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Posted on 10/27/2006 1:39:22 PM PDT by truthfinder9
When politicians or activists start talking about science, proceed with caution. Often emotion or their desired political ends taint, distort or completely neglect solid scientific scholarship.
For example, consider when Ron Reagan Jr. and his mother Nancy came out supporting embryonic stem cell research after President Reagan’s death due to Alzheimer’s Disease. While others who were close to the former President Reagan, including his other son Michael, claimed the former President would have never supported embryonic stem cell research, even if it would had saved his life. So what is going on here?
Pardon Me, What Are Stem Cells? Simplified, the stem cells are the master cells of the body. From them can form the 210 types of body tissues. The idea is to use them to repair damaged tissues, organs and treat diseases.
When President George W. Bush signed a federal ban on funding the “harvesting” of new embryos for stem cells, many people were upset. Well, actually, not many, but those in the vocal minority known as the abortion rights movement see the ban on embryonic stem cell harvesting as chipping away at their beliefs (abortion rights groups changed their name to “prochoice” years ago to hide what actually is being talked about). Why? Most stem cells were obtained from aborted fetuses or embryos. If these embryos or fetuses were aborted to save the mother, or were naturally aborted, and subsequently donated by the parents for research, there would not be a controversy. The problem is, most were taken from embryos and fetuses aborted because they inconvenienced the parent(s). This is what led to the ban on further “harvesting” of these types.
Here is where the selective evidence comes in: The politicians and media usually do not reveal that there is more than one source for the cells needed for stem cell research. A second way stem cells can be harvested is to take them from living adults (which causes no harm). Bone marrow, lung, pancreas, brain, breast, fat, skin and tooth pulp all contain stem cells. They are also found in the umbilical cord blood and in the placenta, both of which are discarded after delivery.
They are also ignoring, or do not know, that many researchers have found embryonic stem cell research fruitless. These types of cells have also been found to cause tumors, cancer and can grow into unwanted forms of tissues. While, on the other hand, adult stem cells have already led to medical breakthroughs. As for Reagan’s hope for an Alzheimer’s cure: The chair of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Council of the Alzheimer’s Association has stated that “there are more promising efforts” than embryonic stem cell research to search for an Alzheimer’s cure. Similar statements can be made about other brain effecting diseases such as Parkinson’s. Embryonic stem cells simply do not work, but some politicians want to use it as a partisan battleground.
So we have political correctness, term-changing and selective evidence (actually compete ignorance of the evidence) used to buttress what turns out to be a belief rooted in the lack of respect for human life.
This is also and example of government-funded research not having any accountability. When private research concerning embryonic stem cells produced numerous failures, they had to move on to different research. They have to make every dollar count since they cannot rely on bottomless tax dollars.
Nature officials say the move is intended to clear up any confusion over an article last week that said a research team in Massachusetts succeeded in developing a process for growing stem cells while sparing the embryos, the Chicago Tribune reports. The problem with the article, according to a Nature spokeswoman, is that the fate of the embryos used in the study by Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. wasn't obvious. The research team had unprecedented success in developing stem cells using single cells taken from early embryos. However, none of the early embryos used were left intact. The Nature spokeswoman said although the study's main findings remain unchallenged, the science journal might modify its abstract and a diagram that is potentially misleading.
What can I say? Godless liberals and godless people in general are MEAN and want YOU to fund their failures.
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