Human Cloning Go-Ahead for UK Scientists

[Sayonara]

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in the UK had granted the right to perform "therapeutic cloning" on human embryos to researchers at the University of Newcastle.

 

The work will involve searching for treatments of common or incurable conditions such as diabetes, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3554474.stm

[Martin]

The work will involve searching for treatments of common or incurable conditions such as diabetes' date=' Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3554474.stm[/quote']

This is important news indeed. Screw ProLife Party and CORE, if there is any sacredness to a human life then these "Pro Life" people desecrate it by confusing it with the existence of a cell.

 

Whatever political forces have had the clearsighted courage to take this step

then good on them, whatever and whoever they are.

The thinking of those who confound a cell with a human self is a primitive abomination, a travesty, I cant think of the word right now - maybe someone else can.

[NavajoEverclear]

cant stem cells be retrieved from bone marrow, just more expensive?

[5614]

well this will be interesting, last thing i heard, the USA wanted a world wide ban on ALL forms of cloning! and the US and UK are big allies, wonder what Bush will make of this,

 

means a lot of advances in biological sciences in the UK though, which is good! we need some kind of new, amazing, scientific break through! hopefully this will do what everyone wants it to do, end some really bad illnesses, by replcaing the bad cells, with new, better ones, cloned from the same person, to prevent any rejection of it, from the immune system.

 

keep a look out, this could be a big thing soon, if it all works to plan!...

[Sayonara]

well this will be interesting, last thing i heard, the USA wanted a world wide ban on ALL forms of cloning! and the US and UK are big allies, wonder what Bush will make of this.

Do you really give a **** what that half-witted religious fanatic* thinks? Certainly scientists outside the USA don't.

 

Iirc the [acr=British Medical Association]BMA[/acr] don't recognise American medical research at face value so I doubt US policy will concern us that much.

 

 

 

* No offence intended to people who are pathologically incapable of separating issues, or people who still think they have to agree with the President.

[5614]

no, you miss the point, the amount of political bulls*** going on between Bush and Blair is stupid, they seem to have their own views on everything, but are obsesed with forming a united kingstates! america/uk mixed, by becoming the greatest of allies, sticking up for each other.

 

my point was that, now Blair has done what Bush says no to, it was a side point, that i was saying, it will not become interesting, will Bush give in, and copy Blair, or will Blair feel presurized to give into Bush and ban cloning

 

that was the reason why that sentence was topical in this thread.

 

additionally what happened to, united states, the leaders of the worlds, if they cant even clone! lol, lets all lol at USA, who are behind with the times, american biologists will want to come here to experiment, after all, scince is about advancing, and americans cant, due to a ban in their country, which isnt here!

[Sayonara]

I didn't miss the point. Blair can't ban cloning.

[atinymonkey]

Scientific research, specifically cloning, is not an important issue in the UK. Nobody gets worked up about it, but most people are aware of it through Dolly the sheep etc. Because it isn't an important issue it carries little political weight. If Tony Blair stood up in Parliament and proposed a ban of human cloning, he'd get blank looks. If Blair declared it was against God's will, he would be escorted from Parliament or silenced by the Speaker. In the UK, Politics and the Church are distinctly separate.

 

Most American researchers of high caliber spend time in the UK anyway, at Oxbridge. Making an issue of cloning in America just reinforces the ability of the British to stay at the forefront of scientific progress. Honestly, who would choose to stay in a country that calls your work an abomination against Jeebus, if you could have a nice bursary in Oxford instead.

[Sayonara]

Scientific research, specifically cloning, is not an important issue in the UK. Nobody gets worked up about it, but most people are aware of it through Dolly the sheep etc. Because it isn't an important issue it carries little political weight.

Wait until the "Anti-Huntingdon Life Sciences" type people get their teeth into this.

 

/predicting death in arson attack within the year.

[Martin]

If Blair declared it was against God's will, he would be escorted from Parliament or silenced by the Speaker...

 

LOL

a relief to imagine what seems to be slightly more reasonable society

[LucidDreamer]

Hopefully Kerry will be elected and both the UK and the US can work on stem cells together.

[5614]

I didn't miss the point. Blair can't[/i'] ban cloning.

 

he could if he wanted to..... hes the president, and theres a strong case for it.

 

NB: CLONING IS CORRECT, i disagree with any other view on cloning!

 

just like the americans and bush have banned cloning, so could Blair, not that he has a reason to at the moment, but as someone said, if there are massive protests and arson / deaths! its a joke, but who know, suddenly, to Blair it seems like a realistic option! despite him saying "we do not give in to terrorists" (if a protester commited arson of something, he could then be classified as a terrorist! in a way!)

[Sayonara]

he could if he wanted to..... hes the president, and theres a strong case for it.

No he couldn't, no he isn't, and no there isn't.

 

The UK doesn't have a president, by the way. We have a Prime Minister.

 

 

just like the americans and bush have banned cloning, so could Blair, not that he has a reason to at the moment, but as someone said, if there are massive protests and arson / deaths! its a joke, but who know, suddenly, to Blair it seems like a realistic option! despite him saying "we do not give in to terrorists" (if a protester commited arson of something, he could then be classified as a terrorist! in a way!)

No, it's not a joke. Perhaps if you read the thread with more care, you'd see the posts you are telling me about are ones that I wrote. Perhaps if you knew about the current biomedical ethics protest situation in the UK at the moment, or anything about our political process, you'd have made a coherent point.

 

There's always the future I suppose.

 

Since the latest news forum threads dangle off the front page of the web site, please try not to abuse punctuation by having 82 exclamation marks or three sets of directly stacked parenthesis. It doesn't help your points one bit, and makes you look a bit loony tbh.

[5614]

firstly, apologies to sayonara, who i have clearly upset.

 

The UK doesn't have a president, by the way. We have a Prime Minister.

 

I am british, i know that Blair is a prime minister and not the president, ooops, my mistake. "even the great make mistakes sometimes"

 

No he couldn't, no he isn't, and no there isn't.

 

i believe that as the prime minister, blair could legally ban something if he wished, as long as he had a strong case for the banning, if protests happen, they will unfortunately provide an argument for banning cloning. when there are two sides to an argument, one side, could accept the other point of view, so as Blair has legalised cloning, he could see protests, and change his mind, after all, that is the whole point of the protests in the first place

 

No' date=' it's not a joke. Perhaps if you read the thread with more care, you'd see the posts you are telling me about are ones that I wrote. Perhaps if you knew about the current biomedical ethics protest situation in the UK at the moment, or anything about our political process, you'd have made a coherent point.

 

There's always the future I suppose.[/quote']

 

whilsts not being a biologist, i have read all about the biomedical situation in the UK at the present moment. i re-read my post, and sorry, it is badly worded, what i meant was that, not "its a joke" but more, it hasnt happened yet, i was predicting the future, but in a not to pesimistic way at the same time. so whilst arson is unfortunately a realistic possibility, i hope, that it is not.

 

i guess the only point we are actually debating here, is whether or not, tony blair has the ability to ban cloning in the UK, now its been legalised.

 

i think that he could, if he so wished, despite cloning being the way forward, whilst he is also unlikely to, it is in his power to do so.

[Sayonara]

i believe that as the prime minister, blair could legally ban something if he wished, as long as he had a strong case for the banning,

Then you're wrong.

 

 

if protests happen, they will unfortunately provide an argument for banning cloning.

No they won't. "X causes protests" is not a reason to stop doing X. It never has been, and it never will be.

 

Remember how the protests stopped nuclear power? Atomic weapon development? Animal testing? Fuel tax increases? The war on Afghanistan? The war on Iraq? No, you don't do you. Because none of those things have stopped.

 

 

when there are two sides to an argument, one side, could accept the other point of view, so as Blair has legalised cloning, he could see protests, and change his mind, after all, that is the whole point of the protests in the first place

What?

 

 

i guess the only point we are actually debating here, is whether or not, tony blair has the ability to ban cloning in the UK, now its been legalised.

i think that he could, if he so wished, despite cloning being the way forward, whilst he is also unlikely to, it is in his power to do so.

No, it is not.

[5614]

ok, fine; *5614 cowers in the corner* and says "sayonara, you win this one"

 

additionally, i think that protests are stupid, and that they never get anywhere,

i think i forgot what i believe in when i posted that last post, i was lost in thinking about the arson attacks on scientists property, in protests over multiple scientific issues.

 

who knows whether tony blair could stop cloning of not, maybe not, i think more to the point, BLAIR WONT. forget about if he could, HE WONT. and thats the poin; ok, so no arguing!

[Sayonara]

who knows whether tony blair could stop cloning of not

Anyone with the most basic grasp of our democratic processes?

 

Sorry, but there it is.

[DoorNumber1]

I'd just like to state for a second that most Americans, especially educated Americans, don't support Bush or his crazy, stupid ass policies. The ones who do are either bible-thumpers who refuse to listen to reason anyhow (the crazy religious right), people to uneducated to see the long term result of his policies (the underpopulated, rural center of the country), or people who don't care what happens to others as long as they get more money (a portion of the very rich). And no, those aren't the majority of Americans. I'll give you 10 bucks if you can a large group of conservatives at Harvard.

 

Please don't make comments that seem to imply that this Bush speaks for the entire US because to be honest, as a highly patriotic American who hates Bush's guts and what the far right is doing to our country through him, I'm highly insulted by them. Laugh at Bush, not the USA.

 

And what's the point of protesting? I'll take to the streets in a second if I really disagree with something. The point is so those in power will KNOW that you disagree and, hopefully, your reasons will get some publicity. Also, so that people around the world don't look at certain policies, see a lack of protest, and suddenly assume that the American people are behind them. Assuming that foreigners see such things and don't make blanket assumptions, that is.

[Sayonara]

Please don't make comments that seem to imply that this Bush speaks for the entire US because to be honest, as a highly patriotic American who hates Bush's guts and what the far right is doing to our country through him, I'm highly insulted by them. Laugh at Bush, not the USA.

I can't speak for anyone else (although it doesn't appear to me that anyone was laughing at the USA), but I was quite specifically referring to Bush alone.

[DoorNumber1]

I'd say it was comments like

"just like the americans and bush have banned cloning"

that left that bad taste in my mouth. You, btw, didn't make those comments. I try to give most foreigners as much credit as I give educated Americans to separate the official policy of a given country from its people.

[Thales]

There is no absolute power in most western 'democratic' societies. A President or Prime-Minister needs the approval of the parliment before implementing new policies. These measures have been put in place in the vain attempt to curbe the whims of the world's leaders.

[DreamLord]

There is no absolute power in most western 'democratic' societies. A President or Prime-Minister needs the approval of the parliment before implementing new policies. These measures have been put in place in the vain attempt to curbe the whims of the world's leaders.

 

This should be true. But, actually there are parts of Bush's Patriot Act that say otherwise. Down with the Patriot Act! I really hate some of the laws that thing brings up... For instance, Congress gave Bush full power to declare wars in certain situations without approval. Or at least come pretty dang close to war...

[MolecularMan14]

I do think this is the sort of thing our president should stand behind, not cloning, but genetic research in general...stem cell research. I realize that some veiw it as unethical, but as long as abortion exists, then so should stem cell research. Stem cell research should follow abortion. The point where I draw the line is when its the other way around, when abortion is done so subsidize stem cell research.