CBN.com - Stem Cells from Adult Skin Can Turn Into Brain or Muscle Cells

Scientists in Montreal believe they have made a major breakthrough in stem cell research. They have isolated stem cells in the skin of adults and mice that can grow into brain or muscle cells.

That could mean researchers will not have to rely on the controversial practice of taking stem cells from doomed embryos. The new discovery suggests the nearly infinite number of stem cells in skin could be used to fight diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

The scientists believe the cells might even be able to grow into replacement organs.

I am more convinced than ever that some beliefs are based on emotions rather than facts. No-one has bothered to address the points I raised.

Zyph,

I presented what the Bible and God says about the beginning of life. The bible contains facts and I choose to believe them. Is it emotionalism to believe the Bible and accept what it says? If anyone chooses to believe something different, he/she is free to do so. God has given us that freedom.

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Jesus is the joy of living
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Linda

Linda, I responded to various things in my second (or third - I'm too lazy to check) post, and I thought I brought up other issues. Belief in the bible is something we share, but my impression is that there are more texts and questions, which look like they are to be ignored because they don't agree with an overall belief. The protestant way of defining truth is to look at everything the bible says about a particular subject, and the context, as well as what it says about other subjects that may be relevant. A forum is supposed to be a place of discussion, and while I accept that sometimes there is nothing more to say, it seems that there are standard beliefs which are taken on board, and firmly believed, and are not up for any challenging. As a foreigner to both the US and Canada, I have observed an evolution of "standardised" christian beliefs, which originate in Sunday-keeping churches in the US, usually Charismatic ones. They include belief in the family unit, meaning two parents cohabiting, plus children (anyone who is outside the norm is wrong, sinful, or unfortunate); belief that the immortal soul comes into being at the moment of conception, and that at that point, the unborn child has priority over those already living (note the murders of doctors at fertility clinics, by religious people); belief that even disabled people should work to feed themselves, and that there should be no financial support for the needy other than that which their family provides; a frantic looking for the beast of the bible - which has included suspicion regarding a computer in Belgium, which was obviously going to give people "the mark", and I heard the first rumour in an Adventist church, I'm afraid; homosexuals (celibate ones as well as practising) are an abomination to God - not just the sexual behaviour (and I add that many are indifferent to the spread of AIDS because it's just the wages of sin); God blesses all His worshippers with health, wealth and prosperity, evidenced by a middle-class western lifestyle.
I'm not saying anyone here believes all of the above, but I think the church has been directly influenced by its social setting. It is an awful thing to identify with murderers of adults, whose theology is satanic.
Obviously folks think the points I raised are irrelevant, and that's okay. I just feel a little frustrated that the things I mentioned were ignored, and the conversation continued as if one perspective is an absolute fact.
And because no-one addressed the particular things I pointed out, and my responses, I came to the conclusion that emotion rather than bible study is the main impetus in such issues, within and without the Adventist church.
In spite of what others may think, I am more than happy to change my beliefs if I'm given enough evidence, particularly on subjects which aren't defined in scripture.
Anyway, that's all I have to say now.

Human embryo created through cloning
November 25, 2001 Posted: 8:26 PM EST (0126 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Scientists at a technology company said Sunday they have created human embryos through cloning, drawing criticism from President Bush and lawmakers and raising new ethical questions.

Advanced Cell Technology Inc. of Worcester, Massachusetts, said the experiment was aimed not at creating a human being but at mining the embryo for stem cells used to treat disease.

Stem cells are a kind of master cell that can grow into any kind of cell in the body. The company's study was also published in an online scientific journal.

"I'm just trying to help people who are sick, and really that's our focus," said Dr. Michael West, the company's president and CEO. He called the development "the first, halting steps" toward a new area of medicine.

Speaking on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer," West disputed the suggestion the work amounted to the creation of a human being.

"We're talking about making human cellular life, not a human life," West said. . . .

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The entire article is at CNN News

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Jesus is the joy of living
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Linda

[This message has been edited by Linda Sutton (edited November 27, 2001).]

Stem cells don't grow on their own. There's a human attached to them! "Farming" stem cells is the ultimate in "taking the baby out" without having to worry about the bathwater.

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The great ships are safe in the harbour, but that's not what they were built for.

We need to completely understand what it is that the scientists are doing and have patience to see what the benefits could be. Everyone has an opinion, but that is just what they are. Are we supposed to push our religious feelings and agenda on the world and turn them into law??
The abortion issue is thrust at us from the anti groups and are fully supported from the pope and other right wing churches that can't wait to see their religious agendas turned into law on all people. They aren't much different than the taliban enforcing what they believe.
I'm not for stem cell research or for abortion, but wary of giving rome another inch.
Be careful what you wish for. Before long, sunday worship will be enforced by law also. And could well be put into law by Georgie.
Steve

Does the Seventh-day Adventist church teach the doctrine of the immortal soul? Because that's the only reason to assume cells left to divide for a few days are an actual human, complete, and with feelings and personality. To have sympathy for something prior to it becoming a complete human, as opposed to those who have illnesses and suffering which may be ameliorated by this research, strikes me as being inconsistent. Or should we also have reverence for the sperm and egg as well?

The stem cells in skin, etc, are far from being substitutes for embryonic cells, and have limited use.

rinks - I couldn't agree with you more about the law issue. We make an image to the beast whenever we try to impose our religious will on others.

quote:

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Originally posted by zyph:
Does the Seventh-day Adventist church teach the doctrine of the immortal soul? Because that's the only reason to assume cells left to divide for a few days are an actual human, complete, and with feelings and personality. To have sympathy for something prior to it becoming a complete human...

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And when is that? God says to Jeremiah in Jer. 1:4-6 "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations".

When was that exactly? When there were 32 cells? 64? When his heart started beating? When he could feel pain/hear in the womb? When does someone become an "actual human"?

True, fetuses don't think and understand things the way we do - but neither do 3 month old babies.

I don't know *when* God gives us our soul - it's obviously [to me, anyway] not at the moment of our birth, since he knew Jeremiah *before* he was born. I think it's not something that should be guessed at. What if all those fertilized eggs/embryos/whatever *do* have souls already given to them. What then?

Kristina

If something can be put in a nutshell, it usually deserves to be there. However, I find the following to sum up choices all human beings have on the matter of human life:

Either life is sacred or choice is sacred.

This is a tough one because choice involves everything that we believe in. What we define as the nature of man is that he is a free moral agent, a unique being that shares this quality with God and the angels--the ability to choose between right and wrong, good and evil. Add to this that the Adventist concept of Salvation is largely Moravian (free will) rather than Calvinistic (God's unalterable decision).

In baptism, we immerse adults who can make the decision for themselves rather than taking Calvin's stance that sprinkling an "unaware" baby is a carryover of the practice of circumcision--showing that Salvation and entrance to the body of Christ is nothing of me, all of God.

So, is life or choice sacred? Catholics and certain Protestants make no bones about life itself being sacred.

More importantly, how do we live those beliefs--what are the implications of the stances we take? Can we condone taking away a person's choice and free will (like what happened in the Inquisition) to presereve their "life" on earth or the hereafter?

The answers are very complex. I have reached a point where I might disagree with those on the "other side" but I do not for a second doubt their sincerity or intelligence on this matter.

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The great ships are safe in the harbour, but that's not what they were built for.