the world, it seems unlikely, particularly considering that the use of non-embryonic stem cells, which do not entail the destruction of human life, looks more and more promising. However, this hasn't deterred StemLifeLine in any way from its money-making sales pitch. Today, unused frozen embryos are donated to "research" resulting in their destruction, or they are simply discarded. Discarded means destroyed and destroyed means--in the case of human life--murdered. But StemLifeLine is apparently not troubled by this and will unashamedly un·a·shamed adj. Feeling or showing no remorse, shame, or embarrassment: un a·sham profit from this slaughter.
With this type of medical ethics medical ethics The moral construct focused on the medical issues of individual Pts and medical practitioners. See Baby Doe, Brouphy, Conran, Jefferson, Kevorkian, Quinlan, Roe v Wade, Webster decision. being accepted, what would come next--an entire industry dedicated to the production and destruction of human life, for the purpose of harvesting body parts? |
|
||||||||||||||||

a·sham
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion