Weird Medical Science

I visited my medical doctor yesterday. I am diagnosed with cancer that should see me dead in short time.  I wasn't surprised, I saw this coming as both of my parents died from the big C.  I was told about some ways to extend my suffering and said no thanks, I am lucky enough to live in one of the states that allows medical cannabis.  Why postpone terminal?  Sorry do I sound like a wet blanket?  I did come here to talk about weird medical science.


Back in the 1980's I read about how doctors and scientist were designing and building nanorobots, with devices as small as a flea.  Today these robots range in size from 0.1 to 10 micrometers.  If I had a cancer tumor (which I don't) then these robots could swim in my blood plasma and remove the tumor without surgery.  But according to the doctors and scientists... we don't have that level of technology.  Something I read about almost 40 years ago, who or what is holding this back?


I have a good friend in the field who is a doctor, in fact he is a geneticist and practices outside the US. Since Scottish scientists succeeded in cloning the sheep known as Dolly, the prospect of human cloning has catapulted its way into the public consciousness.  He explained to me, there is no need to clone an entire human, methods exist today to clone a single organ.  But anti cloning laws abound throughout the world.  In short assume you are in your 60's and find out you have an organ with cancer.  It isn't like "The Island" where they make you a clone rip out the organ and kill a person.  They can clone an organ alone and because of all the politics and ethical debate, doctors are not allowed.

Mice have been used to create human ears for people who lost an ear.  This is only cosmetic surgery and not full organ cloning.  I guess no one cries about this process but I think the real reason this is allowed, because no one died from losing an ear.


The conclusion I come to, looking over the vast time of advancement in medical science and technology, is the fear global over population. If we start cloning vital organs, hearts, lungs, livers, pancreas, etc. people would begin living longer and continue to reproduce. 


Because of the ethical gray areas surrounding embryonic stem cell research, my friend the  geneticist I mentioned before must work outside the US.  So I am off to be his lab rat, I don't mind if he cannot cure me, I think it is a shame we place such high morals on the medical and scientific community. If I do a follow up blog here you will know the results.


Stem cells are blank cells that imprint off nearby cells, and can also divide in self-renewal to produce more of the same type of stem cells.  This is actually practiced legally in his country and has a pretty good success rate.  While the source of stem cells is unborn fetus, many people claim this to be a right to life issue.  I look at it as, "Excuse me, do you plan to throw that away or put it to use?".