Embryonic Stem-Cell Research Not the Answer

Family.Org ^ | Dr. James Dobson

[xzins]

Embryonic Stem-Cell Research Not the Answer

by Dr. James C. Dobson

Senators pushing President Bush to relax federal funding restrictions should know their efforts are a sham. The truth is, adult stem cells offer the most promise for treatment of disease.

We are profoundly disappointed to learn that 58 members of the U.S. Senate and 204 members of the U.S. House of Representatives have signed letters insisting that President Bush permit federal funding for research on living embryonic stem cells. Their demand, if implemented, would result in the deaths of countless human embryonic lives.

Lowering that standard is also likely to lead to human cloning and harvesting of body parts from babies conceived for this purpose. It is especially regrettable that the list of signatories to the letters included supposedly pro-life members of the Senate — notably Orrin Hatch, Lamar Alexander, Thad Cochran and Trent Lott — who seem to have lost their moral compasses.

Contrary to ongoing research with adult stem cells, which do not cause death and are supported by President Bush and unimpeded federal funds, not one human being is being treated with embryonic stem cells anywhere in the world. No clinical trials are in progress using this approach. No studies with human embryonic stem cells are even being contemplated. None! And why not? Because these cells are unpredictable and tend to create tumors in animals.

Nevertheless, members of Congress and their scientific advisers are continuing to tell the American people that killing and using these tiny human beings will lead to a cure for Alzheimer's and other diseases. Sen. Dianne Feinstein stood on the floor of the Senate last week and declared that "this research offers tremendous hope, not only to those who suffer from Alzheimer's, but also the millions of people with cancer, diabetes, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries."

The scientific community knows this is not true, yet it participates in the sham. "The Weekly Standard" called this deliberate distortion "a scandal," and Dr. D.G. McKay, stem-cell researcher at the National Institute for Neurological Diseases and Stroke, termed it a "fairy tale." Scientists who have testified before congressional committees about the promise of embryonic stem-cell research are hoping to secure federal money for their own research, a conflict of interest the mainstream media has decided not to report.

The most regrettable aspect of this distortion is that Nancy Reagan has also been ensnared by it. Politicians and the media are using this grieving widow to unwittingly confuse the general public. They have dreamed up a very compelling argument: President Reagan and other Alzheimer's patients might not have suffered and died if only President Bush had permitted research on embryonic stem cells. The only problem is that it is entirely untrue.

Finally, there is this: Those who have signed the letters to President Bush have not been able to find the courage to protect the sanctity of marriage, yet they've ganged up on those least able to speak for themselves. The American people deserve better from our leaders.

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[xzins]

not one human being is being treated with embryonic stem cells anywhere in the world. No clinical trials are in progress using this approach. No studies with human embryonic stem cells are even being contemplated. None! And why not? Because these cells are unpredictable and tend to create tumors in animals.

[qam1]

Their demand, if implemented, would result in the deaths of countless human embryonic lives.

And if there is no embryo stem cell research these embryos will actually become kids?

[TheDon]

ESC research means nothing to those who kill their own children by the millions year after year. The Nazi Holocaust pales in comparison to the American Holocaust. So much for "never again"!

[cavan]

"Embryonic Stem-Cell Research Not the Answer...their efforts are a sham"

In the style of:
"Sailing West is not the answer, King Ferdinand.
No man has ever gotten anywhere doing that" ?

[xzins]

they create them for the sole purpose of killing them

besides, there's no restriction on large pharmaceuticals and bio-techs from researching them.....why aren't these companies doing it if it's so lucrative and promising?

[xzins]

You must understand that there is no restriction against any corporation or any individual from researching this. If it is such a bonanza, some corporation is bound to get rich if they get into this, right? Surely some other foreign government would be reporting successful treatments, right?

But they aren't. They aren't even pursuing it. Why? Because as Dobson says, it has yielded terrible tumors and no results.

Besides, we make decisions in this country via our congress. The legislators debate, they bring it before the president, and he accepts or rejects it. The congress is then free to override any veto.

The system has spoken. It is not comfortable forcing many people to fund a procedure -- via their taxes -- that it finds morally abhorrent.

But financing by private means is not restricted at all.

Why are the companies not doing if it's such a smart, rich, rewarding direction?

[qam1]

they create them for the sole purpose of killing them

But they would never have exsisted at all, So it's totally not the same thing as abortion.

besides, there's no restriction on large pharmaceuticals and bio-techs from researching them.....why aren't these companies doing it if it's so lucrative and promising?

You are wrong, There is a whole bunch of them.

See http://www.biotech-register.com/biotech-directory/STEM.cfm

[xzins]

there was no article at the link you provided

every embryo hasn't existed until it exists.

[GeorgiaYankee]

You are wrong, There is a whole bunch of them.

See http://www.biotech-register.com/biotech-directory/STEM.cfm
_____________________________________________________
Most of those companies are likely to be doing non-embryonic stem cell research. The 2 companies below, for example, are listed.

One gets stem cells from blood (hematopoietic), the other gets them from cows' pituitary glands (Bovine Pituitary Extract).

Company
Systemix Inc.
City
Palo Alto CA
Tel
415-856-4901
Fax
415-856-4919
Details
Cellular processes/products to harness hematopoietic stem cells

Company
Hammond Cell Tech
City
Windsor CA
Tel
707-473-0564
Fax
707-473-0564
Details
Bovine Pituitary Extract, specialty serum-free tissue culture reagents

[GeorgiaYankee]

The best article I've seen is "The Stem Cell Cover-up" linked below

bottom line: follow the money

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1142855/posts

there's a huge ESC (embryonic stem cell)industry out there, with countless labs packed with innumerable scientists desperately seeking research funds. Private investors avoid them because they don't want to wait perhaps 10 years for commercial products that very well may not materialize and because they're spooked by the ethical concerns. That leaves essentially only Uncle Sam's piggy bank, primarily grants from the National Institutes of Health, to keep these labs open. This, in brief, explains the "stem-cells wars," the perceived overwhelming need grossly to exaggerate petri-dish advances with ESCs, while life-saving new applications of ASCs (adult stem cells) are downplayed or ignored.

[BigSkyFreeper]

I have no problem with private financing. If one wants to fund a sham privately, so be it, just don't force me to fund that sham through even higher taxes. The benefits sound all well and good, but more and more articles I come across, doesn't make even a "private venture" sound promising either.

But, I can see it now. Once people start funding it privately, go get the treatments, they'll be back in DC filing lawsuits against these same companies that did all the tireless work of research.