Because veterinary medicine is much, much less regulated it advances much faster.
Sad but true.
Since you're all about decreasing the cost of experiments and regulation for humans though, I take it you are going to be one of the first to sign up for the next generation of human experiments that have little to no regulatory standards?
All these people complaining about lack of progress in regulated human bio-sciences could probably be put to good use. I think it's pretty easy to examine that increasing the supply of humans willing to advance science in the name of unregulated testing would rapidly drop costs. So let's sign all these complainers up and get them what they want!
The ethics of messing with people are not the main barrier, they are no barrier. It's the legal restrictions - the government regulations which make any kind of messing with perfectly willing humans very costly and time intensive.
Since you're all about decreasing the cost of experiments and regulation for humans though, I take it you are going to be one of the first to sign up for the next generation of human experiments that have little to no regulatory standards?
Yep.
But willing volunteers are not in shortage and are also no barrier to the advancement of science. It is once again the regulations, their cost is to the cost of paying human drug testers as Everest is to an ant hill.
In other words: You can't give me what I want, because the government is protecting me from me. Only in recent years has the FDA been willing to soften its restriction if I happen to be dying, but even then only if I'm really close to the end. Then I can legally try the cutting edge drugs.
But ethics and morality ARE the barrier. Sure, you have plenty of scientists who wouldn't blink an eye before doing just about anything to a fellow human, but ethics are most certainly the explanation for why these legal restrictions and government regulations are put into place. Just about every core law and regulation put into place has a basis in an ethical judgment.
because the government is protecting me from me.
You act as if this is a bad thing? Personally I prefer it that scientists far more knowledgeable than myself are doing their best to ensure that I'm not brushing my teeth with lead-laced toothpaste, drinking milk that hasn't been properly prepared, helping to ensure that processes are standardized and providing me with convenient ways to know that I'm not unknowingly poisoning myself, etc. The FDA has done far, far more good than harm in this case.
I think if people want to do testing then they should leave the USA. Get out of my country, I don't want it to be legal for scientists to perform borderline unethical treatment on my citizens. Go to China for that, it's really that easy.
Maybe your parent post doesn't want to, but I'm sure lots of very sick people would be willing to try almost anything.
Why are we allowing these people who are anti-science to control our governments, there can't be that many of them out there, or maybe more of them vote than we do.
I want the option to have such a treatment, I want everyone to have that option. If you choose not to it's OK but don't decide for me.
Actually, I don't think anyone is. See my comment:
So, again, I don't think anyone has any problem with the procedure described in this article. And certainly there are no unusual legal restrictions on it in the U.S.
...because it's not regulated like most other surgeries.
Veterinary care has been improving under the same forces, and at close to the same rate, as tech startups.
Human medical care has been hindered under the same regulation and oversight as public utilities and the DMV.
"This is a country in which dogs can get a hip replacement in under a week and in which humans can wait two to three years." (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/28/international/americas/28c...)
Now, perhaps human medical treatments and experimentation are over-regulated in the U.S. But that has nothing to do with stem cells.
And so I suspect this article is complaining about the wrong thing. Whatever problems it is pointing out, are really unrelated to any issues surrounding stem cells.
