Posted on 03/09/2009 5:42:46 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
Yes, Bill Plante did acknowledge that the stem cell issue has “deep moral and political implications.” And yes, we did hear from a representative of the Family Research Council speaking in opposition to Pres. Obama’s decision to lift the Bush-era ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
But that said, was it right for the Early Show to air the most inflammatory possible accusation against Pres. Bush? Recounting the story of a young boy who died of a rare and fatal genetic disease Plante stated that the boy’s parents: “believe their son’s chance of survival ended when President George W. Bush signed an executive order in August, 2001, banning the federal government from funding embryonic stem cell research.”
As Plante spoke, CBS aired the image of a smiling [message: heartless?] Pres. Bush striding across the White House lawn
View video here.
(Excerpt) Read more at finkelblog.com ...
Just in time for the executive order ‘Mr Death’ has signed to reverse the previous order. Lovely.
You too? I wish to participate in your support group!
I have no idea how long a frozen embryo can be kept until it can no longer be used for implantation.
Isn’t allowing an embryo to degenerate in a freezer a kind of neglect? Neglegent homicide?
That is a lie of omission. He banned funding for stem cell research other than for existing stem cell lines at the time he signed the bill. The law does not ban private funding, nor does it make private research on any embryonic stem cells illegal.
Not a perfect law, but a reasonable compromise. Though many want embryonic stem cell research and argue that the aborted "tissue" will otherwise go to waste and allowing research is much like organ donation after death, I don't want my taxes to pay for Nazi-style experimentation upon the unborn. This law walked the line between.
Obama's pen opens the gates. Exactly which gates he has been opening remains to be seen.
I’m willing to donate almost all of my fat cells for research!
I suppose, technically, if it’s genetic the parent’s should be looking at themselves. I wouldn’t blame them, genes happen, but if they are so anxious to point fingers they should start there.
Since when have liberals let something as paltry as total, complete failure stop them?
After invitro fertilization, the most promising empbryo is implanted in the woman. If the pergnancy is successful, there are several that will not be used and will stay frozen for a long time.
Do you have a suggestion concerning what should be done with left over embryos?
Embryonic stem cells have not cured or successfully treated a single patient. Contrast that with the more than 70 conditions that are treatable using non-embryonic stem cell therapies.
Note: Conditions treatable using non-embryonic stem cells are listed in this article.
Adult Stem Cells: It's Not Pie-in-the-Sky
Though embryonic stem cell research advocates euphemistically refer to the current state of research as an “early stage”, the unfortunate reality is the goal of embryonic stem cell therapies is, at this point, more accurately described as a pipe dream. No researcher is anywhere close to significant progress in developing practical embryonic stem cell therapies.
The only thing certain is that the cost of that research will be high. If embryonic stem cell research had real and imminent possibilities, private investors would be pouring capital into research hoping for real and imminent profits. Instead, venture capital firms are contributing to political efforts to get taxpayers to fund research. What the venture capitalists seem to be hoping for is that taxpayer funding of stem cell research will increase the value of their stakes in biotech companies. The venture capitalists can then cash out at a hefty profit, leaving taxpayers holding the bag of fruitless research.
Ron Reagan Wrong on Stem Cells
"Using embryonic stem cells, researchers at Stanford University who are working on a cure for Type I diabetes are producing new pancreatic islet cells that could be used in human transplants and could herald a cure for this devastating illness."
Actually, the latest research findings regarding embryonic stem cells are that they do not actually produce insulin in response to glucose changes in their environment and are NOT the pancreatic beta cells needed to treat diabetes. When placed in animals, the cells did not reverse diabetes; instead, they formed tumors.
"A Korean research team recently made history by using human embryonic stem cells to cure Parkinson's disease in rats."
That is what they claim, but the research is a long way from producing a safe and effective treatment for humans. On the one known occasion when earlier-stage (before 6 weeks) fetal tissue was used to try to treat a human Parkinson's patient, the tissue killed the patient by forming clumps of bone, skin and hair in the middle of his brain.
Moreover, animal trials with embryonic stem cells repeatedly kill many of the animals because of formation of brain tumors.
Meanwhile, the first clinical trial using a patient's own adult brain stem cells to treat Parkinson's has produced a lasting 80% reversal of symptoms, and wider human trials are being planned.
A more recent article:
A report from Israel published in PLoS Medicine in late February that shows embryonic stem cells injected into patients can cause disabling if not deadly tumors.
The report describes a young boy with a fatal neuromuscular disease called ataxia telangiectasia, who was treated with embryonic stem cells. Within four years, he developed headaches and was found to have multiple tumors in his brain and spinal cord that genetically matched the female embryos used in his therapy.His experience is neither an anomaly nor a surprise, but one feared by many scientists.
Even as the future of embryonic stem cells has dimmed, adult stem cell research has scored major wins evident just in the past few months. These advances involve human stem cells that are not derived from human embryos. In fact, adult stem cells, which occur in small quantities in organs throughout the body for natural growth and repair, have become stars despite great skepticism early on. Though this is a more difficult task, scientists have learned to coax them to mature into many cell types, like brain and heart cells, in the laboratory.
The more ethically charged decision—less understood by the public and one Congress has avoided—involves the ban on creating human embryos in the laboratory solely for research purposes. In fact, President Clinton is the one who balked at allowing scientists to use government money for embryo creation and research on stem cells harvested from such embryos; Bush only affirmed the Clinton ban.
“I’m willing to donate almost all of my fat cells for research!”
Bill Plant doesn’t need any fat cells planted in his head.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for Plant to say, my bad, when no miracle cures are found after killing babies.
I seem to have recently heard that the same embryonic stem cells can be obtained from umbilical cords.
I know that does not interest the abortion freaks.
Those would be the gates to Hell.
Killing babies?
I know, let’s ban invitro fertilization, and all this debate will end. At this time, that is the only source of embryos.
No, I don’t. But my guess is that you do.
You know, I am getting really sick of these people in the media.
Bill Plante’s a jerk.
Bush never banned embronic stem cell research. Bush stopped federal funding of embronic stem cell research.
Where is it written that the government should be providing such funding? The government has exceeded its charter and needs to be de-funded and scaled back. Our problems are rooted in the idea that the government should be taking care of virtually everything. And now that we are on this slippery slope, we can't stop the slide or even believe that we shouldn't be on it.
No matter how fast we are falling, the slippery slope we are on leads to only one place unless we get off and get back to our original principles.
So...someone's opinion is news?
I have a few opinions for you, Mr. Plante.
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