Human Stem Cells Used to Help Ailing Rats...
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The Washington Post notes this work by stem cell researchers:
It will not come as a great shock to regular readers of this site that I find this work -- important though it is for its medical promise -- yet another bellweather for emerging human enhancement technologies. On the one hand you have "the slippery slope" of inventing therapies that have potential human augmentation applications. And on the other, the sooner we eliminate these terrible diseases and infirmities that have been holding humanity back for thousands of years, the faster we'll be able to shift our resources towards more productive work, such as enhancing the overall quality of human life, or even permanently improving the human condition.
Something which we are increasingly in a position to do with our relentlessly advancing technology. With stem cells, for example, it's not a stretch to imagine new, vital cells that can "fill in" almost anywhere in the body being used to enhance muscles, connective tissue or organs... not only in recovering patients and the elderly, but in healthy, younger people who want to optimize their health or abilities.
This process seems to be moving relentlessly forward, despite active opposition in a number of quarters, and it's not hard to see why. After all, this isn't an explicit human enhancement project being reported on, but medical research with no ulterior motive. And the only way to stop such de facto research is to stop studies that have nothing to do with enhancement technologies, but which merely advance our knowledge of medicine to "unacceptable level." All of that may sound reasonable to some "bio-conservatives," but is unlikely to go over well with the population at large.
Bio
Future Imperative
The Washington Post notes this work by stem cell researchers:
Researchers will report today that cells grown from human embryonic stem cells slowed vision loss when injected into the eyes of rats with a disease similar to macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in people older than 55.
The experiments do not prove that the cells, obtained through the destruction of human embryos, will work in people. But by showing that the cells have the potential to fill in for failing cells in the retina, experts said, the work may help justify trying the technique in humans.
It will not come as a great shock to regular readers of this site that I find this work -- important though it is for its medical promise -- yet another bellweather for emerging human enhancement technologies. On the one hand you have "the slippery slope" of inventing therapies that have potential human augmentation applications. And on the other, the sooner we eliminate these terrible diseases and infirmities that have been holding humanity back for thousands of years, the faster we'll be able to shift our resources towards more productive work, such as enhancing the overall quality of human life, or even permanently improving the human condition.
Something which we are increasingly in a position to do with our relentlessly advancing technology. With stem cells, for example, it's not a stretch to imagine new, vital cells that can "fill in" almost anywhere in the body being used to enhance muscles, connective tissue or organs... not only in recovering patients and the elderly, but in healthy, younger people who want to optimize their health or abilities.
This process seems to be moving relentlessly forward, despite active opposition in a number of quarters, and it's not hard to see why. After all, this isn't an explicit human enhancement project being reported on, but medical research with no ulterior motive. And the only way to stop such de facto research is to stop studies that have nothing to do with enhancement technologies, but which merely advance our knowledge of medicine to "unacceptable level." All of that may sound reasonable to some "bio-conservatives," but is unlikely to go over well with the population at large.
Bio
Future Imperative
posted by Ralph Cerchione | Friday, September 22, 2006
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