[HiDesert]

Here's one I don't think we've discussed; is it ethical to put human DNA in an animal egg?

kit:

'Scuse me while I dash for some popcorn and soda!

 

[bovefrankj]

We are quite happy to exploit advances in other scientific fields, why not this one? Ask those who have lost loved ones to "incurable" diseases if such research is justified and I think the answer would be a resounding "Yes".

 

[Nickwiz]

Issa crazeee. Wasting time solving a problem that doesn't exist. send all those scientists back to the lab to work out how to keep this planet inhabitable!

 

[bovefrankj]

Nick, there are plenty of scientists out there, we can spare a few.

 

[Nochicanes]

Lab animals are raised all the time with mutations and deletions within their genome, it's one of the only viable ways to study pathways in the body.

The ethical consideration would fall under 'undue suffering'. If the animal is suffering it is humane to put the animal down and most researches will do this.

The ethical trade off comes down to observing human suffering i.e. spend a week in a cancer ward.

If the problem was not so inherently complex then better solutions could be found where you would not have to use animals. If you could program a computer with all the pathways and than enter the variable and get a realistic algorithm than that would be great but the problem is so huge most of the time you can't do it.

I don't think most people realize that biochemical changes in the body take place at the rate of ten to the one hundred fourth power...an almost insurmountable number when you are trying to wrap your mind around solving a problem.

So...you're left with what we've got, certainly not the best solution but you don't have a lot of choice.

 

[Normandy]

Ethics ? From humans ? Surely you jest.

 

[HiDesert]

We're talking about single cells here, if I understand properly. Suffering isn't the issue, and the animals certainly aren't the issue. Surely there are ethcial limits to what one should do with human DNA.

 

[Nochicanes]

ultimately you are breeding mice with particular human genomic information, say, of Parkinson's disease. It is a short piece of DNA construct injected into the embryo and than testing the mouse tissue for presence of that small piece of genetic variation. If the mouse does indeed show the complete Parkinson's variation in it's brain DNA than you have an experimental animal that can be researched for drugs or other therapies.

There is 97% similarity between human and mouse DNA (sheep as well) but simply injecting such a small part of DNA is not going to create a mouse spouting off Shakespeare quotes...

 

[doodledog]

my answer is No but someone else will do it anyway so whats the point of objecting, and I dont want to sound negative but if theres a buck in it someone will do it with or without the blessing of anyone.

 

[HiDesert]

Nochicanes, if your description is accurate, I'd probably be okay with that, but what I read described it as a complete set of human DNA plopped down in an empty cell like college kids in an unfurnished apartment. And that, to me, is very different.

 

[Levenvale]

Surely there are ethcial limits to what one should do with human DNA.

I agree

[ This message was edited by: Levenvale on 2007-01-11 07:43 ]

 

[MA0458]

Thanks, nochic -- it's really hard to figure out what's going on by reading the mainstream media or watching the news. They are in the business of causing hysteria.

 

[Nochicanes]

I think, from what I'm reading here, that the objection would be to insert huge amounts of human DNA into the embryo's.

The main reason I would do that is to use the embryo as a culture base, a growing medium. Certain animals have a very strong ability to maintain growth of DNA within the embryo.

If you were trying to develop a way to grow stem cells than you might have to put huge amounts of DNA into the embryo's to try and manipulate an increased formation of stem cells so they could be harvested. Now, this is all experimental, you're trying to get away from using human embryo's which is a highly charged scenario but still try to get stem cells manufactured.

You certainly do not want the construct of stem cells that a rabbit or mouse has, you want to have the exact copy of a normal, healthy stem cell that has the exact molecular structure of a human. So...you have to 'clear' all the relevant DNA of the rabbit from the embryo while leaving all the growth factors that allow for DNA replication.

If it is successful than you have a 'harvested' population of stem cells that can be used but ultimately you have a stem cell growing lab that can produce huge amounts of stem cells.

You are not trying to manipulate the stem cells into 'super stem cells' or mess around with the human DNA construct, you are simply trying to get sheer numbers of cells because you will need millions of these cells to get any positive effect in a human.

 

[joe82325]

On 2007-01-10 09:36, Normandy wrote:
Ethics ? From humans ? Surely you jest.

Beautifully explained, it seems that for many, ideas only become unethical if the money is not going into the correct, namely theirs. :-D