British scientists have created human sperm using stem cells in a medical first that could revolutionise fertility treatment, they claim. Researchers at the pioneering Northeast England Stem Cell Institute say they have made the breakthrough using stem cells from an embryo.They claim that with some minor changes the sperm could theoretically fertilise an egg to create a child.
Researchers at the pioneering Northeast England Stem Cell Institute say they have made the breakthrough using stem cells from an embryo.
They claim that with some minor changes the sperm could theoretically fertilise an egg to create a child.
When we invent a power screwdriver that doesn't slip on the last half turn...that's when you need to worry.
I think it's interesting how we invented the means to destroy ourselves (nukes) only shortly before discovering the means to renew, craft and prolong ourselves. If we nuke ourselves, that might help us avoid the mistakes that are just over the horizon that could be more catastrophic to our species. If we manage to not nuke ourselves, maybe we have the maturity as a species to handle these other developments.
Or, you know, the universe is determined to crush us one way or another, like roaches evolving against ever more capable insecticides.
Hey, don't blame the universe. Our own species is doing the crushing. The truly unfortunate fact is that so many other species must suffer on our road to extinction. In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
I start from the proposition that health care, up to a collectively decided minimum standard, should be available to everyone. That is, it should be universal and mandatory. Obama's plan does not include the provision that everyone has to have health insurance up to a minimum standard. If health care is to be universal, it should be de-coupled from employment completely. The availability of health care should be a function of the condition of being alive, not of the condition of being employed. Here too, Obama's health care plans, which retain tax advantages for employer-provided health insurance, fall down badly. ... Note that nothing I have said sheds any light on the best way to provide medical care - on whether health services should be supplied privately, cooperatively, by the state, with or without regulation etc. It only concerns who pays, and there the answer is clear: you and I as tax payers or you and I as mandated providers of subsidies in large assigned-risk pools.
I start from the proposition that health care, up to a collectively decided minimum standard, should be available to everyone. That is, it should be universal and mandatory. Obama's plan does not include the provision that everyone has to have health insurance up to a minimum standard.
If health care is to be universal, it should be de-coupled from employment completely. The availability of health care should be a function of the condition of being alive, not of the condition of being employed. Here too, Obama's health care plans, which retain tax advantages for employer-provided health insurance, fall down badly.
...
Note that nothing I have said sheds any light on the best way to provide medical care - on whether health services should be supplied privately, cooperatively, by the state, with or without regulation etc. It only concerns who pays, and there the answer is clear: you and I as tax payers or you and I as mandated providers of subsidies in large assigned-risk pools.
