Posted on 08/04/2005 11:45:45 AM PDT by skeptoid
The space shuttle program would seem to have nothing to do Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist’s call for dramatically expanded federal aid for embryonic stem cell research, but there are striking parallels.....
......Yet if the shuttle has had little use, ESCs so far have had none. They’ve never been tested on humans. And like the shuttle, there are far superior alternatives. Culled from numerous body tissues, these are generally called “adult stem cells.” Yet ASCs are routinely downplayed or ignored precisely because ESCs, like the shuttle, are of little value to the human race but are tremendously valuable for individual reputations and budgets.......
.......Oddly, although Frist is a heart transplant physician he seems clueless that some of the most exciting ASC work directly involves his field. ASCs have induced either muscle or vessel growth in human hearts in hundreds of patients worldwide.
......that makes him as much a specialist on stem cells as a plumber is on aquatic chemistry.
So what, you ask?
Frist's action is preventing funding on things like the very promising cure for diabetes (linked in the article).
Fumento's great.
That had not occurred to me.
What a mind-bender.
I am really puzzled as to what Bill Frist is trying to pull here.
I vividly remember some comments made by Senator Frist during last year's election race, and they could not contrast more with what he claimed to be the case on the Senate floor last week.
When Christopher Reeve passed away last year, we all remember how Edwards and Kerry tried to capitalize on his death by making the campaign pitch for more funding of embryonic stem cell research. During a Fox & Friends show early one morning, Steve Doocy and Kiran Chetry were discussing this matter, and it was Chetry who read some comments by Frist. Chetry read comments by Frist on this issue, and it was very clear at that point that Frist was very upset at what Kerry and Edwards were doing, that it was "crass and opportunistic" for them to be giving "false hope" to those who are ill. Kiran then read some comments where Frist pointed out that most or all of the treatments currently being used (with success) were derived from adult stem cells, not embryonic.
So, this was just last October I believe. He seems to have done a complete "about face" on this. Of course, many claim that he had a favorable view of embryonic stem cell research way back in 2001, and that most of us just weren't aware of it. It's just mystifying that he was outraged at how the Dems were trying to trump up the promise of embryonic stem cells last year when he turned around and did the very same thing just last Friday on the Senate floor.
What does this man believe?
I wonder, too.
He's a busy guy and maybe a staffer has given him some skewed info.....but I don't think so. I think it's political bartering. Whatever the reason, I can't understand how he can hold his opinion or why he's doing it.
Knowing that adult stem cells work just as well, Frist you lose on this one.
Whatever the reason, he now has zero credibility with me.
This is simply a stupid statement. In this country, no medical treatment is ever tested on humans before it has been thoroughly tested in animals. And responsible doctors in other countries won't do it either. Testing on animals of various potential treatments involving embryonic stem cells is still in early stages, as are the vast majority of potential treatments involving adult stem cells.
And like the shuttle, there are far superior alternatives. Culled from numerous body tissues, these are generally called “adult stem cells.”
Nobody knows yet whether embryonic stem cells or adult stem cells would be "superior". It's quite likely, though, that the two types will both turn out to be superior, for different types of treatments. Adult stem cells are hardly without serious problems, and are not the sure bet that religiously motivated opponents of embryonic stem cell research often claim. Some German researchers have recently reported very disappointing results of their studies with adult stem cells: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/08/050803173646.htm And the oft-cited claim that embryonic stem cells cause cancer, while adult stem cells supposedly don't, has also been refuted by recent research.
Oddly, although Frist is a heart transplant physician he seems clueless that some of the most exciting ASC work directly involves his field. ASCs have induced either muscle or vessel growth in human hearts in hundreds of patients worldwide. ...that makes him as much a specialist on stem cells as a plumber is on aquatic chemistry.
Uh huh, sure. Fumento calls the eminent cardiopulmonary surgeon Frist "clueless" about the potential of stem cells for cardiac treatment. And Fumento's qualifications in this field are? Even the very top researchers in the stem cell area don't claim to know what embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells will actually be able to do, much less what the differences between the capacities of the two types might turn out to be. Frist is smart enough to realize this; Fumento is stupid enough to think he actually understands this incredibly complex area of science.
Never liked Frist, I knew he was a Southern RINO the moment he became Senate Leader.
What exactly are your credentials, that enable you state that "adult stem cells work just as well"? Even the top researchers in this field don't claim to know whether or not this statement would ever turn out to be true.
Sounds like his conscience finally got to him. He knew all along that opposing embryonic stem cell research could not be justified on any objective scientific grounds. But he's working in politics now, and did what he thought he had to do, and lied. Now he has stopped lying. I respect him for it.
Frist sounds good, speaks well, is a doctor, but does that make him a research scientist? It seems sometimes that medicine is expected to continue to provide miracles since Pasteur was so successful. That there is much to learn about the behavior of stem cells does not make them automatically of medical interest, and predicting miracles belongs to another profession.
Link to article on cancer caused by adult stem cells:
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/sex/mg18624965.200
(and I have no idea why New Scientist put this article in their "Sex" category").
Good grief.
There's precious little that 'objective scientific grounds' can be used to oppose; there was a lot of really nasty behavior supported on 'objective scientific grounds' in the last century and Peter Singer is doing his best to continue that work in this century.
This is a moral and ethical issue, and Frist caved.
With any luck, he will be shown to be mistaken on the political impact as well.
I think the guy has a point to make. He disagrees with Frist on stem cells.
But Dr Frist is a brilliant man and a top rate heart surgeon. To compare his knowledge of stem cells to that of a plumber thinking about aquatic chemistry is absurd and negates any point the article was otherwise trying to make.
Frist can run rings around this journalist when it comes to Human Physiology.
I think the guy has a point to make. He disagrees with Frist on stem cells.
But Dr Frist is a brilliant man and a top rate heart surgeon. To compare his knowledge of stem cells to that of a plumber thinking about aquatic chemistry is absurd and negates any point the article was otherwise trying to make.
Frist can run rings around this journalist when it comes to Human Physiology.
Anybody who claims to know what the relative potentials of embryonic vs. adult stem cells are is either 1) too stupid to realize how stupid they are, or 2) lying. The very top researchers in this field don't claim to know that, and yet this journalist who has no professional credentials whatsoever in stem cell biology or any related field, is claiming that HE knows. What a load of crap. His credibility is several notches below those sorry excuses for scientists who claim that they know that "global warming" is a dire emergency and entirely caused by human activity.
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