If in the right hands it could save millions who have incurable diseases such as parkinsons and diabetes

However…
if in the wrong hands,
new dangerous specious could be formed.Scientists have already tried too produce and have rabbits that glow in the dark and a mouse with a human ear. Now what is the point of that it is just stupid!!

Ben, didn’t spot you, your disguise must have been better than i was expecting…!

anyway i’ve started to blog about the day and what i experienced whilst at Parliament, Part One is here:

http://teekblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/embryos-and-parlaiment-part-one.html

Since “adult stem cell therapies” are often an outgrowth of transplantation ideas they are (relatively) well worked out, risks assessed, tissue typing and immune rejection issues already thought through, etc etc.
In addition, an adult stem cell has already made SOME critical “fate decisions”. Thus its potential risk of turning into something you DON’T want it to (rather than what you do want it to), like a tumour, is probably less than for a “pluripotent” embryonic stem (ES) cell.

Essentially, the difference is that ES cells offer “total possibility”, but it is a long way off. Adult stem cells offer more restricted, though therapeutically very exciting, possibilities, but are much nearer to reality.

However, this is hardly a reason to impede research into one, as Bush did by banning ES cell research w federal funding.

By the way, government-goal-driven management of the direction of science research (which is what the funding policy of the last 15 years has increasingly pushed) has a rather bad reputation among the actual scientists. See the references cited at the top of David Colquhoun’s thread here .

Dr Aust, it strikes me that Ben’s blog will reach many more people than a demo will! And us fruitcakes are interested in listening to what he has to say!

Quite different in the hospitals: doctors are now required to have short-sleeved shirts (hence “bare below the elbow”) and definitely no white coats. Dangling sleeves, you see. Ties are also frowned upon for similar reasons.

An interesting point is that in our local cafe (midway between the labs and the hospital) us science-oids are expressly banned from entering wearing white coats, while the hosital folk regularly sit there in their scrubs and uniforms, stethoscopes hanging. I even see (operating) theatre caps. Go figure.

By the way, the BBC is running a story here suggesting the MRC (Medical Research Council) would like people not to demonstrate in case it “gives the wrong message” and interferes with their softly-softly “quiet word in the right ear” campaign for the bill. I personally think this is same rather craven sort of line the Great ‘n’ Good of science (e.g. the Royal Society) have taken on far too much pseudoscience over the last few years, but perhaps that’s just me.

I can believe that just a bunch of wacky-looking scientists may not have the moral force of a bunch of seriously ill people in wheelchairs asking for the bill to go through to progress the research, but a joint demo of patients and their relatives, scientists in lab coats and doctors in scrubs would, to my mind, make the point eloquently.

re. Lord Alton’s objections.

If you happen to think that embryonic stem cell research is a useful and valid area of research, I imagine you might have a problem supporting Lord Alton’s objection to the NHS funding embryonic stem cell research.

re. the lack of therapeutic applications from embryonic stem cell research.

This is a volume issue, quite simply becasue of the ban on embryonic stem cell research in the US there is far more research undertaken on Adult Stem Cells. Unsurprisingly, there has been more success from Adult Stem Cell research. It is of course irrational to suggest that embryonic cells are somehow less scientifically valid than adult cells, or that the research of the scientists using embryonic cells is somehow less effective. (Maybe they have a Mengele-like propensity for evil that makes them poor scientists).

I think you can judge for yourself if this is a misleading argument.

Have I missed some of your articles about the HFE bill? You’re exactly the type of person one looks to for an assessment of just what is wrong with the objections put forth by the likes of Lord Alton.

Clearly you support the HFE bill, calling those of us who oppose it ‘fruitcakes’. However, you haven’t set forth your position (unless I’ve missed it). Can you explain to those of us who respect you as a writer and a scientist why you are so dismissive of objections to the HFE bill?

A specific point which I would be grateful for clarification on is Lord Alton’s claim that embryonic stem cell research has led to no therapeutic applications, whereas adult stem cells have lead to 70 or so therapies. While I’m against the bill, I am also interested to know whether folks (on either side of the debate) are using misleading arguments.

That aside, I must remember to notice what Greg House and his gang are wearing in [House, M.D.] By the UK-current season 4 they may have changed – the cast kind of has. House himself wasn’t a white-coat guy in the first place, but then he wasn’t a see-any-patients or a work-in-clinic guy either. Like Professor X and the X-Men, he stays home and sends the kids on their missions alone. Patients regain consciousness at the end of the episode and go, “Uh, who are -you?-” And if he doesn’t need to look all doctory and impress the client, then he doesn’t need a white coat.

And of course [Scrubs] season seven started here, where the clue is in the title. Anyone know why the sound on E4 Plus One runs out of time with the picture? Magic of digital.

Don’t understand; banned what… elbows?

But not to derail. I can’t make it, but I hope there’s a good turnout.

You’ll be lucky! I haven’t worn a white coat in years. No doctor does any more and the last few hardcore white coat wearers that persisted were wiped out by the infection control nazis.

Maybe a costume hire shop could help?

Ben – will you attend the debate and/or the drop-in meeting?

Are the Pro-Test people joining, or is this just taking a page from their book? Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Good luck!