if stem cells could be reproduced at little cost without destroying human embryos,
what kinds of commercial uses would they have?
Stem Cell foods such as juice?
Regularly taken vitamines of some kind?
OR do they only have specific uses to treat specific diseases and help us perform scientific research?
You’re limited to human cells, so I fully support any bans on developing stem cell use as a food product.
Mostly they’re researching medical uses.
I agree, I dont support it either. Please dont take my question as a sort of condoning some kind of food product made of human - derived cells.
Although I have to admit, if a cell is derived from a human where no actual human was dismantled or mutilated in any way, and it could be turned into some kind of food product, it does seem more “humane” no pun intended as a food source than the slaughter of innocent animals.
I dunno. Maybe Skin On A Stick! Or, how 'bout A Kidney Pie you’re guaranteed not to reject!! Forget those colored contact lenses, we’ll actually Change Your Eyes!
Assuming we can learn to make them develop like we want :
Synthetic tooth buds. No more bad teeth or dentures; grow a new set of teeth !
New eyes, as mentioned.
New brain cells, to replace those that die with age.
Muscle implants; forget that tedious exercise; have a nice set of biceps grown for you !
Id imagine simply injesting them would reduce their value to the same as any other protein based food source?
Being able to cheaply and easily replace any organ or body part without the need for a donor seems like a good reason to heartily … support the concept.
Some work has already been done on growing muscle tissue (read: meat) in the lab without animals. I believe I heard an interview with a scientist who said “cough up a few million bucks and I can grow you a steak.” It was on the PBS series from Scientific American, I think. Anyway…you don’t really need embryonic stem cells for that. You could use stem cells that have already differentiated into muscle tissue.
As for consumer products, I think initially they’d be limited to curing diseases or other medical uses. Perhaps sometime way down the line some clever marketing guy will figure out other cool tricks, but given the ethical issues, I can’t see more frivolous uses grabbing the public’s enthusiasm anytime soon.
Not to turn this into a Great Debate but this is the first time I’m actually hearing of anybody having a moral objection to food products made of human. Granted, that doesn’t come up all that often, but what’s the exact objection?
The “ethical issues” are thinly disguised religious mania. As soon as the technology arrives, the profit motive and vanity ( for the cosmetic uses ) will override them, like they always do. Just like all the “pro life” people who find it easy to justify abortion for themselves.
It’s cannibalism, technically. Like many such moral objections, it confuses the immediate detail ( it’s human flesh ! :eek: ), with the reason such rules exist in the first place ( eating your neighbors doesn’t make for a pleasant society ). It doesn’t recognize that changing the underlying circumstances ( the only source of human tissue being humans ) changes the rules.
I was merely acknolwedging their existence without passing judgement on their underlying motivations.
Yes, I’ll admit Little Nemo’s comment did make me panic and more forcefully recind. I think I’m more aligned with Der Trihs here.
It’s a dessert topping! It’s a floor wax!
I doubt you could make any useful consumer products with stem cells. Medical applications only. However I’m pretty sure this won’t stop various manufacturers from slipping it into cosmetics and face creams. If they can convince people to smear sheep placenta on their faces, I’m pretty sure that stem cells can’t be far behind.