Adult Stem Cell Research More Effective Than Embryonic Cells

If cloning isn't possible yet; then why do we have laws defining clones?

One of the sites that is referenced throughout the Congressional Report (pasted below) is www.humancloning.org The Human Cloning Foundation has been determined to be a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and all donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. One of the first sites I found to redirect from this site was, The Godsend Institute.

Since Dolly, several scientists have cloned other animals, including cows and mice. Now, at Godsend, they have pioneered a technique that allows a cell nucleus from a recently deceased child to be implanted within a human egg, allowing a mother to carry that child to term again.

So I guess my question is, “Where Are We Medically With Human Cloning?”

1.
Laws and Legal Implications
1.1.
Legal Implications of Human Cloning
1
( ANNEX 1 )
Delivered on April 28, 2001 at the 8
th
National Convention of
Lawyers at the Waterfront Hotel, Cebu City by Dean Ernesto L. Pineda,
on the definition of clones and cloning, legal problems of human beings,
citizenship of the cloned child, support of the child and parental authority
and other rights of clone if they are persons with respect to the Philippine
setting.
1.2.
Laws and Regulations Concerning Cloning
2
( ANNEX 2)
The United States has no laws banning any type of cloning among
all parties. It does have restrictions on cloning in institutions that receive
federal funding. It virtually ignores private research. Other countries
1
The Lawyers Review, June 30, 2001, pp. 7-10
2
http://www.humancloning.org/allthe.htm, p. 1

Page 3
3
like England have laws against cloning. Attempts to implement
consistent laws throughout the world does not succeed because of both,
the difficulty in getting many countries to agree to common terms and the
inability to enforce regulations. The World Health Organization (WHO)
is currently studying the implications of human cloning research. Other
institution that has the power to reach across national borders has already
offered its opinion. The Vatican calls for an outright ban on human
cloning and urges scientists not to genetically alter animals.
1.3 State Human Cloning Laws
3
( ANNEX 3 )
Laws pertaining to human cloning in nine (9) states in the United
States.
1.4 The UK's Cloning Laws: A View from the Antipodes
4
( ANNEX 4 )
England's (UK) laws on cloning.
1.5 Legal Barriers To Human Cloning May Not Hold Up
5
( ANNEX 5 )
Legal Scholars view on the United States' Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) assertion of authority on cloning.
2. Religion on Cloning
2.1 The World God Created Must Not Be Profaned
6
( ANNEX 6 )
A religious message of Pope John Paul II to Christians on cloning.
3. Science
3.1 Cloning: A New Science Enters Infancy (Clone Hype)
7
(ANNEX 7)
One of the most misunderstood science headlines on cloned human
embryos in biotechnology done by researchers at George Washington
University that inflamed the debate about the ethical implications in the
application of technology to human reproduction.
3
http://www.humancloning.org/allthe.htm
4
Ibid
5
Today, June 15, 2001, p. 7
6
BC, March 30, 1997, p. 12
7
Newsweek, November 8, 1993, pp. 42-47

Page 4
4
3.2 Cloning: Where Do We Draw the Line?
8
( ANNEX 8 )
The first laboratory duplication of a human embryo that raises the
question: Where do we draw the line?
3.3 Science and Technology
9
( ANNEX 9 )
An article on the provenance and research context of the cloned
sheep, Dolly, as a the first genetically engineered creature to hit the
headlines.
3.4 To Ban or Not to Ban?
10
( ANNEX 10)
An article on the report of a presidential commission that sets the
stage for an American debate on human cloning.
3.5 Clones in China
11
( ANNEX 11)
An article on animal cloning in China
3.6 Cloned Lamb
12
(ANNEX 12 )
An article that describes the cloning of a lamb as a milestone
because the cloning has used a human gene.
3.7 Humans Next?
13
( ANNEX 13 )
Monkeys cloned from cells taken from embryos that marks the first
time a species that closely resembles humans.
3.8 Human Cloning - How to do it
14
( ANNEX 14)
4. Opinions /Views
The following articles are opinions or views on cloning that borders on the
effects it would create, the fears, fantasies, and monstrosities it carries, the problems it
posses, the good and bad it offers to man.
8
Time, November 8, 1993, pp. 31-36
9
The Economist, March 1, 1997, pp. 87-89
10
Time, June 16, 1997
11
China Today, June 1998, pp. 25-27
12
Today, July 7, 1997, p. 7
13
Today, March 4, 1997, p. 6
14
http://www.humancloning.org//allthe.html, p. 1

Page 5
5
4.1.
Hello, Dolly
15
(ANNEX 15 )
4.2. 'Fear of Abusing Human Clones Should
Not Deter Research Beyond Dolly
16
( ANNEX 16 )
4.3. 'Is Cloning Procreation?
17
( ANNEX 17 )
4.4. The Fantastic Made Real
18
(ANNEX 18 )
4.5. Little Lamb Who Made Thee?
19
(ANNEX 19 )
4.6. A Clone Chop, Anyone?
20
( ANNEX 20 )
4.7. In Cloning There is Limitless Promise, But Limited Delivery
21
ANNEX 21 )
4.8. More on Cloning
22
( ANNEX 22)
4.9 Cloning as An Anticlimax
23
( ANNEX 23 )
4.10 Immaculate Misconception
24
( ANNEX 24 )
4.11 No Genetic Engineering Allowed
25
(ANNEX 25)
4.12 What the Important People are Saying
26
( ANNEX 26 )
5. Articles Against Cloning
Those who are against cloning give their arguments in the following
articles:
5.1 The World As One Big "Jurassic Park”
27
( ANNEX 27)
An article that points out that biotechnology and genetic
engineering are very powerful. (Jurassic Park) suggests that control of
nature is elusive. And just as war is too important to leave to the
generals, science is too important to leave to scientist.
5.2
Fund For Sheep Cloning Halted As Concern Over ‘Master Race’
Rises
28
( ANNEX 28)
15
The economist, March 1, 1997, p. 16
16
Earth Science, March 4, 1997, p. 7
17
Today, March 4, 1997, p. 17
18
Newsweek, March 10, 1997, p. 2.
19
Newsweek, March 10, 1997, pp. 43-47
20
Newsweek, March 10, 1997, pp. 47- 50
21
Today, March 3, 1997, p. 8
22
Malaya, April 3, 1997, p. 5
23
Today, April 4, 1997, p. 11
24
Manila Chronicle, April 4, 1997, p.3
25
Manila Times, October 3, 1994, p. B9
26
http://www.humancloning.org//allthe.html, p. 1
27
Manila Bulletin, November 26, 1993, p. 11
28
Today, March 2, 1997, p.1

Page 6
6
5.3 Breakthrough in Cloning
29
( ANNEX 29 )
The objections posed in this article are:
- Commentators are straining to point out that even a clone would have
to be born and raised.
- Legal scholars tried to calm anxiety by pointing that armies of
mindlessly obedient worker-clones would be flatly illegal, given the
laws against slavery.
- The director of the US National Institutes of Health called the prospect
of human cloning “repugnant,” a view shared by the pope.
5.4 On Cloning Humans: What About the "Exalted Individual'?
30
( ANNEX 30)
“An instinct by humans to protect their distinctiveness is evident in
the first responses to the announcement that a sheep has been cloned.”
The article says that those who favor cloning stand accused of having
neglected the natural and social environments in which no cloned offspring
had to make their way.
5.5 Let The Study of Cloning Begin
31
( ANNEX 31 )
An article that presents the arguments of some scientist against
cloning.
5.6 Reasons Against Cloning
32
( ANNEX 32)
The article suggest the reasons why we should say no to cloning.
6. ARTICLES FOR CLONING
The following articles present the arguments for cloning.
6.1 Human Embryo Cloning Gaining Acceptance
33
( ANNEX 33 )
“Cloning could be used in medical research that could tackle
ailments such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.”
29
Philippine Journal, March 10, 1997, p. 2
30
Today, March 11, 1997, p. 7
31
Today, March 31, 1997, p. 11
32
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/Genetics/rt-shcl.htm, pp. 1-2
33
Manila Bulletin, September 29, 1999, p. 4

Page 7
7
6.2 UK to clone Human Embryos
34
( ANNEX 34 )
The government of UK or Britain is looking into the idea of
allowing an exception so that cloned embryos could be created by
researchers but not allowed to be kept growing for more than 14 days or
implanted in a womb.
6.3 "Give Clones Their Rightful Dignity'
35
( ANNEX 35 )
A journalist view of cloning. In support for it, he proposed the
Three Laws of Cloning: 1) A human clone is a human being no less
unique in his or her personhood than an identical twin. 2) A human clone
is a human being with all the rights and privileges that accompany this
moral issues. 3) A human clone is a human being to be accorded the
dignity and respect due any member of our species.
6.4 Human Cloning. Org
36
( ANNEX 36)
An article that presents all the reasons to clone human beings.
(CONGRESS 30: RRB CLONING)
RRB/LRS
RHAB/PEP/toe
7-09-03
34
Manila Standard, April 5, 2000, p. 17
35
Today, January 6, 2003, p. 6
36
Ibid

"I think it's important to remember that [ ] one thing at which adult stem cells are NOT as effective as [embryonic] stem cells is the nailing open of a window of Non-Personhood wherein human lives may be manufactured like ears of corn for industrial applications." If you'll forgive the editing, well and truly said, m'Lady. And let's take a quick look at the implications of what you said.

Those defending abortion on demand have now focused upon the risk associated to their movement if cannibalistic exploitation of embryos is banned. Why? If what these same liars have been saying for so long --that the mass in the womb is not a human being-- is true, the acts of conceiving them and harvesting them for body parts (stem cells are the body parts of the human being in their embryo age) would not be antithetical to the sanctity of human life. But they might be wrong! What scares the bejeebers out of the ghouls defending heinous acts like partial birth infanticide is: the American people might just be adding things up in the debate over exploiting individual human embryos and cloning individual humans for harvesting. The liars defending abortion on demand must protect their hard fought stance of dehumanization --whether right or wrong, lest the people awaken to realize just how deeply wrong has been the unrelenting defense of the slaughter of unborn individuals!

If the ghouls can obfuscate the truth (that every individual human lifetime begins at conception, and that's true with twinning, also), perhaps they can maneuver the American people into tacitly accepting the cannibalism, so that down the road the reliance upon such cannibalism will preclude admitting how wrong it has been from the very start. Human nature being what it is, evil seeping in to poison the whole by small degrees, leading to rejection of the truth that the whole is poisoned. A prime example is in vitro fertilization: yes, precious children are born from such technological application, but hundreds of thousands of human embryonic 'other' humans are killed or placed into lifeless limbo in the process; if these embryonic lives are human beings living their individual lifetimes at their earliest age, what does that bode for the process? Well, it's wrong application of science! At this juncture of our history, more than a million alive individuals owe their lives to in vitro fertilization; can we ban the procedure at this juncture? The liberal lies and dissembling make it near impossible to do so. The same will happen with the cannibalism of cloning, if we don't stop it NOW, before it is the source of numerous cures of people like Michael J Fox or Christopher Reeves.

To stop the steady march of our culture to cannibalism, the people must know the facts and talk these matters out, in order to be able to make informed decisions IF OUR LEGISLATORS OFFER TO US THE OPPORTUNITY TO VOTE ON SUCH THINGS ... and I'm afraid their is every indication that our legislators have already sold their souls to the bio-tech lobbies, so we may not get the chance to vote over such issues in specific, only in general, as in candidate referendums of general elections. [Shameless plug time: for more in layman's terms regarding cloning and embryonic stem cell exploitation, click here and download a free manuscript. ]

Lies About Fetal Stem Cell Research [Free Republic]

Stem cells without benefit of embryos

Michael Fumento Interview [DDT, Global Warming, Fuel Cells, Stem Cells, AIDS, Biotech, AD/HD, Etc.]

CELLING LIES (Stem Cell Myths exposed by Michael Fumento)

*In 2000, Israeli scientists implanted Melissa Holley's white blood cells into her spinal cord to treat the paraplegia caused when her spinal cord was severed in an auto accident. Melissa, who is 18, has since regained control over her bladder and recovered significant motor function in her limbs - she can now move her legs and toes, although she cannot yet walk.

This is exactly the kind of therapy that embryonic-stem-cell proponents promise - years down the road. Yet Melissa's breakthrough was met with collective yawns in the press with the exception of Canada's The Globe and Mail. Non-embryonic stem cells may be as common as beach sand.

They have been successfully extracted from umbilical cord blood, placentas, fat, cadaver brains, bone marrow, and tissues of the spleen, pancreas, and other organs. Even more astounding, the scientists who cloned Dolly the sheep successfully created cow heart tissue using stem cells from cow skin. And just this week, Singapore scientists announced that they have transformed bone-marrow cells into heart muscle.

Research with these cells also has a distinct moral advantage: It doesn't require the destruction of a human embryo. You don't have to be pro-life to be more comfortable with that.

*In another Parkinson's case, a patient treated with his own brain stem cells appears to have experienced a substantial remission with no adverse side effects. Dennis Turner was expected by this time to require a wheelchair and extensive medication. Instead, he has substantially reduced his medication and rarely reports any noticeable symptoms of his Parkinson's. Human trials in this technique are due to begin soon.

*Bone marrow stem cells, blood stem cells, and immature thigh muscle cells have been used to grow new heart tissue in both animal subjects and human patients. Indeed, while it was once scientific dogma that damaged heart muscle could not regenerate, it now appears that cells taken from a patient's own body may be able to restore cardiac function. Human trials using adult stem cells have commenced in Europe and other nations. (The FDA is requiring American researchers to stick with animal studies for now to test the safety of the adult stem cell approach.)

*Harvard Medical School researchers reversed juvenile onset diabetes (type-1) in mice using "precursor cells" taken from spleens of healthy mice and injecting them into diabetic animals. The cells transformed into pancreatic islet cells. The technique will begin human trials as soon as sufficient funding is made available.

*In the United States and Canada, more than 250 human patients with type-1 diabetes were treated with pancreatic tissue (islet) transplantations taken from human cadavers. Eighty percent of those who completed the treatment protocol have achieved insulin independence for over a year. (Good results have been previously achieved with pancreas transplantation, but the new approach may be much safer than a whole organ transplant.)

*Blindness is one symptom of diabetes. Now, human umbilical cord blood stem cells have been injected into the eyes of mice and led to the growth of new human blood vessels. Researchers hope that the technique will eventually provide an efficacious treatment for diabetes-related blindness. Scientists also are experimenting with using cord blood stem cells to inhibit the growth of blood vessels in cancer, which could potentially lead to a viable treatment.

*Bone marrow stem cells have partially helped regenerate muscle tissue in mice with muscular dystrophy. Much more research is needed before final conclusions can be drawn and human studies commenced. But it now appears that adult stem cells may well provide future treatments for neuromuscular diseases.

*Severed spinal cords in rats were regenerated using gene therapy to prevent the growth of scar tissue that inhibits nerve regeneration. The rats recovered the ability to walk within weeks of receiving the treatments. The next step will be to try the technique with monkeys. If that succeeds, human trials would follow.

*In one case reported from Japan, an advanced pancreatic cancer patient injected with bone marrow stem cells experienced an 80 percent reduction in tumor size.

* In separate experiments, scientists researched the ability of embryonic and adult mouse pancreatic stem cells to regenerate the body's ability to make insulin. Both types of cells boosted insulin production in diabetic mice. The embryonic success made a big splash with prominent coverage in all major media outlets. Yet the same media organs were strangely silent about the research involving adult cells.

Stranger still, the adult-cell experiment was far more successful - it raised insulin levels much more. Indeed, those diabetic mice lived, while the mice treated with embryonic cells all died. Why did the media celebrate the less successful experiment and ignore the more successful one?

* Another barely reported story is that alternative-source stem cells are already healing human illnesses.

*In Los Angeles, the transplantation of stem cells harvested from umbilical-cord blood has saved the lives of three young boys born with defective immune systems.

*Rather than receiving bone marrow transplants, the three boys underwent stem cell therapy. The experimental procedure worked. Two years post-surgery, their doctors at UCLA Medical Center pronounced the boys cured.

*Last year, Israeli scientists implanted Melissa Holley's white blood cells into her spinal cord to treat the paraplegia caused when her spinal cord was severed in an auto accident. Melissa, who is 18, has since regained control over her bladder and recovered significant motor function in her limbs - she can now move her legs and toes, although she cannot yet walk.

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