Here is an interesting article about human development and growth.
1) Is this right? Should we be studying the growth and death of a human embryo?
2) When does life start? At conception? When the embryo implants into the uterus? At birth?
3) What implications could this have for future generations? Good and bad?
4) Has technology gone too far? Could we one day grow a human being outside of the human body?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/embryos-womb-1.3566571
MARK THIS ONE...
ReplyDeleteI 100% believe we should be studying the growth and death of a human embryo. This allows us to figure out the development of humans, and also maybe fix a problem before the baby is even born. Scientists are being able to grow embryo's longer out of the womb which studies show that it will improve fertility treatments and revolutionize knowledge of the earliest steps of human life. There are many different answers to when life starts. Some say at the point of fertilization, others say when the fetus is a certain amount of months old, and others believe it is when the baby exits the womb and detaches from the mother. I do not think technology has gone too far. It is better to know a lot then not know enough. With studies like these, they are able to come up with new birth control methods and infertility. In class we have had the abortion debate, and everywhere we go, that is a huge debate. Personally I am pro-choice. There are many different situations that happen and the woman should have the choice wether to abort or not.
In terms of the world, this creates development to infertility and the development of embryos all over the world. The increase of new birth control helps the developing countries to have access to this. I do not think this issue is a bad thing, however it will depend on what people do with the information is what worries me. People do strange things with a lot of power.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-36202622
http://www.thesurvivaldoctor.com/2013/02/07/when-does-life-begin-medical-experts-debate-abortion-issue/
I totally agree with Jaz here. I agree that this will lead to better fertility treatments and that technology has not gone too far. I believe that this could lead to a revolution of fertilization outside of the womb.
DeleteI also agree with Jaz. I believe we as humans should know and understand our species more than anything else on Earth. These studies will revolutionize humans in terms of curing health issues or stopping them before they occur. I agree that these studies have not been touched on enough. All I can hope for is that scientists do not take too much advantage of the new knowledge of early human life; how it can be altered through altering DNA or curing diseases causing super diseases. We don't need crazy mutant humans whipping around.
DeleteI also agree with Jaz. I believe we as humans should know and understand our species more than anything else on Earth. These studies will revolutionize humans in terms of curing health issues or stopping them before they occur. I agree that these studies have not been touched on enough. All I can hope for is that scientists do not take too much advantage of the new knowledge of early human life; how it can be altered through altering DNA or curing diseases causing super diseases. We don't need crazy mutant humans whipping around.
DeleteI also agree. I think there are many situations for women having to abort and i think it should be up to them whether they want to or not.
DeletePlease mark this one:
ReplyDeleteI think we should be studying the growth of human embryos as well as the death of them. This will allow scientists to further understand human development. Being able to grow an embryo outside of a woman's womb means that scientists will be able to keep the embryo longer which may help with in vitro fertilization as well as other forms of fertilization.
When people are asked when they think the life of an embryo starts, for example some believe that life starts right at conception, some think it is when the brain forms, some when there is a heart beat, and some think it starts at birth. Personally, I believe that life starts once the embryo starts to develop brain activity at around week 8.
As for the future, this could mean an alternative than 'natural' fertilization. It could mean more innovation towards in vitro fertilization and make it more acceptable to have 'petri-dish' babies. The only downside is the moral concept and that a lot of people don't think that forming a baby within a lab is ethical. Hopefully with this being studied and tested more, it will become more acceptable.
I don't think technology is really going too far. So far the scientists have not been able to grow the embryo past 2 weeks without a uterus, but if they find a way to make a synthetic uterus that the embryo will attach to, then there is a possibility that we will be able to grow a human being outside of a woman's body.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/human-embryos-grown-lab-test-tube-ivf-fertility-genetic-diseases-disability-medical-ethics-a7013656.html
I agree with your opinion on this topic. Personally, I believe that it is okay to study human embryos and to grow them outside the human body, but I am concerned about many others' opinion. Within many religions and cultures, this would be considered extremely wrong. Many people think that anything that is a natural process should remain that way, but ask yourself, where would you be without it? We rely greatly on advanced medical technology for so many surgeries and treatments. I am very interested in how society will react to this advancement.
DeletePlease mark:
ReplyDeleteThis doesn’t seem right to me... Maybe my views are a little too like old-fashioned or traditional but I feel like this is too much and technology might be going too far in the name of science. However, I do agree that it’s good to be studying the growth and development of a human embryo for the sole purpose of preventing birth defects and also coming up with new treatments for infertility / new birth control. But while I think the idea of trying to develop a fetus to full term outside of a mother’s womb is fascinating, imagine if they did start making babies like this?? Has anyone read Brave New World? Anyway, I just don’t agree with that and while this is a controversial topic of discussion for the fact that I guess knowledge about things is better than less information, I feel like something like this might need to be left alone or at least not go too far because babies are only meant to be conceived inside their mother and while the death of fetuses is very sad, it’s not really up to us to fix or study just because it fascinates us or we think we may be able to come up with some new technology to fix it. It’d be nice to give better explanations to why miscarriages happen or other situations but yeah I’m not sure how I feel about it all really.
When life “starts” really depends on your personal views. Personally, I feel like life really starts at birth or like Sarah said, maybe around the time the fetus develops their brain/heart.
Implications this could have on future generations could definitely be good for those families that have a lot of trouble getting pregnant. Something bad that would arise from this is the social controversial opinions. But I do see and agree with the positives of this so I’m kind of in between if I think this is too much or not.
I agree with Leah. I know that it could bring a lot of new discoveries in the name of science, but it makes me uncomfortable knowing that they could go overboard with it, as they have many times before when scientists got their hands on cloning and mutation technologies.
DeleteI think that the idea of developing babies outside of a mothers womb to very strange indeed. If you think about it though, it's odd to think that we may already be nearly there. We implant eggs and fertilize them in surrogate mothers. Is this much different than a baby born in a lab?
DeletePlease mark this one:
ReplyDeleteI don't like the idea of growing human embryos outside of the body in the name of science or technology. I have a very strong mindset that things within nature should not be altered and science should not interfere with our natural world to some extent (like how we have talked about GMO's, hormones, etc in class). Although it is interesting that new birth control could be created as a result of this research, in my opinion, I feel like there must be other ways that we could study the development of embryos that may be just as effective. I would not feel comfortable at all if they started creating children using this method. However, this method could be extremely useful in the case of nearly extinct animals, where they could possibly create an embryo in a lab and save a species from going extinct.
In my opinion, life starts when thought and emotion begins (I think therefore I am). According to Micheal Gazzaniga in his book, "The ethical brain", a fetus only develops its cerebral cortex, the part of the brain which regulates thought and consciousness at 24 weeks, well after the limit for abortions. Before 24 weeks, its brain only emits electrical signals, not brain waves which indicate thought.
To be clear, it is not the actual research that bothers me, but what could come of it. The article states that they are already starting to push international laws in order to extend the 2 week trial period to be longer. We've had some pretty weird GMOs occur during our time (cloning, mutating, etc) and in my mind, this could be the start to something very unnatural and unethical if these methods were taken into the wrong hands. Imagine if they could start cloning or mutating humans using new discoveries..
http://www.lemauricien.com/article/abortion-fact-fiction-and-humanity
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/05/why-lab-grown-human-embryo-has-reignited-old-ethical-debate
I believe you are right about when life starts. I don't believe that life exists, at least in the case of humans, before our brains are able to have connections. Without thought I don't believe us to be truly living.
DeleteI agree with Mahshad that it would be beneficial for helping re-populate nearly extinct or extinct species. I wonder what laws would have to come in place to regulate this, as well as if some scientists will create "super humans" .
ReplyDeleteI also agree that this could be useful and beneficial to help repopulate at risk of extinction species. My concern is exactly what Rianne brought up, would scientists abuse the power they would be given to create "super humans"?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMark this one:
ReplyDeleteI believe that we should be studying human embryo’s for the purpose of discovering new treatments, preventing birth defects, and for studying the developmental process to become more knowledgeable. As long as this process is not harming the baby or the mother, I don’t see a problem to it. I’m not knowledgeable enough on the subject to formulate m own opinion on when life really starts. Even if I just researched the topic I feel as though I still would not know enough. I believe that no one can truly know when life starts, however doctors and scientists are obviously the most educated on the subject and I trust with the abortion laws set, that life hasn’t really started before the timeline given. If this is taken too far, then the implications on future generation would be bad. However, I don’t think it will be taken too far. I believe that babies were meant to be grown inside their mother, and not in a lab; however, the critical information we would be gaining from this is too great not to try these experiments. I think the implications will end up being good as these studies will have helped to develop new treatments and hopefully will have prevented birth defects and miscarriages.
Mark this one :
ReplyDeleteI believe there are many pros and cons to these studies, I think that this can show us
a more in depth view of human development and could be very beneficial to those who have certain issues getting pregnant.
However man kind has a tendency to take things, mostly technology too far. I also
think that we have to consider the survival
of the fittest belief and understand that if we continue with research like this, that could potentially decrease miscarriages and birth defects drastically, that we are now increasing population and decreasing the "weaker" area of our population that was naturally meant to die off.
Mark This One:
ReplyDeleteI think it is great that we are studying the growth of human embryos. It could lead to fantastic inventions and even cure some hereditary diseases or even bigger diseases like cancer. Although I do believe that life start at conception or at the very least when the embryo implants, I still think that this research is invaluable and should be continued. For the future generations this could have massive impact such as curing many diseases or ridding a person of defective genes before they are born. But I do think that people could get a little carried away with technology and I do not agree with the cloning of a full human being. Cloning organs for transplants are fine but I think human cloning it would have horrible effect on society.
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/cloning/cloningrisks/
http://www.eurostemcell.org/faq/what-diseases-and-conditions-can-be-treated-stem-cells
I personally think this is right. I don't think you can ever be too educated on a topic, and this is allowing scientists to make great discoveries. I think this type of science is incredible. I don't think it's unethical because at 2 weeks, I don't believe 'life' has started yet. As for when life does begin, it really depends on what you consider life to be. I don't believe it's at conception, but from what I know about the topic I believe it's somewhere towards the end of the pregnancy. I think this has good implications for the future. I think if they learn anything from this than it was a good thing to do. Despite the whole frankenstein don't play god thing, I truly do believe in science and that it is all for good. I don't think science has gone too far. This embryo was only 2 weeks old. I can't see the point in growing a fetus past the 1st trimester, because at that point we already know a lot about them. I guess if we did clone, or grow, people it would be for like "hey that's a cool thing we can do." The only issue I see there is who is responsible for the baby? If a family was willing to adopt a science baby and love it like their own, I think it would be super cool. I don't think we should be so afraid of science and discovering new things.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/child/alive_1.shtml
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSKCN0XV260?il=0
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMark this one:
ReplyDeleteI think that we should be studying the human embryo. Like Jaz said, there are many different answers to when life starts. It is hard for me to pin point exactly when life “starts.” This could make positive implications for future generations in terms of knowledge and cures for types of diseases and disorders. On the other hand, there could be negative implications as well, such as people looking poorly upon the science done. I do not believe science has gone too far, but I still believe that embryos should still be grown inside the womb, as that is what is natural. I definitely believe that a human could be grown outside of a human body, but just because something could be done, doesn't mean that it should be.
Mark this one
ReplyDeleteI think studying embryo's is alright, simply for the fact that I think it's a good thing that we are constantly trying to learn more about human biology and how we work. I also think it's great that they've built in a time after which you can no longer study the embryo. I think life starts when you're born. I wouldn't say you are necessarily alive in the pre-developmental stages in a babies life. This change could mean a lot for future generations, as they will have access to much more scientific information and studies based on what's being discovered right now. Personally, i think technology has definitely gone too far in many areas, and I think it's very possible that one day, we'll be able to grow a human outside of our bodies.
http://www.scienceclarified.com/El-Ex/Embryo-and-Embryonic-Development.html
Mark this one please:
ReplyDeleteI support the studying of human embryos. By studying the growth and other aspects, it could lead to scientific breakthroughs in fighting diseases such as cancer and other medical issues. This being said, I do believe that life begins at conception/implantation. Nevertheless, these studies are beneficial. With so many defective genes being hereditary, this could have a great impact on eliminating those genes. Birth defects are the leading cause of infant mortality in the United States with the heart often being the defect. 18 years ago, almost 515,000 infants died annually due to birth defects, often in developing nations. The science behind this could do great things. Personally, I do not agree with the cloning of a full person as it could have undesirable affects on society.
http://www.humanillnesses.com/original/At-Ca/Birth-Defects.html#ixzz4897QgXGj
https://www.princeton.edu/~prolife/articles/embryoquotes2.html
Mark this one.
ReplyDeleteI agree strongly in the study of the human embryo. In a world where technology is constantly progressing, it is important to put focus towards the progression of a baby's health. These studies are able to improve the health of the mother during pregnancy, the health of the fetus aswell as making it possible for millions of infertile women to fulfill their dreams of having a family.
Personally I do not feel that life starts at conception. To me, a bundle of cells is not equivalent to life nor is conception when the fetus attaches to the uterus. I also believe that life does not start at birth. There is a time in between, before birth and after contraception. I think it must be when the brain starts showing signs of activity. Many believe that a person is dead when their heart is beating but their is no sign of brain activity, as in a comatose situation,and this results in many families choosing to forego life support. The situation is very different but similar to me.
I think that this could have fantastic implications for future generations that far outweigh the bad. One day I believe that humans could be grown outside the human body but I don't know if the implicationson society would be good or bad. I believe there would be many cries of outrage but I don't believe anyone can reallysay what will truly happen until the future comes.
Below I have linked a video that talks about the possibility of resurrection or cloning of dead animals and people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c-EWSmOgDc
I have to agree with Jazz, Leah, and Carly. Science is what drives us to the future. It develops our understanding on how the world works. By studying the growth of the human embryo, we further our understanding of human life, and the beginning of our kind. These studies can lead to breakthroughs with human development at the earliest stages. Being able to preserve life before it is even born. In the UK, one in every two hundred babies are stillborn. With these studies, child birth can be perfected, where all embryos that come into being has a 100% chance of being born. By studying these embryos, all the possible defects that could cause a stillborn could be avoided or even changed for the better! The future can bring a world full of solutions, as long as we continue to support science and the learning of new concepts.
ReplyDeleteAll life is created with the birth of a cell. When a new cell is created, it is a living organism. It moves and thinks for itself. Human life however doesn’t start until birth. No one has memory of before they were born, as far as we know, our individual journeys begin at our own birth.
Technology, will not have gone too far until it starts thinking for itself, and overruling human programming. I 100% believe that human life will be able to grow outside the womb in the future. I also believe we are not too far away from it. Technologically, I believe we are almost there, however it will take longer for laws to be passed and human rights documents to be made, and discussions about what’s right and wrong. Cloning will most likely be the first step. We’ve already cloned sheep, and other simple organisms, humans are just down the road. After we discover how to clone human organisms, we will be able to create our own. This however will only bring up more political discussions, about “messing with human nature”
Mark the one that I had just posted above
ReplyDeleteHere is a source that I used
ReplyDeletehttp://www.babycentre.co.uk/a1014800/when-a-baby-is-stillborn