BBC:Stem Cells Havested from Healthy Babies

[HOZ]

Ukraine babies in stem cell probe

I hope it is a hoax.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

I suspect it is. I just did some looking around and couldn't find it on CNN or Fox. BBC is generally pretty reliable, though, if slightly biased.

One thing that I find puzzling about this is stem cells from babies would be adult stem cells, not undifferentiated embryonic stem cells, which AFAIK you can only get from a blastocyst. Cells begin to differentiate after like 4 days. You can get adult stem cells from an adult just as easily, so that's very confusing.

But you'd think if there was anything like real confirmation of this, FoxNews would be on it like white on rice. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Very disturbing if true.

[octothorp]

That's one of the more disturbing articles I've ever read on here. Sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel, right down to the name of the hospital: maternity hospital number six.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Weirdly, this is not the first Ukrainian maternity ward scandal. Just over a year ago, the BBC published a report about babies being stolen for organs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4194354.stm


Disturbing and weird. Really makes you wonder if there's anything people won't do for money.

I have confirmed, however, that at least one part of this story is highly dubious. You can't get embryonic stem cells from a baby, or even from a fetus, or even from an embryo older than 8 days. After that, the stem cells have differentiated into over 200 different cell types. You could get blood stem cells from bone marrow, or other adult stem cell types, but why not just take those from an adult? They're probably medically useless in a different host anyway, because of the graft vs. host problem, as I understand it--though I'm no scientist. If anyone knows better, I'll accept a correction on any of those points.