stem cells and frankenstein

Stem cells are in the news again and as usual there is much confusion around this issue. Why do I say this? First of all many may not already realize that embryonic stem cell research is not against the law. Anyone or any group can raise as much private capital as they are able in order to invest in this type of research. The question at hand is whether should the government fund this research? Why? Most people on the street are not fully informed on this issue. After all, what is a zygote or an embryo or even a fetus? In a society where most people are unable to locate the Mississippi River on a map let alone spell it these scientific words are strange like a foreign language. Sure its okay to kill an embryo to get stem cells, by the way....what's an embryo?

Well, an embryo is a human being in the earliest stages of development in the womb. Just as we use the terms baby, infant, toddler, child, adolescent or adult to describe stages of human development out of the womb so the terms zygote, blastula, embryo and fetus likewise simply describe the various stages of human development while in the womb. However since most people have never had biology 101 these terms seem strange and distant and almost non-human.

We can relate to babies, they are cute and cuddly but an embryo!!! Ooh that sounds kinda of gross! We are familiar with babies, we are not familiar with embryos. However we were all embryos once just like we once were all babies. Who knows if we could commonly see embryo's just as we do babies we might just think they are really cute as well. Embyros live in a hidden world called the womb and we don't see them so it is hard to personalize an embryo. Thus it is easy to dehumanize this mysterious population and brush them off as some type of blob of cells or something.

This is an emotional subject with proponents claiming that we can cure spinal cord injuries or Parkinson's disease if only we could get these embryonic stem cells! We are shown heart tugging stories and images of people afflicted with these terrible diseases and then called uncompassionate if we don't support the cause. Listen, we would never dream of killing a baby (a very young human out of the womb) in order to harvest a kidney for an adult afflicted with renal disease why would we kill an embryo (a very young human still in the womb) in order to harvest cells to do research on? Think about it, this really sounds very macabre and Frankensteinian. Instead of sewing dead body parts together from cadavers in an effort to create a human being we are simply taking the live body parts from these very young humans in order to conduct our own fantastic experiments.

Here is another question to think about, where are these embryo's coming from? Are women gladly donating them? Or do people get paid to donate sperm and eggs so the human embryos can be created in a test tube only to then be destroyed as their stem cells are harvested? This is freaky and sounds like a chapter out of Coma or The Island?

Recently there has been breaking research related to the same subject. Yes, it is too early to know the promise of it but three different groups of scientists independently were able to create stem cell equivalents using skin cells from mice and injecting certain genes into them. It is too early to know if this technique can be successful with humans but obviously the ethical ramifications of this possibility are great. So let us hope and heartily support this line of research and others like it. Let us not rush into this issue with blinders on running on pure emotion and not understanding the terminology but let us consider carefully what is at stake and ask ourselves how far are we willing to go? How far should we go?

the atheist within part IV

in a coffee shop two people talk in quiet tones after returning from a funeral

What happens when we die?

Nothing...., there is a flash of light from the last neuropotential in our eyes then it all goes dark and numb but at that point you don't know it,..... you just go out of existence.

Doesn't anything of us last?

The memory of who we've touched or hurt or what we've done, that lives on for awhile.

Only awhile?

Yes, because soon anyone who ever knew us will be gone. Look around, in fifty years no one in this place will be here anymore. We will all be dead and gone.... either ashes or dust in the ground or cryogenically frozen.

But what of the great ones? Odysseus, the Caesars.........

Even they are not immortal their memory won't on live forever either. No one is immortal only the universe goes on forever and we don't even know what that is.

Really?

Someday the sun will burn out and all life will be gone, extinct, nada, nyet...., there will be no one to remember, nothing. We are alone. The universe will continue to expand and some day the sky will be completely dark as the light will eventually disappear from the distant stars. This earth and the universe will be dead and cold. In time, the universe will implode and return to its original state. There may be another big bang and another and another and after a billion tries and a freak chance life may again be born but there will be no recollection of anything before. No recollection of us or our greatness because nothing is great when the memory of it is gone. Just as we have no idea what or who or if anything preceded us in the endless reformation of the universe nothing after us will be able to know either. No, nothing any of us has ever done will ever be known or remembered. Its as if we never existed and possibly in the context of endless time and space we really haven't.

That seems kinda dark and bleak.

I try not to think about it.

change the world

do you want change? it seems that is a catch phrase that is popular now but what will it cost?

do you want change? don't lie, tell the truth

do you want change? don't steal, be honest

do you want change? don't hook up, be faithful

do you want change? don't use people, make a commitment

do you want change? don't hoard, be generous

do you want change? get to know your neighbors

do you want change? give your life away

do you want change?  forgive someone who has hurt you, someone who doesn't deserve it

change is hard, its challenging, it takes work, sacrifice, it takes love

do you want change?

a long way gone

I finished a sobering book called "A long way gone" by Ishmael Beah.  It is a memoir of Ishmael's days as a boy soldier caught up in the brutal civil war in the African country of Sierra Leone.  It is a chilling account of the atrocities that are occurring in that African nation.  As I read the book in the safety of my expensive home in a quiet suburban neighborhood it was hard for me to even grasp the magnitude or reality of the situation over there.  It is mind boggling to me how quickly we as humans can sink to the lowest form of existence.  One where human life means nothing where there is absolutely no conscience and slitting someone's throat is no different than tying one's shoe.  

These kids, as young  as seven years old, are recruited to become killers.  They've seen their families murdered and raped.  They are starving and lost as they wander the countryside. No one will take them in because during this civil war no one trusts anyone,  no one can. Finally they either fall into the hands of rebel or government troops who then give them food, guns and drugs.  They are then kept high most of the time as they are taught to kill with impunity.

This story offers hope in a completely depressing and seemingly hopeless situation.  It is written in a  simple straightforward style and is not hard to follow.  For me I have to ask myself if I have a conscience.  If I read a book like this and do nothing I don't see myself as any different then the one's exploiting those kids.  Each of us are called to a higher purpose; to do something outside of ourselves for others.  If this story doesn't prick a nerve in one's core then some serious self examination is warranted.

ethanol, starvation and global warming

Not far from Portland, Oregon  an ethanol plant is being built which will convert corn into gasoline.  There is a rail yard being constructed to accomodate all the container cars that will soon be carrying corn from all over the country to this plant.  The farmers are happy.  The environmentalists are happy.  Unfortunately not everybody is happy.  People are rioting in Egypt and in Africa because of the rising cost of food.  People in Haiti are eating dirt!  Yes, dirt! Why?  Because food is becoming too expensive and  if you only earn two dollars a day the cost is quickly out of reach with any bit of inflation.  So to fight the hunger pains vendors mix clay, salt and some shortening or cooking oil together to  make mud cookies that dry in the sun. They sell for about a nickel apiece.  Has anybody here eaten dirt before?

People are starving to death around the world and we want to turn our food into gasoline? I have read it takes one gallon of gasoline to produce 1.3 gallons of ethanol.  Also if every bit of food grown in this country was converted to biofuel it would only supply 10% of our gasoline needs!    Is it really worth it?   Yet we go on, willing to wreak unbearable suffering on the poorest people on the planet and starve them and their children because we are hell bent on stopping global warming!   I guess  one way to stop global warming is by making food so expensive that half the world starves to death thus reducing their carbon footprint.  

Where is the common sense?  Where is the compassion?  I for one believe it is immoral to convert food into gasoline when people are starving and eating dirt for dinner.  Remember that fact the next time  you fill up your tank with ethanol.