Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to The New Coffee Room. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Henrietta's Legacy
Topic Started: Feb 3 2010, 10:17 AM (212 Views)
John Galt
Fulla-Carp
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/health/02seco.html
Let us begin anew, remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
ivorythumper
Member Avatar
I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
Interesting article. Gives new meaning to "the body politic".
The dogma lives loudly within me.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Phlebas
Member Avatar
Bull-Carp
I read that article this morning. Seems like a fascinating book.
Random FML: Today, I was fired by my boss in front of my coworkers. It would have been nice if I could have left the building before they started celebrating. FML

The founding of the bulk of the world's nation states post 1914 is based on self-defined nationalisms. The bulk of those national movements involve territory that was ethnically mixed. The foundation of many of those nation states involved population movements in the aftermath. When the only one that is repeatedly held up as unjust and unjustifiable is the Zionist project, the term anti-semitism may very well be appropriate. - P*D


Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
kathyk
Member Avatar
Pisa-Carp
Certainly raises some difficult ethical issues. If it had been done anonymously, the issue would never have arisen. I wonder why they felt the need to label the sample with her name.

Personally, the idea of having some proprietary claim to a few cells seems pretty silly to me. We are all constantly shedding cells. We lose 100 hairs every day, we cut and dispose of our nails with abandon, our skin is constantly sloughing off (I once read that the bulk of household dust consists of particles of dead skin), all of our tissues are constantly regenerating, the leg we have today we'll be completely replaced with new cells in three months. So, I can't quite see the big ado over a sample of cancer cells happen that have had the propensity to proliferate.
Edited by kathyk, Feb 3 2010, 01:56 PM.
Blogging in Palestine: http://kksjournal.com/
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Mikhailoh
Member Avatar
If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
The problem with that is they were her cells, and they were used to make a substantial profit eventually. I suppose if it had not been here it would have been someone else. Still... it seems to me since they used her name the family ought to reap some benefit.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Luke's Dad
Member Avatar
Emperor Pengin
The argument "accident of biology" is a very dangerous one.
The problem with having an open mind is that people keep trying to put things in it.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
kathyk
Member Avatar
Pisa-Carp
Mikhailoh
Feb 3 2010, 12:41 PM
The problem with that is they were her cells, and they were used to make a substantial profit eventually. I suppose if it had not been here it would have been someone else. Still... it seems to me since they used her name the family ought to reap some benefit.
Was that clear in the article? I didn't get that. I thought it was just ongoing research. But, even if there was profit, was the profit more derivative of the research behind it or the fact of that initial specimen of cells? It does get into very murky ethical debate material.
Blogging in Palestine: http://kksjournal.com/
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
John Galt
Fulla-Carp
Apparently her cells were extremely unusual. They continued dividing, even in the lab, and are unlike anything that had been seen before. Basically, they never died.

As happens in so many medical discoveries, when the body malfunctions in extreme ways it can tell us a lot about how it works.

Let us begin anew, remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Axtremus
Member Avatar
HOLY CARP!!!
Luke's Dad
Feb 3 2010, 01:17 PM
The argument "accident of biology" is a very dangerous one.
The term is accurately descriptive nonetheless.

Two thoughts:

1. X-Men FTW!

2. Jason Voorhees FTW!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
« Previous Topic · The New Coffee Room · Next Topic »
Add Reply