Getting the Point Across

The significance of the Korean human cloning breakthrough would be difficult to overstate. The introduction of therapeutic human cloning will be a huge boost for the relatively new field of regenerative medicine, which has already shown tremendous potential in the treatment of disease and injury, and in fighting the effects of aging.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to get this message across for a couple of reasons. First, as Reason has pointed out (and as is discussed here and here), the idea that a human embryo is destroyed in the process of generating the new stem cell line raises all the ethical issues which currently define the debate over abortion. These issues are daunting enough; however, they may not be the main obstacle to progress.

Comments

Not just "migrates to other shores" unfortunately, but also delayed for years. Due to regulation and other economic horrors, no other part of the world has a research establishment to match the US. They're ramping up in Asia, but that takes time.

One can hope that in 20 years time, this will all be quaint and past, rather like the IVF debate, but five lost years of progress will still be five lost years of progress, and a quarter of a billion lives lost that could otherwise have been saved:

http://www.longevitymeme.org/articles/viewarticle.cfm?page=1&article_id=9

Reason
Founder, Longevity Meme

Posted by: Reason at February 13, 2004 11:38 AM
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