So? That doesn't mean some of our best minds have indeed left the US due to governmental restrictions on their areas of specialty.

Physics joke? :rolleyes:

This is a big story because of the political implications not because of some scientific breakthrough. If he had refused to turn over the previous administrations policy it would also have been a political story.

Let me ask you a question. If there is a breakthrough in a foreign country it wont be applied here? What difference does it make where it is accomplished?

Some of our best criminals also leave the country due to govt restrictions on their area of specialty.

Jesus -- after all this time, that's been all that's missing? If only someone would have just shed some light on this it wouldn't be happening anymore!!!!!11!!!1!!

yas see what happens when r and d get switched...
things that are not supposed to happen naturally.

hadron jeeezzzzz....

rul en enz ze flur!

or whatever....
Damn I wish I had posted this.

i have to admit as soon as i started the 'sperm in a' sentence, i thought of drugs and had to use sock. i didnt even know guys used socks for receptacles until drugs mentioned it-and then it was reinforced when i finally saw american pie (late last year, i'm a bit behind on the times).

Irish - you are right, some people mistakenly lump this as abortion.

Embryonic stem cells do not come from aborted fetuses, they come from eggs fertilized "in vitro" (means out of the body, in a petri dish) in fertilization clinics, but that are not used and are thrown out. These thrown out cells are 2-4 day old blastocytes.

These thrown out cells - with the permission of the donors - can be used instead in stem cell research.

I have used stem cells derived from a patient's own fat and injected it back into the patients hip joints to fight hip dysplasia (dog). We use adipose-based (fat) stem cells in horses (the patients own fat) to help repair tendons (have been doing that for several years). We can also use the pateint's own blood-based cell lines.

I know Chuck has purchased a horse in the past at the F-S sale, that came with the bit of information that it has it's own blood from it's own umbilical cord (from it's birth) saved in a laboratory. That blood can hopefully be used someday to derive it's own stem cells if the horse needs it.

But adult stem cells are not the same as embryonic stem cells - you can't always get the same things from them.

This summer there will start trials for people with certain spinal cord injuries. In the laboratory, mice with certain spinal cord injuries that cause them to be paralyzed have had certain stem cells injected, and the cells grew into the cells the mice needed, and the mice were healed and could walk.

Imagine if Christopher Reeve (remember, he got a paralyzing spinal cord injury in a fall from his horse, that made him a quadriplegic and ultimately ended up causing his death from pneumonia) - imagine if someone like this, with this terrible injury, could have been injected with stem cells that regrew the damaged neural tissue, and that paralyzed patient could walk again. How wondrous and great would that be!

and therein lies the rub. there are some who think life begins at fertilization-so they will of course object to using the cells, regardless of where they'd otherwise end up-in this case, the trash.

Bush made science political. That was wrong. Now science is being returned to it's rightful place outside of politics.

life does begin at fertilization, I don't see how you can believe otherwise.

because a fertilized egg won't necessarily attach itself to the uterine wall for starters.

i'd just as soon not get into that whole debate tho.

Then the number of deaths every year is sky high.
All the "miscarriages" that happen at the 1,2,4, 8, 16, 32, etc... cell stage.
Lots of little crosses.

oops I did.

A little basic Biology can make things awfully gray.

it's one of the arguments against birth control pills that some have made. one of the affects the pill has is keeping the uterus from allowing a fertilized egg to attach. i guess i'm going to jail.

Breakthroughs take time to be within the general public domain. An example, for decades, many pharmaceuticals have been accepted, used, studied and legal outside of the USA. We had patients leaving the US in search of the best medical care for particular conditions. We often require studies be redone from virtually scratch before acceptance here. Same with implants, heart valve replacements, that type of thing.

If it's not being done here, it will be a long time before it gets here.

In the meantime, before general public use, clinical trials - and the benefits to those patients - occur in the country of origin.

If we don't have an environment that fosters these health and scientific developments, the creative and bright people who are responsible for those developments go elsewhere. Where they can be creative and bright.

Your comment about criminals ... no comment.

I'll give a little science lesson, correct me if im wrong...


The human sperm cells are alive. They are sex cells that contain half of the genetic code needed to make up our 46 chromosones.

Ova cells are likewise alive. They contain the other half of the genetic code.

When a sperm cell enters an ova a new cell is made. This cell is too alive and it is called a zygote. The zygote has all 46 chromosones in tact (half coming from the father, half from the mother). You now have a human being. 46 chromosones = human.

When did life begin? WHEN DID IT EVER END? The father is alive, the mother is alive, the sperm are alive, the ova is alive, the zygote is alive...EVERTHING IS ALIVE!!!

well, i guess i really did too since i mentioned it and then explained my point a bit. but it's a very touchy subject to many. hell, i'm a mother of three-i think i get it.

i'm going to go bury my bedsheets now, have a bit of a funeral.