"DSK" wrote
Vito wrote:
... There currently is no "approved" cure for
diabetes so millions of people throughout the world each spend $100s per
month to stay alive.

There is no cure for diabetes, period. It isn't a matter of "approval."

Are you sure? Ron Reagan Jr said stem cells had been used experimentally to
cure rats.

... OTOH scientists can take a few of your cells, strip
out your DNA and inject it into, say, a frog egg stripped of its frog
DNA,
and that cloned egg will divide into YOUR stem cells. That's a fact
(Remember Dolly the sheep?). Now if my stem cells were injected into my
pancreas they would say "Gee, we must be Vito's pancreas cells!" and
begin
making insulin - and my diabetes would be cured.

Well, if it's that simple, why don't you do it yourself?

Same reason I can't duplicate my VHF rig on a work bench - lack of equipment
and skill. But that doesn't mean the equipment and skill doesn't exist, as
witness Dolly.

... So why isn't that
happening? Because additional research is needed to get the proceedure
approved and who is going to pay for that?

Actually, it is happening. But very little of it is happening in the U.S.

I guess that's good news.

... Not the drug companies! It'd cost
them $billions!! Maybe that's why Bush won't allow federal funding.
Y'see
it takes PATIENT DNA to do the research and Bush only allows a dozen or
so
"established strains" to be used. Or maybe it's because the good folks
who
eat their god every sunday also think that every lump of stem cells is a
baby.

You may be blaming the wrong folks. It turns out that George Bush Jr.
ain't "church people" after all.

Where'd you hear that? He says he is - altho some here say he lies (c: And
then there's the anti-gay marriage amendment and his promise to appoint
anti-abortion judges and ...., and .....

In any event, you're crying for the moon and getting mad at Daddy for
not fetching it for you.

No, I am angry at GW Bush for preventing science from fetching it for me and
1000s of others.


How much have you donated to the American Diabetes Society this year? Last
year? How much translational research
have you funded?

About $1000/year. You?

You're angry at the docs & drug companies for making a profit, and
insisting that they cure you for free. That doesn't make much sense.

No, I am angry at the AMA and drug companies for creating a monopoly that
forces Americans to pay more than we should for treatment. A PhD Chemist or
Microbiologist is lucky to earn $125K/yr but MDs think themselves killed if
they don't make a $mil/yr. The difference? Chemists, et al, don't have a
powerful union like AMA. Drug companies charge Americans 2 - 10X what
Canadians pay. Why? Because we have the finest politicians money can buy,
and they own plenty. I used to buy some of my medicines overseas but Bush
put a stop to that. Jeeze, if the Teamsters were as bad as AMA we'd have to
get prescriptions from truckers to buy a new car.