Excerpts: I cannot accept the challenge, and I hope you'll understand why. It's not because I'm afraid of cold water. (Although that's true). My concern is where the publicity and money might go. Specifically, I'm concerned with the KIND of research that might be financed by my hypothetical promotional activity. (For those who don't know what this is, you're supposed to dump a bucket of ice-water on your head, and video it, and then challenge others to do it. If you don't do it, you're supposed to give $100 to the ALS Assocation, and if you do do it, you either don't have to give any money to the ALSA or you're supposed to give $10 to the ALSA, depending on the version).
The ALS Association funds a number of different types of research, and among these different types of research is embryonic stem cell research. For those who don't know what this is, this is when scientists take a female egg and a male sperm and fertilize the egg in a lab, and then after the new life begins to form, they remove the building blocks of life--embryonic stem cells. This is the same process that occurs when people struggle with infertility and then get in-vitro fertilization--the important difference is that instead of implanting the fertilized embryo into a mother so that it can grow into a baby, these embryos are experimented on, and then discarded. They are created for the express purpose of destroying them for medical research. The ALS Association website says this:
Adult stem cell research is important and should be done alongside embryonic stem cell research as both will provide valuable insights. Only through exploration of all types of stem cell research will scientists find the most efficient and effective ways to treat diseases.
Sometimes, stem cells are harvested as part of in-vitro fertilization as described above, and other times they are harvested as part of an abortion procedure.
READ MORE ->
- ·
- Report
- ·
- August 23, 2014 12:38 am
