Tumortown

xoxoxoBruce • Oct 9, 2010 12:57 am
FUCK CANCER.
Cancer is so pervasive, if you hang with any group of people larger than a Corvette car pool, cancer will come up in your conversations frequently. One of them, or someone they know, will be touched by it.

Christopher Hitchens writes for Vanity Fair... and has cancer.
He wrote about it in an article called Tumorville, and makes one very, very important point.

Peach pits, open chakras, macrobiotic diets: cancer patients get more unsolicited advice than they could possibly follow. Cutting-edge medicine seems to offer limitless options, too—until the author runs smack into the lethal idiocy of the godly opponents of stem-cell research.


The war on Cancer, and the war on drugs, both from the Nixon era and both unsuccessful, have been tied up in politics and infighting from the beginning. Everybody says they want to defeat cancer, but the truth is the people battling stem-cell research on religious grounds, to put it delicately, are two faced lying motherfuckers.

Worst than that they are killers, as surely as if they had pulled a trigger themselves. They are killing our friends, our families, and some of us, with their ridiculous bullshit. WWJD? He'd kick their collective asses.
We've got to end this madness, and fully investigate what stem-cell therapy can do. Anything less is not a war on cancer, it's a half-hearted, and half-assed, skirmish with cancer. :mad:
Tulip • Oct 9, 2010 1:20 am
I gather you're pro stem cell research, huh.
xoxoxoBruce • Oct 9, 2010 1:33 am
Absolutely, it's been shown to be the most promising therapy we know of, and to not develop it is ridiculous. To throw away, throw in the garbage, unused eggs that could be used to save lives, is crazy.
Aliantha • Oct 9, 2010 6:07 am
xoxoxoBruce;687362 wrote:
FUCK CANCER.
Cancer is so pervasive, if you hang with any group of people larger than a Corvette car pool, cancer will come up in your conversations frequently. One of them, or someone they know, will be touched by it.

Christopher Hitchens writes for Vanity Fair... and has cancer.
He wrote about it in an article called Tumorville, and makes one very, very important point.



The war on Cancer, and the war on drugs, both from the Nixon era and both unsuccessful, have been tied up in politics and infighting from the beginning. Everybody says they want to defeat cancer, but the truth is the people battling stem-cell research on religious grounds, to put it delicately, are two faced lying motherfuckers.

Worst than that they are killers, as surely as if they had pulled a trigger themselves. They are killing our friends, our families, and some of us, with their ridiculous bullshit. WWJD? He'd kick their collective asses.
We've got to end this madness, and fully investigate what stem-cell therapy can do. Anything less is not a war on cancer, it's a half-hearted, and half-assed, skirmish with cancer. :mad:


Hear hear!!

If it weren't for stem cell research, I would have lost not only my Mum, but her only sibling also. My aunt was lucky enough to be able and willing to try a new therapy to fight the type of cancer she had with stem cells. She's alive today only because of that open minded attitude to her life (and surely anyone who's told they're going to die would be), and he fighting spirit.

All this bullshit about embryo's etc just gives me the simple shits. Of course, I'm also pro choice as far as pregnancy termination goes, so at least I'm not a hypocrite.
DanaC • Oct 9, 2010 8:20 am
Great post bruce.

I am baffled beyond belief at the sheer persistence of superstition in the face of such awesome potential.
Shawnee123 • Oct 9, 2010 10:02 am
I just want to say "hell yeah!"

And fuck cancer.
Gravdigr • Oct 10, 2010 3:08 am
[SIZE="1"][COLOR="LemonChiffon"]Political shitstorm in 3...2...1...[/COLOR][/SIZE]:corn:
classicman • Oct 10, 2010 9:09 am
Anyone not interested in exploring the potential for stem cell research should be taken ont back and treated like an armadillo at Merc's house.

**Even though it, unfortunately, has ZERO application for my personal situation.**
monster • Oct 10, 2010 6:25 pm
classicman;687563 wrote:
Anyone not interested in exploring the potential for stem cell research should be taken ont back and treated like an armadillo at Merc's house.


Agreed -for what that's worth. Science is way beyond "exploring the potential"-we know it has potential, we know what that potential is. What we want is to go ahead with the research. Using the cells of unwanted embyos etc.
xoxoxoBruce • Oct 10, 2010 9:10 pm
Using the cells of unwanted embyos etc

Garbage, eggs that are being thrown in the garbage. Criminal.:mad:
monster • Oct 10, 2010 9:15 pm
right. dumpster diving.
xoxoxoBruce • Oct 10, 2010 9:17 pm
Recycling... that's like green, and politically correct and shit.
monster • Oct 10, 2010 9:19 pm
and yet, maybe that cell woulda voted republican if given a chance.... ;) :p:
spudcon • Oct 10, 2010 10:49 pm
I'm confused. I thought stem cell research has been booming, and the only thing with a restriction on it is federally funded embrionic research. As far as I understand, all stem cell research is open, just don't expect people who oppose abortions to fund abortions to harvest embrionic stem cells. Placentas, umbilical cords, never heard of trashing eggs before. Fertile women flush an egg a month down the toilet every month. Where is the outrage?
spudcon • Oct 10, 2010 10:51 pm
:DBTW, there's your shitstorm Gravdigr.
Lamplighter • Oct 10, 2010 11:20 pm
Any institution federal funds can be cut off if they engage in stem cell research...
much like all states receive federal hiway funds and the state can be cut off if it does not follow federal guidelines or rules.
So this rules out a lot of hospitals and universities.

California passed state laws to allow stem cell research in facilities that use only private and/or Calif state monies.

Obama tried to break the impass with an Executive Order, but now it's again in the courts.



NY Times article

U.S. Judge Rules Against Obama’s Stem Cell Policy
By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: August 23, 2010

The ruling came as a shock to scientists at the National Institutes of Health and at universities across the country, which had viewed the Obama administration’s new policy and the grants provided under it as settled law.
xoxoxoBruce • Oct 11, 2010 3:40 am
The federal ruling under Bush, was they could only use preexisting embryonic stem cell lines, no new ones could be added. Obama eased up on that restriction, but two researchers that were working on adult stem cell research, and feared they would get less funding if the embryonic research expanded, filed suit on the grounds it offended their religious tenets.

When a couple have to use invitro fertilization, they harvest several eggs and attempt to fertilize them all. They then choose one or more that look viable, and implant it/them back in the womb. In octomoms case, they implanted all eight.

The left over eggs are trashed, because of the federal ruling against new lines. The law requires the couple's permission to use the eggs for research, or anything but disposal, but the fundamentalists are still bitching the lab/hospital might steal somebody's unused eggs.
DanaC • Oct 11, 2010 5:07 am
As I understand it, such institutions wouldn't just lose funding for that particular arm of research; but would lose all state funding for their institution. Very few institutions are likely to be willing to lose all that funding for other research in order to be able to research stem cells.
classicman • Oct 11, 2010 8:50 am
DanaC;687708 wrote:
As I understand it, such institutions wouldn't just lose funding for that particular arm of research; but would lose all state funding for their institution.


Got a link for that - anyone?
morethanpretty • Oct 11, 2010 9:22 am
spudcon;687680 wrote:
I'm confused. I thought stem cell research has been booming, and the only thing with a restriction on it is federally funded embrionic research. As far as I understand, all stem cell research is open, just don't expect people who oppose abortions to fund abortions to harvest embrionic stem cells. Placentas, umbilical cords, never heard of trashing eggs before. Fertile women flush an egg a month down the toilet every month. Where is the outrage?


There are no abortions done to get embryos for this research (at least in this country, and if a woman wanted to have her embryo aborted and donated to research that would be her choice). The embryos are leftovers from in vitro fertilization, they are either considered nonviable (meaning they aren't fit to be implanted) or the couple does not need/want them. Sperm is just sperm, not a person. An egg is just an egg, not a person. An embryo is an just an embryo. Lets save the people in this world before bringing more into it.
spudcon • Oct 13, 2010 12:53 pm
So it all comes down to money. Greedy capitalist bastards!:finger: