It all started with the attempts to ban embryonic stem cell research because it would kill any unborn child. For many it was a non-issue because we have millions of unwanted unborn children aborted each year. Then there was the exchange between Michael J. Fox and Rush Limbaugh. Michael J. Fox went after those who were blocking stem cell research without every mentioning the difference between adult stem cell and embryonic stem cell research. Rush Limbaugh went after the left who was using Michael’s star power to push their agenda.
We all like Michael J. Fox. We all want a cure. Stem cell cures from embryonic research are problematic. There are rejection issues and currently multiple tumor problems resulting from implementation. No such problems are found with adult stem cell. Despite the promising future of adult stem cell research it appears that some still don’t get it. It must be about the money and their own agenda to continue benefiting from the big money abortion industry. It appears Obama will shift policy back toward embryonic stem cell research.
White House aides confirmed Friday that Obama will announce a stem cell policy shift in an East Room ceremony. He is expected to lift restrictions imposed by President George W. Bush in August 2001.
Scientists in the Bay Area, one of the world’s top centers of stem cell research and arguably the strongest in the nation, said they expect that Obama will allow the National Institutes of Health to support research on hundreds of embryonic stem cell lines that did not qualify for federal funding under the Bush policy….
“There was this oppressive ideological blockade of the development of medical science,” said Klein, who now chairs the state stem cell institute’s governing body. “We’ve been finally freed from the Middle Ages.”
Talk about character assassination. Everyone who opposes the left’s agenda is a Neanderthal. The President could have lauded the great strides in adult stem cell research.
Scientists have successfully manipulated human skin cells and transformed them into brain neurons that may someday be able to treat Parkinson’s disease.
The new technique holds promise of replacing brain cells that are lost in Parkinson’s disease with no risk of immune rejection, according to scientists at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge.
via Boston Health News Examiner: Stem cell breakthrough in Parkinson’s.
Research without a lifetime of drugs to counter rejection! That is the benefit of using one’s own adult stem cells to help repair the body. While we are reminded to be mindful of the environment it doesn’t appear to include human life as pointed out by this article.
Washington D.C., Mar 7, 2009 / 08:04 am (CNA).- Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) has criticized human embryo-destroying stem cell research, saying it is unethical, “unworkable and unreliable” and now “demonstrably unnecessary” in light of recent advances. He charged that President Obama and some Congressmen “still don’t get it” about the breakthroughs involving adult stem cell research.
Rep. Smith also accused the Obama administration and the Democratic leadership of being “obsessed with killing human embryos for experimentation at taxpayer expense.”
Leading a Special Order of Members of Congress who are opposed to human embryonic stem cell research (ESCR), Rep. Smith made his comments on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday.
“Recent spectacular breakthroughs in noncontroversial adult stem cell research and clinical applications to effectuate cures with the mitigation of disease or disability have been well documented,” he said, remarking on the “significant progress” achieved with adult stem cells.
According to the Congressional Record, he said that his legislation helped establish a nationwide network to collect umbilical cord blood and the placenta from childbirths, which has borne fruit in treating leukemia and sickle cell anemia.
“Adult stem cells, Madam Speaker, are truly remarkable. They work, they have no ethical baggage, and advances are made every day at a dizzying pace,” he said.
He noted scientists Shinya Yamanaka and James Thomson’s development of a process that uses viruses to transform skin cells into pluripotent, embryo-like stem cells called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.
Rep. Smith also referred to research teams from the United Kingdom and Canada who have announced they have successfully reprogrammed ordinary skin cells into iPS skin cells without the use of viruses. He then quoted the U.K. team’s leading scientist, who told the BBC the procedure might even eliminate the need for human embryos as a source of stem cells.
“Pluripotent stem cells are those miraculous building block cells that can be coaxed into becoming any type of tissue found in the human body,” Rep. Smith explained.
“Unlike embryonic stem cells that kill the donor, are highly unstable, have a propensity to morph into tumors and are likely to be rejected by the patient unless strong anti-rejection medicines are administered, induced pluripotent cells, stem cells, have none of those deficiencies and are emerging as the future, the greatest hope of regenerative medicine.
via Obama still doesn’t ‘get it’ about adult stem cell research, Rep. Smith says.
Doing a quick search on Michael J. Fox’s foundation site you will find human stem cells only mentioned in articles posted several years ago. No why is that? I would think we would both be ecstatic about the new possibilities. Perhaps he did mention the breakthrough but didn’t bother to note the difference between embryonic and adult stem cell lines. Now why?
