noteworthy wrote:
From the State of the Union:
"A hopeful society has institutions of science and medicine that do not cut ethical corners, and that recognize the matchless value of every life. Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research: human cloning in all its forms, creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human-animal hybrids, and buying, selling, or patenting human embryos. Human life is a gift from our Creator -- and that gift should never be discarded, devalued or put up for sale." (Applause.)
The Whole Truth? Why bother if you're not under oath? It's always so boring and complicated. You aren't a wonk, are you?
So what scientists have been doing is inserting human genes into mice, to produce similar genetic overdoses in their development. As I reported before, there have been partial insertions, but now a team of researchers has inserted a complete human chromosome 21 into mouse embryonic stem cells, and from those generated a line of aneuploid mice that have many of the symptoms of Down syndrome, including the heart defects. They also have problems in spatial learning and memory that have been traced back to defects in long-term potentiation in the central nervous system.
These mice are a tool to help us understand a debilitating human problem.
George W. Bush would like to make them illegal.
This may be true, but don't call him "anti-hybrid":
"We will increase our research in better batteries for hybrid and electric cars, and in pollution-free cars that run on hydrogen."
A mouse is a mouse. Who are we to tweak it? Let's focus on nanobots instead. Those are safe -- and ethical, too!
Here's a thought. If sending iPods to Congressmen can change their thinking on intellectual property, maybe someone could send 535 of those green fluorescent mice to the Capitol. That would be sweet.
