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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TideGlider who wrote (682921)	5/20/2005 1:55:50 PM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769667

An unfertilized egg is not a human embryo. It does not have the capability to grow into a human being.

To: TideGlider who wrote (682921)	5/20/2005 2:37:43 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769667

There is a very good argument to be made that a "nuclear construct" (the term the South Korean scientists used to describe their work... the same method used to produce Dolly the sheep) is NOT an "embryo" by definition.... Or, at least not any kind of 'enbryo' that has ever been seen before on the Earth. Some differences between the way a regular embryo is produced in nature: 1) No sperm used. No sex, mitosis (cellular division) occurs, but no miosis (no mixing of genes from two parents). 2) Nuclear genetic material (what makes us 'what we are') only comes from one person --- the patient. So, in effect, there is only 'one parent' (the sick patient needing a cure, or a new organ). The egg cell has it's nucleus extracted... so it contributes no nuclear genetic material. The 'patient' (donor nucleus) can be either sex, and the evacuated egg used has no sex at all... since it's nucleus is removed. 3) The Koreans argue that producing stem cells unique to the sick patient this way (by cloning the patient's own genetic material) is less an ethical problem then even using disguarded embryos from IVF clinics. Even though these disguarded frozen IVF embryos may be past their 'use by' date, and were never going to be implanted anyway (dozens or even hundreds created and frozen for each couple to select from)... still, they were created the normal way: by fertilizing the Mother's egg cell with the Father's sperm. These 'nuclear constructs' are not made that way. They are made from a sick person's own nuclear material.