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back to article Post-Bush US preparing stemcell brain drain

Blighty is in danger of losing all its best stem cell boffins to America once George Bush departs from power, according to an official in charge of dishing out UK gov science cash. At the moment, top stem cell brainboxes flock to the sceptred isle so as to avoid the American president's chokeoff of federal boffinry greenbacks, …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Good and interesting article

    This is the first article which has pointed out the following:

    It is just embryonic stem cell research, and not all stem cell research.

    It's just federal government funding, not state or local government funding, and not private funding.

    I realize federal government grants are a big part of research, but I'm still waiting for someone to break down the numbers. How much embryonic stem cell research in the U.S. is being "left on the table" because of the lack of federal government support? How much is that in terms of all U.S. stem cell research?

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  2. A. Merkin

    Republi-Cons

    I don't get how W can be Pro-Death (penalty) and Pro-Life. Seems like an ethical contradiction, innit?

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  3. Steven Knox

    @Merkin

    The basic ethical argument is something like:

    The fetus is given no choice over its future, whereas the criminal knows that death is the consequence for her* choice.

    BTW, I don't believe Western civilization could implement a death penalty effectively, and I don't believe I have the right to tell someone how to deal with her** pregnancy. But it seems everyone I talk to about abortion brings up this same "contradiction" when the ethical considerations are truly very different.

    * [equal opportunity/politically correct pronoun]

    ** [correct pronoun at least until the Governator's research pays off...]

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So these 'spare' embryos..

    If they don't do stem cell research on them, what DO they do? Do the Bushies insist they are ALL brought to term at some point?

    Maybe that's the only way to guarantee a few Republican voters in the future...

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bush already expanded it, silly

    The US already spends more than you and has less restrictions. In June, Bush asked to further expand $$$ to all those arrested embryos, blastocyst extraction, parthenogenesis, and altered nuclear transfer - and the NIH put its plan in place mid-Sept.

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    oh ho ho!

    "Mr Bush will step down next year, ..."

    Well, you're quite the optimists, aren't you?

    -ps.

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  7. the Jim bloke

    support embryonic stem cell research today

    "But they require an infrastructure and support which is very heavy. We have got to be sure that it is maintained at the highest quality levels - that does not come cheaply, but we have to make sure it actually happens"

    So go ahead, Donate your First-(un)Born Child today...

    heres a thought, what would happen if they made embryonic stem cell harvesting... retrospective ?

    (feeding the troll)

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