X-Message-Number: 18879
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2002 23:49:27 +1000
From: Damien Broderick <>
Subject: Re: #18876: Therapeutic cloning debate [RoyJYowell]

At 10:00 AM 3/31/02 -0000, RoyJYowell wrote:

>I would like to propose a solution to the therapeutic cloning debate.  The 
>religious right is up in arms over "Creating life and destroying it for the 
>benefit of others."
>So...why not cryonic suspend the cloned embryo after a small number of stem 
>cells are removed!

More to the point, and more realistically right now, why not harvest a few
stem cells and then allow the embryo to proceed on its developmental path
and implant it at the appropriate stage into a waiting and prepared
mother-to-be? 

We know that the clump of barely differentiated cells at that early stage
of near-totipotency can readily recover from the loss of a few cells
without a hiccup--indeed, spontaneous processes can split the little thing
down the middle and yield two perfect twins. Routine testing for normalcy
of in vitro embryos already uses this sort of sampling process, with no ill
effects.

I'm not recommending such casuistical nonsense, of course, since the sole
motive is a bizarre 13th century Scholastic perversion of reason, but for
those afflicted with this antique opinion it seems to me a plausible
solution satisfactory to all parties (except those who remain adamantly
opposed to any in vitro conceptions, which I gather still includes the Pope
and possibly several other infallible authorities).

Damien Broderick

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