I mentioned this in the Issues forum, but I guess it belongs here as much as anywhere.

What with the recent controversy about using stem cells in the treatment of human diseases, it seems that other, arguably less controversial and more practical applications for stem cells are being neglected.

I speak, of course, of meat.

My theory is that stem cells, combined perhaps with some small amount of genetic knowledge, could allow Professor Science PhD to "grow" meat without the need for livestock.

Rather than force cows and sheep and pigs to suffer for us (which we already permit), Science could allow us to use a few stem cells from one cow embryo to grow a whole load of steak-shaped meats on poles, or something similar. Imagine a row of those things you get in doner kebab shops.

So basically we'd have meat growing, but there'd be no question of it having a soul or feeling pain or thinking; it'd just be the parts of the cow that are good to eat, with no bones and no brain or head.

So I guess the burning ethical question here is: would you be down with that?

I know it sounds incredibly wrong initially, but really, it seems like a victimless crime. Cows bred for livestock are invariably slaughtered after lives of exploitation anyway, so the idea that suffering might be caused to the embryo hardly applies the way it is made to in the case of humans. The meat would be no more alive than a vegetative human on life support, with no brain. Were it a human, we would want it to have "the right to die".

Is there any sane objection to this?

i don't find it wrong, since it's not like the "animal" will feel it.

the idea and the image of it make me want to upchuck though

You'd probably never have to see it. I mean, they can grow vegetables in molds to make them a certain shape. I guess you could make a metal tube shaped like a ribeye and just grow it into that shape. It'd be on the shelves and you'd have no idea.

Seriously, there's much grosser food being served in school canteens.

yeah ophiel, that's still not helping the gross factor

but you are talking to someone who is very anal about the quality of her food.

i'm curious as to what other people who would actually consume this kind of meat have to say.

this is exactly how I feel.

Even if I ate meat, I'm not sure I'd want to partake in any of that, but ethically I don't see a problem with it.