Obama to lift ban on stem cell research soon: aide

[PeaceFrog]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama (http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/barackobama) will soon issue an executive order lifting an eight-year ban embryonic stem cell research imposed by his predecessor, President George W. Bush, a senior adviser said on Sunday.
"We're going to be doing something on that soon, I think. The president is considering that right now," Obama adviser David Axelrod said on "Fox News Sunday."
In 2001, Bush limited federal funding for stem cell research only to human embryonic stem cell lines that already existed. It was a gesture to his conservative Christian supporters who regard embryonic stem cell research as destroying potential life, because the cells must be extracted from human embryos.
Embryonic stem cells are the most basic human cells which can develop into any type of cell in the body.
Scientists believe the research could eventually produce cures for a variety of diseases, including Parkinson's disease, diabetes, heart disease and spinal cord injuries.
Obama vowed to reverse Bush's ban during his presidential campaign and in his inaugural address last month promised to return science to its proper place in the United States.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month cleared the way for the first trial to see if human embryonic stem cells could treat people safely.
The trial will try to use stem cells from already existing lines to regrow nerve tissue in patients with crushed spinal cords.
Stem cells are the body's master cells, giving rise to all the tissues, organs and blood. Embryonic stem cells are considered the most powerful kinds of stem cells, as they have the potential to give rise to any type of tissue.


:clapping:

[mule64]

:clapping:

[Mr_Pat]

About time....
Posted via Mobile Device Powered By Terrapin

[wowzers]

I have a friend paralyzed by a motorcycle accident, who will love hearing this. It is about time.

[PeaceFrog]

It's definitely nice that we can all agree on something for once.

[Mr_Pat]

Yes it is...

*unlike the Hoagie: wtf thread :lol:

[PeaceFrog]

I'm surprised Joker hasn't come in yet and told us why we should be upset about this.

[wowzers]

I am all for it, but I do wonder sometimes aren't people suppose to die. If we keep figuring out ways to make people live to be 1000 were going to face some serious over population. On the same note if we can figure out how to do this we should be able to figure out how to make it all work. It's kind of a paradox

[PeaceFrog]

The cause of cancer is having cells that won't die.

At some point we may be having the argument of who deserves to live and who needs to die, and who needs to be blasted off to the moon to mine it for resources (aka prison).

[wowzers]

I hope it doesn't come to that.

[PeaceFrog]

Well that's pretty much the whole religious/philosophical argument behind it. "Who are we to play God?"

If it gets to the point where people are able to live forever, it's inevitable that we will have to decide who gets to live and who doesn't.

At this point in time, we're just not ready for that discussion. We need everyone's DNA. Who knows what sort of genetic qualities could benefit us on other planets.

[PennsylvaniaPete]

This seems to be more about quality of life, not length of life.

[Phishfolk]

This is good news but there was never a ban embryonic stem cell research.

[wowzers]

True it was only on federal funding. The research still continued.

[SunshineDrummer]

This is good news but there was never a ban embryonic stem cell research.

That's what I thought. Yay! I'm not crazy (this time)!!! :clapping:

[PeaceFrog]

In 2001, Bush limited federal funding for stem cell research only to human embryonic stem cell lines that already existed.

I'm glad we're going back to making more progress.

[wowzers]

Same thing happened with sex ed in schools. If states wanted Federal funding they had to adhere to an abstinence only curriculum. It s stupid to deny education based religious beliefs.

[lunaone]

http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=6492

seems like the push for embryo's may be less with new advances...

Biotech: What to Expect
by Yuval Levin
Copyright (c) 2009 First Things (March 2009).

Over the past fifteen years, the pro-life movement has succeeded in enacting some modest limitations on embryo-destructive research. Passage of these depended heavily on Republican control of the Congress, and their defense in the past eight years depended heavily on a Republican president willing to use his veto pen. The new political environment puts all of these achievements at grave risk and makes further steps essentially impossible for the time being.

The crucial story of the past several years in stem-cell science has been the story of newly emerging sources of pluripotent stem cells. What began as a series of speculative proposals early this decade and then coalesced into a few avenues of research between 2004 and 2006 has become the story of somatic-cell reprogramming.

In November 2007, two teams of researchers (one in Wisconsin and one in Japan) announced they had successfully transformed regular human adult skin cells into what appeared to be the equivalent of embryonic stem cells without using human embryos. Since then, several crucial advances have made the technique more efficient, more effective, and safer, and the cells produced by this technique (called “induced pluripotent stem cells,” or “iPS cells”) have so far continued to display all the characteristics attributed to human embryonic stem cells. These techniques not only avoid any ethical concerns (concerns, of course, that researchers in the field generally do not share), but they offer a far cheaper and easier method of producing genetically matched or selected pluripotent stem cells, which makes them appealing to researchers.

As a result, this technique has begun to overtake the use of embryos in many stem-cell labs. At last count (in the fall of 2008), there were approximately eight hundred laboratories using iPS cells in their work, which has cut sharply into the number of those using human embryos or cells derived from embryos. If the cells involved continue to prove equal to human embryonic stem cells in abilities and characteristics, this technique offers a genuine alternative to the destruction of embryos for nearly every purpose to which human embryonic stem cells and human cloning for research have been proposed or employed. The chief exception is the study of human development itself, which certainly has some devoted champions in the scientific community but which makes for a significantly less appealing political message than does the pursuit of regenerative medicine.

To date, no therapeutic applications of embryo-derived cells have been demonstrated, and only one preliminary human trial has been approved by the FDA (though it has yet to begin). The work, however, is proceeding, and the political debate about the research has certainly raised its profile and thereby brought private and some state funding pouring in. There have been no game-changing breakthroughs in the use of embryonic stem cells in recent years, but researchers remain confident of their potential utility, and their use will certainly continue even as work with iPS cells will likely overtake embryonic stem-cell research in volume and scope.

Research in human cloning is also proceeding. Given the number and quality of labs around the world currently pursuing human cloning techniques and the increasing efficiency and success of cloning techniques in nonhuman primates, it is reasonable to expect the successful creation of a human embryo by cloning in the next year or two.

The most significant obstacle to such success at this point is probably the limited supply of human eggs for research, which severely restricts the ability of researchers in the United States and in most of Western Europe to engage in large-scale cloning experiments of the sort that led to the first cloning of primates a few years ago. For this reason, significant research efforts have begun to explore means to produce eggs—for instance, by transforming iPS cells or embryonic stem cells into human egg cells, by using or improving damaged or low-grade eggs discarded by fertility clinics, and by obtaining human eggs through ovarian biopsy. We should also expect to see growing pressure to ease various state and institutional limitations on the sale of eggs for research.

Some more eccentric embryo research—such as the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos or the development of embryonic stem cells from earlier-stage embryos—is likely to see a serious decline in interest over the next few years. The purpose of these techniques was to overcome the shortage of human eggs for straightforward (non-cloning) embryo research and to sidestep the political pressure and ethical concerns raised by the destruction of embryos for research. Both sets of problems are significantly alleviated by the development of iPS cells (and, it must be added, the political pressure is alleviated by the election of a Democratic president). It is likely, therefore, that the attempts to produce human-animal hybrid embryos (which we know have been tried in China and Great Britain) will be scaled back. Attempts to find new ways to derive cells from human embryos will be limited as well. We can, however, expect continuing efforts to extend the period of gestation of human embryos outside the body—as more developed embryos and fetuses yield more useful cells and tissues.

Another set of emerging techniques, which would employ pluripotent stem cells to produce human eggs and sperm, are likely to develop swiftly in the next few years. These techniques would allow for manipulations of human reproduction to permit, for instance, homosexual couples to reproduce biologically (using, say, an egg from one female, then transforming the skin cells of another female into sperm cells with her genetic characteristics, and then producing an embryo by in-vitro fertilization). These techniques are almost certainly already possible with existing iPS techniques, though the efficiency involved would be quite low and the expense quite high. They will improve dramatically in the coming years.

As a result of all this, the likely scientific developments over the next few years move in two opposed directions: On the one hand, techniques to produce pluripotent stem cells without the need for embryos will certainly take center stage, reducing the volume of embryo destruction. On the other hand, successful human cloning for research is very likely, and we will see growing pressure to make more eggs available for research.

With regard to actual medical advancement, it is important to take note of the changed tone of expectations. Researchers now speak far less frequently of actual direct-cell therapies for particular diseases and conditions, because the lessons of animal research (and some implications of human adult stem-cell research) in recent years suggest that direct delivery of cells into the body of a patient will always carry grave risks of mutation and cancer. Moreover, they will also always remain extremely difficult to scale up to levels that would be required for treatment of widespread diseases or conditions.

Cell biology is instead increasingly directed to the study of small molecules that may be used to manipulate the development of cells through gene activation. It seems more and more likely that the most significant findings of the stem-cell revolution will involve ways of altering existing adult cells in the body rather than replacing lost or damaged cells. This suggests a far less prominent role for human embryos in this field of biology in the long run, but it also suggests a continuing interest in the detailed study of human development in the short run, which does involve the use and destruction of embryos. The public argument that stem cells from embryos will themselves be used to treat sick patients, however, is becoming increasingly untenable and untethered from the work of actual researchers in the field.

As far as public policy in the United States goes, the effort to enact limits on the destruction of human embryos for research (and on other unethical practices at the margins of cell biology) have yielded some modest but important achievements. All of these are now at risk, and some are quite certain to be overturned.

In 2001, President Bush permitted, for the first time, some limited federal funding of human embryonic stem-cell research, but under rules that denied funding to the use of any newly created lines of cells—thus avoiding a federally funded incentive for the ongoing destruction of human embryos. Congress twice passed bills to overturn these limits and allow for funding of newly created lines, and Bush twice vetoed the measures.

During the 2008 campaign, President Obama committed to overturning the Bush policy, and he will certainly do so. The particular character of the new policy will make some difference: It could, for instance, involve parental-consent requirements that might constrain its scope somewhat. But federal support for the use of cells from destroyed embryos will certainly grow significantly.

At this point, such support could fund only the use of cells from embryos but not the actual process of destroying the embryos. The Dickey Amendment, attached to the federal budget since 1995, prohibits funding for work in which embryos are actually destroyed. The new Congress may choose to remove the Dickey Amendment in next year’s budget, allowing for essentially no restriction on federal funding for the destruction of human embryos.

Opponents of the amendment certainly have the votes to remove it, but they will need to judge whether there is sufficient demand in the scientific community to merit the political cost, which means that the pro-life movement needs to prepare its case on the Dickey amendment, to make plain that there would be a cost.

In 2004, Congress enacted a ban on the patenting of human embryos. This prohibition, known as the Weldon Amendment, prohibits the patent office from granting patents that encompass a human organism as a patented product. This both establishes the principle that human beings should not be treated as property and limits the appeal of some manipulations of human embryos for research. The Weldon Amendment was forcefully opposed by the lobbying arm of the biotechnology industry and by some advocates of embryo research, and it may well be at risk in the next budget process.

In 2006, Congress passed and Bush signed a prohibition on the use of tissues or organs from a human fetus who had been gestated for the purpose of producing such tissues or organs (a practice known as fetal farming). This prohibition, which is not just a budget amendment but a statutory ban, affecting both the private and the public sector, is not likely to be undone by the new Congress, as there is not sufficient pressure from researchers to reverse it, and a reversal would be extremely unpopular.

These are, more or less, the only existing protections in federal law. There is no limitation on human cloning at the federal level, no prohibition on human-animal hybrid work or similar techniques, and no restriction on the use, procurement, or purchase of human eggs for research.

In the past, when Republicans have proposed to prohibit human cloning, the Democrats advanced a measure they described as a cloning ban, though, in fact, it would have prohibited only the transfer of a cloned human embryo to a womb for development to birth. The Democrats might pursue such a measure as a preventative step in this new Congress, but, since current law places no restrictions whatsoever on cloning, they may more likely see it as a needless effort and leave things as they are.

The only real opportunity for some positive achievement (rather than successful defense) in the next few years—and even this is a long shot—involves the question of egg procurement for embryo research. We are very likely to see growing pressure from researchers to ease institutional and some state rules that limit their ability to pay for eggs and that constrain them from working closely with fertility clinics to obtain eggs. The egg issue raises some concerns for a small but potentially significant element on the left, and at this point the usual biotechnology and disease-group lobbyists have not made it a key focus of their efforts. It may be possible to form a bare majority for setting some modest boundaries on the sale or procurement of eggs for research.

The prospects on the embryo-research front in the coming years are grim. We will certainly see the Bush funding policy overturned, and we will likely see rolled back most of the other modest protections enacted through great and arduous effort over a decade and a half. The egg-procurement question presents the only plausible opportunity for progress, but the pro-life movement should not despair of defensive successes. The Dickey and Weldon Amendments both have determined opponents in the scientific community (and especially in the private biotechnology sector) but both have a decent chance of surviving if the political costs of eliminating them can be increased. The first budget cycle of the new Congress will be the most crucial and difficult test on both fronts.

Yuval Levin is the Hertog Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he directs the program on Bioethics and American Democracy.

[china cat]

Same thing happened with sex ed in schools. If states wanted Federal funding they had to adhere to an abstinence only curriculum. It s stupid to deny education based religious beliefs.

teen abstinence would benefit the country financially, benefit children, reduce abortion, reduce std's... there are plenty of arguments for encouraging abstinence that are not based on religious beliefs. NO where are teens hearing the message that they'd be better off waiting (parents avoid the topic all together, media tells them to do it, and the schools pass out condoms).

my only point is that there are reasons, other than religious belief, to encourage abstinence. (this is of course, if it did in fact work, which is an entirely different argument. Having said that, given the rates of std's and abortion among teens, the safe sex message doesn't seem to produce the outcomes it purports either)

[wowzers]

Yhah it would work if people practiced it. Unfortunately nature intend other wise.

[Blendix 007]

People drink and drive everyday. Should we stop telling the youth not to drink and drive as well?

[china cat]

In regard to embryonic stem cell research....

I'm sure there is lots of conflicting info out there, but here are a couple of articles I found...

enormous strides have been made in the scientific community through the study and use of adult stem cells

So far, more than 6,000 patients and 66 diseases have been successfully treated with stem cells from cord blood.

On the other hand, embryonic stem cell research has yet to cure a single patient.

No currently approved treatments are being used on patients as a result of research on the cells and there are no human trials. After 20 years of research on embryonic stem cells, the only results have shown they are unsafe.

In studies, they have produced tumors, cause transplant rejection, and they have formed the wrong kind of needed replacement cells.

That's why private investors have funneled most of their money behind adult stem cell research

Kelly Hollowell, Ph.D., a molecular and cellular pharmacologist and a patent attorney, says another problem with embryonic stem cell research is that it requires harvesting so many cells and the process requires women's eggs to create human embryos. "To treat, for example, the 17 million diabetes patients in the United States will require a minimum of 850 million to 1.7 billion human eggs," Hollowell said. "Collecting 10 eggs per donor will require a minimum of 85 to 170 million women." "The total cost would be astronomical, at $100,000 to $200,000 for 50 to 100 human eggs per each patient," Dr. Hollowell explained.

http://www.lifenews.com/bio984.html

ALSO

Recent scientific developments prove this statement true. A few include:



Researchers at Australia's Griffith University discovered that olfactory stem cells can be turned into almost any kind of cell.27 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)
Researchers at the University of South Florida Center for Aging and Brain Repair injected human-bone-marrow stem cells into rats that had suffered severe strokes. The infusion of healthy stem cells quickly brought the rats back to such a level of normal activity that it was almost as if they had not suffered the strokes. The rats displayed no motor asymmetry - a common result of strokes.28 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)
Researchers at Enzo Biochem Inc. have high hopes of developing a cure for HIV using adult stem cells. They inserted anti-HIV genes into human stem cells, which then developed into a type of white blood cell that blocked HIV growth.29 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)
Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital have found that adult-islet stem cells can mature into pancreatic beta cells, the insulin-secreting cells that diabetes patients need.30 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)
Researchers at the University of Oslo are developing a treatment to heal spinal cord injuries using bone-marrow stem cells.31 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)
A research team at the University of Central Florida believes a person's own stem cells may hold the key to curing Alzheimer's. The team has been injecting rats with bone marrow or blood stem cells, which then proceed to replace the brain cells that are usually destroyed by Alzheimer's.32 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)
The National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Strokes reports that a patient's own bone-marrow can now be used to create nerve cells that could repair brain damage.33 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)
Johns Hopkins researchers have found that a mouse's own bone-marrow stem cells can develop into the specialized cells lining its intestines, lungs and skin.34 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)
Doctors at the Center for Aging and Brain Repair at the University of South Florida have found stem cells in tissue taken from the hearts of newborn babies undergoing surgery to correct congenital heart defects. It may be possible to use these stem cells to treat adults.35 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)
Researchers in Milan successfully treated mice with a disease similar to multiple sclerosis (MS) by injecting them with neural stem cells. The injections promoted tissue repair and clinical recovery.36 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)
A study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that nerve cells can be grown from hair-follicle stem cells.37 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)

More importantly, many of these studies have moved into human clinical trials and have yielded tremendous results in fighting many diseases, including:



Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID)
According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information estimates that new therapies involving the transplanting of bone marrow and other types of adult stem cells save up to 80 percent of SCID patients.38 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)Diabetes
In Japan a diabetic woman received part of her mother's pancreas. The insulin-producing pancreatic stem cells cured her diabetes. This procedure has been successful, but it always required pancreas cells from at least three cadavers. This latest case required only about half the number of cells.39 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)Heart Disease
Osiris Therapeutics, a firm developing therapies that use adult stem cells, is testing the possibility of injecting heart-attack patients with stem cells that can migrate into the heart and replace damaged cells.40 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)
Multiple studies around the world have shown that adult stem cells improved cardiac functioning for patients. Patients with congestive heart failure saw significant improvement when bone-marrow stem cells were injected into their cardiac tissue.41 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref) One patient who had been bedridden with heart failure was walking three miles a day within months.42 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)Sickle Cell Anemia
Doctors at the University of Pittsburgh cured 15-year-old Keone Penn of sickle cell anemia through intensive chemotherapy and injection of stem cells from umbilical-cord blood.43 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Treating child leukemia patients with umbilical-cord-blood stem cells has proven extremely effective. Adult Leukemia patients require a much larger quantity of stem cells, making it difficult to treat them, but researchers at the University of Minnesota are developing a therapy which combines stem cells from the blood of two umbilical cords.44 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Several hundred patients worldwide have reported improved conditions after receiving adult stem-cell transplants to treat MS.45 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)Parkinson's disease
An Israeli company is testing a way to treat Parkinson's using a patient's bone-marrow stem cells. The cells produce a chemical that restores a patient's motor movement.46 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)
Dennis Turner, who had suffered severe Parkinson's for many years, was injected with modified stem cells extracted from his brain. For the next five years his Parkinson's symptoms virtually disappeared and allowed him to live a normal life.47 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)
Researchers at the University of South Florida have reported that their attempts to use fetal cell grafts to combat Parkinson's were completely ineffective.48 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)Crohn's Disease
After adult stem-cell treatment, several patients with severe Crohn's disease at Chicago's Northwestern Hospital have shown remarkable progress. The patients had failed to respond to standard treatments.49 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)Krabbe's Disease
Umbilical cord-blood transplants significantly increased the survival rates of newborns afflicted with this rare and usually fatal disease.50 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)


These are just some of the documented examples showing the promise of adult stem cells. Adult stem-cell treatments have successfully fought Tay-Sachs disease, sickle cell anemia, thalassemia major, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma,51 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref) blindness,52 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref) spinal cord injury53 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref) and renal cell carcinoma. These treatments have also been used to fight many forms of cancer, including ovarian,54 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref) testicular55 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref) and breast.56 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)

Amazing discoveries continue to show that adult stem cells carry all the proposed benefits of embryonic stem cells without the risks. Present in everyone, these cells are noncontroversial and easier to obtain. Furthermore, researchers have found adult stem cells, known as "multipotent adult progenitor cells" (MAPC's), which, like embryonic stem cells, have the capability to convert into any cell type. They have also found another cell type, the "mesenchymal stem cell" (MSC), capable of making only bone, cartilage, fat and muscle tissues, but with the remarkable ability to cause little or no immune reaction when transplanted.57 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref) Importantly, this cell seems to go only to damaged areas.58 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref)

These two findings have incredible implications. But even more astounding is the suggestion that the cells can do something ESCR cannot do?be transplanted without fear of rejection. According to Ross Tubo of the biotech company Genzyme, "Put the properties of the two kinds of cells together and all of a sudden you have a noncontroversial, highly versatile source of adult stem cells that can, in theory, be transplanted to anyone."59 (http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life#ref) Everyday, new and ethical discoveries transform today's science into the cures of tomorrow.

http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4805&department=CWA&categoryid=life

[china cat]

Yhah it would work if people practiced it. Unfortunately nature intend other wise.

nature intends i pee as well, but sometimes i just gotta hold it till i get to an appropriate destination. nature tells you that your best friend's girlfriend is hot and your boner proves it but you control nature's urges and keep it in your pants 'cause there might be some serious consequences if you don't

and let me tell ya, most 13-16 year old girls aren't horny, they don't even enjoy sex. they're not doing it because of nature, they're doing it to please boys. and, many of them, are begging for parents, culture, schools to back them up... to give them permission to say no. to teach them self-respect and boundaries and autonomy over their own body.

[wowzers]

People drink and drive everyday. Should we stop telling the youth not to drink and drive as well?

I never said not to teach abstinence, I said it was stupid not to be able to teach about condoms, and birth control because of someone's religious opinion. Federal funding prevented that part of the education from happening.

[wowzers]

nature intends i pee as well, but sometimes i just gotta hold it till i get to an appropriate destination. nature tells you that your best friend's girlfriend is hot and your boner proves it but you control nature's urges and keep it in your pants 'cause there might be some serious consequences if you don't)

and let me tell ya, most 13-16 year old girls aren't horny, they don't even enjoy sex. they're not doing it because of nature, they're doing it to please boys. and, many of them, are begging for parents, culture, schools to back them up... to give them permission to say no. to teach them self-respect and boundaries and autonomy over their own body.

They didn't have to beg too hard because that was all that was taught since around 1996. Get real teenagers are going to have sex.

[china cat]

They didn't have to beg too hard because that was all that was taught since around 1996. Get real teenagers are going to have sex.

not true at all. two of my friend's teach in two public high schools. both schools teach comprehensive sex ed and there have been no federal penalties. if that's the case here, i'm sure the same is happening elsewhere and has been for quite some time).

having said that, i recognize that kids are having sex and do need to understand birth control choices and how to use them but i also believe that a heavy emphasis should be placed on teaching teens to value themselves, it's okay to wait, how to set boundaries, the realities of std's, make the kids go home with a fake "child" for the weekend, which would open their eyes to the realities of becoming a parent...

and, organizations such as planned parenthood oughta get the hell out of the schools. this organization is frightening (shivers at the thought of them)

[wowzers]

Then there not meeting federal guidelines. There are bills in the works to change it right now. As written it says if you want fed money you teach abstinence only. States that want to teach otherwise turn down that money. Are you sure your friends schools receive fed funding? Ca has always turned dow the money. NOw Maine and about twenty other states are doing so as well. Just google Fed funding for sex ed.

[Elphaba]

opinions differ greatly :lol:

[china cat]

Then there not meeting federal guidelines. There are bills in the works to change it right now. As written it says if you want fed money you teach abstinence only. States that want to teach otherwise turn down that money. Are you sure your friends schools receive fed funding? Ca has always turned dow the money. NOw Maine and about twenty other states are doing so as well. Just google Fed funding for sex ed.

you could be right here. edit to add:

all public schools receive federal funding for education. each school's physical education classes (in which health/sex ed is typically taught) receives part of the funding.

my understanding is that 204 million was an additional set aside each year by the federal gov. for abstinence based education. so for schools that choose abstinence they received part of these additional funds (which is pittance if you break this amount of money down per state, per school district. no wonder some states opted out--they didn't lose much in doing so),

the states who opted out, did not receive any additional federal funding from the 204 million designated to encourage abstinence but their physical education program (including health/sex ed) are all still funded.

Meaning, health classes (sex ed) have been, and still receive funding by the federal gov.

anyway, my only point even addressing this issue was that there are reasons other than religion to promote abstinence. But I do agree with you, wowzers, that (especially for juniors and seniors), birth control should be addressed.

[PeaceFrog]

It's interesting to watch the Republican party destroy itself from within.

It's about time. I'm surprised they lasted this long being based on Reagan's wobbly 3 legged stool.

[wowzers]

It's interesting to watch the Republican party destroy itself from within.


How so? NOt that I don't think the party is destroying its self, but I am interested to hear your opinions.

[PeaceFrog]

How so? NOt that I don't think the party is destroying its self, but I am interested to hear your opinions.

Since Reagan, Republicans have been primarily made up of 3 main groups. There are the fiscal conservatives, the fundamentalist Christians, and the gun toting war-mongers.

As of late, those 3 main groups just can't come to any sort of agreement with each other.

The smartest of the three (fiscal conservatives) have been pretty much ignored the past 8 years and are now the weakest. The other two groups just aren't strong enough without them.

If you don't see it yet, I'm sure you will eventually. It's been happening before our eyes for the last few years.

This cartoon says it best:

http://www.brainshavings.com/images/3-legged-stool.jpg

[Blendix 007]

It's interesting to watch the Republican party destroy itself from within.

It's about time. I'm surprised they lasted this long being based on Reagan's wobbly 3 legged stool.

Interesting you should bring this up at a time when Dems across the nation are being investigated, impeached, and indicted for corruption.

[PennsylvaniaPete]

Interesting you should bring this up at a time when Dems across the nation are being investigated, impeached, and indicted for corruption. and winning almost every election.

[PeaceFrog]

Interesting you should bring this up at a time when Dems across the nation are being investigated, impeached, and indicted for corruption.

People can be dishonest regardless of what party they belong to.

The difference is that Republicans cover their tracks better. Democrats want transparency and accountability. When you have transparency and accountability, this is what you get. The system is working exactly as it should for once.

Just because a person is corrupt doesn't mean their ideological beliefs are wrong.

[Joker]

and winning almost every election.

Says something about those who continue to put them into office. Never mind them then blowing off the crimes committed because it's "their party" that's guilty of the wrongdoing.

[wowzers]

People can be dishonest regardless of what party they belong to.

Amen!

[PeaceFrog]

Says something about those who continue to put them into office. Never mind them then blowing off the crimes committed because it's "their party" that's guilty of the wrongdoing.

Who has gotten away with anything lately?

You know I will give credit to Bush for one thing, he didn't let Scooter Libby off even though Dick Cheney put some heavy pressure on him to do so...

It really surprised the hell out of me when I found out.

[lunaone]

who is going after the finance people ? that is the best thing i have seen the obama people have done...
the swiss banks handing over acounts 200k worth just us citizens , it might only be 60 k people i forget ...but still and the carribean bank that has the greedy people over seas too! lol law and order man! right on

[lunaone]

Another set of emerging techniques, which would employ pluripotent stem cells to produce human eggs and sperm, are likely to develop swiftly in the next few years. These techniques would allow for manipulations of human reproduction to permit, for instance, homosexual couples to reproduce biologically (using, say, an egg from one female, then transforming the skin cells of another female into sperm cells with her genetic characteristics, and then producing an embryo by in-vitro fertilization). These techniques are almost certainly already possible with existing iPS techniques, though the efficiency involved would be quite low and the expense quite high. They will improve dramatically in the coming years

from the first things article above

thats pretty cool