A possible discusion?

[miska_maz]

Now I was having a discusion the other day and this question came up

Comments

[anonymous]

I agree with it, and I think its actually more humane than using animals as the cells are just that: cells. They haven't developed far enough to become a sentient life form with a consciousness, its just a few cells...and no-one seems to have a problem with killing bacteria to get better!
Peetree

[miska_maz]

well this is not entirely true. Animal models will still have to be used - particularly for drug research. Because single cells do act differently to whole organisms. The idea though is it decreases the risk to the animal and to the human since we have started at a higher level of similarity. Nice linking it to bacteria - I never thought of it that way, but that's very true. A bacteria infection is just a bunch of cells (very clever ones mind you :P).

[anonymous]

Yeah I realise that animals are still needed for things like drug research, but purely on the stem cell usage I don't think there's a problem, like I said its just cells...its people's morality and/or squeamishness cuz they're of human origin....surely it'd be better than using and implanting something from some random animal (although it probably couldn't be done, just a comparison!:-P)

[miska_maz]

oh it can .... in most cases most things can happen.
Hey I agree with you, but as I said I do think I am a little one sided due to my interest in this area ;P

[mysticaingeal]

I don't think I've come to a clear answer myself, but a friend of mine (you might be able to guess who!) thinks that there is no way we can ever know when a embryo/foetus etc. is capable of feeling pain or any of the other stuff we might characterise as human. His view is that since we don't know, we shouldn't take the risk.

[miska_maz]

True and if this is their thought, then I am assuming he would be against most types of research? Since we do not know the risks of about diseases and to learn we give then to animals. and/or we do drug trials as we generally do not know the long term risk of the drug (and most times even after the trails).

Or are these types of risks in a different boat?

[mysticaingeal]

I'm fairly certain an embryo couldn't feel pain because surely at that early stage of development (only a few cells) it wouldn't have any physical or mental capacity to have pain. As for drug trials, there's always going to be the risk of long term side effects that can't really be forseen all the time, and may not show up in animals...progress isn't made without risk.

[miska_maz]

that last sentence is tru indeed. However the pain thing is debatable. sure there are definate stages when it doesn't, but as it starts to look like more then just cells its hard to say what is going on.