so should doctors be allowed to use stem cells from aborted fetuses to treat stroke victims?

[wannaBeOnTopOfTheChristmasTree]

I guess it's contravercial, but surely in a way it's not dissimilar to organ donation?

here

yes they should. dh had a small stroke, affecting the sight in his left eye only. but if he coulod get that back i know life would be easier for him.

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my initial reaction was great idea, at least the feotus had a purpose from its short existance. but actually your post has made me reconsider Lisalisa.

i thin i might get a few splinters with this one

'Piffle on Wednesday, 6 December, 2006 12:56:16 PMSo only one tissue sample is needed it would seem.
Which makes it far less distasteful IMO

Reneuron's idea is to produce unlimited quantities of stem cells from just one foetal tissue sample.

According to Dr Miljan, this makes their treatment potentially commercially viable and ethically more acceptable.

"We only take one single piece of tissue and for that we can grow up enough cells to potentially treat all eligible patients.

"And we never have to go back to that tissue again. We can provide a renewable source of cells in order to treat a large patient population." '

how could the cells come from a miscarriage? as I would suppose the cells would have to be live and a miscarriage isn't.

YOu hardly need to pay third world women to abort babies! There were 185,000 abortions in the UK in 2004. And technology means that stem cells can now be cloned.
The aborted foetuses are dead. This may make you feel sad - it makes me feel sad sometimes - but why is it better that they are dead and burned than dead and helping others to live?

yes.

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but wont the cells be dead if micarried?

I'd like to know more about it, but I thought that only donated foetuses at quite an early stage could be used, and that most stem cells actually came from unwanted very early embryos created for IVF.

well we have just had that debate here and our govt has approved the use of aborted fetus to provide material to be cloned into embryos to be used for stem cell research - i think my science is right here - just can't find the link for you.

here

explains it better than I did.....

another article here

not sure how I feel about it.

I have had three fairly early mcs, two involving D&Cs, and tbh I would have been 'happy' (not the word, but ykwim) if something good for someone else had been able to come out of the awful situation. Now aborted foetuses, though, tbh I'm really not sure. I'm pro-'choice' (cr*p term), but somehow it seems to, I don't know, it seems sacrilegious. I don't like the idea of a foetus being killed (not intended to be emotive language, just factual) and then used.

In answer to the OP, yes, of course. Good use of tissue that would otherwise have been discarded.

There's no way anyone would use miscarried fetuses for this purpose- the majority have chromosomal abnormalities, and most of those that don't have anything obvious will have some form of genetic abnormality. Even if you could get live stem cells, which would be problematical, it would be a completely unacceptable risk to implant potentially very abnormal cells into someone's brain.

OK very controversial issue here. First let me say I am dead against abortion - always have been - but abortion takes place, I can't stop that.

Secondly, my mother nearly died from a stroke in September and although she hs made a good recovery, she could still die from another stroke at any time. I am living with that prospect daily.

Should the aborted foetus' cells be used to ehlp stroke victims? You bet. For exactly the reason edam said: good use of tissue that would otherwise be wasted. I would rather the tissue was put to its proper use, even if my mother was to die, but as it will not be, then yes, let those of us with loved ones we care about benefit.