From: Ken Clements (Ken@Innovation-On-Demand.com)
Date: Sun Mar 10 2002 - 16:12:30 MST
John Clark wrote:
> Harvey Newstrom <mail@HarveyNewstrom.com> Wrote:
>
> > Yuck!
>
> Harvey, what on earth are you talking about? To hell with the reflex "yuck"
> response, this is exactly precisely the kind of responsible work that could cure
> spinal cord injuries, diabetes, heart disease and much more. Even better it could
> do it at a price that anybody could afford, cow eggs will always be far cheaper
> than human eggs. This research has the potential to eliminate one hell of a lot of
> human misery and if that's yucky then tough!
>
> John K Clark jonkc@att.net
I have to agree with John on this. Although the PR on this story was terrible,
leading to wild speculation about cross species reproduction, the potential for good
expressed above should be seriously considered. Look at it this way: We are actively
putting human genes into pigs, today, so as to try to get hearts, etc. for
transplant. Some say "Yuck!" to that, some don't. So there is a continuum here
starting with no human genes substituted, going through to full nuclear substitution.
I do not see a point on the scale where one can argue logically, "Yuck happens here."
Cytoplasmic inheritance is complex and important. But "molecules is molecules." The
idea that something is wrong with a molecule because it came from cow cytoplasm
reminds me of when my kids refused to eat the corn on their dinner plates because it
had "touched" the Jell-O. They had a simple one word justification: "Yuck!"
-Ken
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