McG brings up a good point that animal stem cells are not banned. There is a lot of research being done in that field specifically.
Quote:For example, could I go to a university and say "I want to donate some stem cells?" Could they take them? Can I give them?
Unfortunately, it isn't that easy.
Much of the problem with stem cells is that embryonic stem cells are, apparently, full of potential to become different types of cells depending on the environment in which they are placed. Adult stem cells, while they do exist, don't seem to show the same amount of flexibility and are generally considered inferior to embryonic lines.
When doing research on stem cells it is important to note that a 'line,' or strain, of cells has to be pretty well-known and well-spread for scientific review to be available. For example; Stanford university, let's say, finds out some interesting aspects of a certain line of stem cells and someone writes up a paper on it, submits and has it published in a respective journal.
If Stanford had these lines thanks to private funding (I.E. non-Bush approved stem cell lines) then it becomes very difficult for a stringent scientific review to take place re: the findings of Stanford's expiriment. Why? Many colleges and Universities would not be able to afford said cell line; after all, they can't use public money to purchase samples, so they can't do any review on it without private funding (which can be paltry compared to gov't grants.) This slows down our ability to review research and put it's findings into applicable science which could benefit a large amount of people.
So, while I applaud your willingness to help the research, I doubt that any meaningfull studies could be done on the relatively small amount of adult stem cells you proose to donate. Great idea, though!
Cycloptichorn
