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Newark Star Ledger ^ | 05.26.05 | Paul Mulshine

[Coleus]

As a coldhearted, rational type of guy, I can't get too excited about the pro-life objection to embryonic stem cell research. The pro-lifers argue that it's wrong to destroy fertilized human eggs for research purpose. But the eggs in question are going to be destroyed eventually anyway. Why not put them to good use?

However, the other day I came upon some aspects of the research that frightened even me. Wesley J. Smith is the author of a book titled "A Consumer's Guide to a Brave New World." He's a lawyer and sometime Ralph Nader collaborator who is skeptical about just where the biotech industry is leading us with its incessant call for infinitely more spending on the research.

It's not leading us to test-tube cures for such diseases as diabetes and Parkinson's, Smith said when I gave him a call at his California home. There is simply no reliable method for turning an embryonic stem cell into the type of cell that can be safely implanted in the body of a disease victim.

"Embryonic stem cells cause tumors in mice," Smith said. "You simply can't control their growth."

The same problems are likely to occur in any attempt to implant embryonic stem cells in humans, he said. But there's a much easier -- and more ominous -- means of employing the technology, he said. The most efficient way of turning embryonic stem cells into the cells needed to treat a certain disease would be to create an embryo that is a clone of the patient. If that embryo could then be implanted into a uterus, the resulting fetus would contain a perfect copy of every cell in the patient's body. The ominous part is that the only way to gain access to those cells would be to abort

[Coleus]

Here Come the NJ Clones

The Stem Cell Cover-Up By Michael Fumento

The Radical Depth and Scope of the Cloning Agenda

Beginning of the End for Embryonic Stem Cell Research?

The Neolib Attack on Adult Stem Cells [Michael Fumento]

Women Adopt Frozen Embryos, Save Them from Science

DONUM VITAE 

[Coleus]

Smith's reading of the bill is supported by Princeton University ethicist Robert George, who serves on the president's council on bioethics. Like Smith, George said he fears the stem cell debate inevitably has to move into a debate over cloning fetuses for their parts.

[D-fendr]

very interesting article.. I'm assuming the entire article can't be posted..

the source linked is non-subscription, so i encourage others to click..

[MHGinTN]

"The pro-lifers argue that it's wrong to destroy fertilized human eggs (That's a clear mischaracterization/false term; the embryos in danger from this cannibalism are no longer 'eggs' but real actual human beings already building the first organ for their survival, the placenta) for research purpose. But the eggs in question (Again, it is wrong to use such a false term when the egg ceased to exist and a new life came to be at conception; this is the sort of wrong terminology that makes the awakening of the people even more difficult) are going to be destroyed eventually anyway. [That someone is going to die is no good reason to kill them before natural death in order to exploit their body parts for research. Where is this nation when such rhetoric is considered 'enlightened'?]

[MHGinTN]

"Like Smith, George said he fears the stem cell debate inevitably has to move into a debate over cloning fetuses for their parts." It isn't even a speculation now! The scientists wanting to cannibalize embryos for their stem cells are already making bold comments about the next step once embryonic stem cells are cultivated and directed because tissue rejection factors can only be swept away with cloning. One note: even a cloned fetus will have a degree of non-donor DNA, in the mitochondria of the female gamete. So I'm wondering, why haven't scientists gone full blast into other mammalian models for research, instead of jumping immediately to killing human life in this rush to control embeyonic stem cells?... Because the scientists lusting for these 'breakthroughs' already expect human cloning to be acceptable and implimented immediately when the first ESC cure arrives! Cannibalizing human embryo-aged beings is a slippery slope, it's a greased highway, with human cloning as a sign post already erected along the path.

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

And it's not even illegal to the research, so what are all these jackasses crying about?

If embryonic stem cell research is really the philosopher's stone of modern medical science, where is the private money to fund the research?

[Sun]

Now THIS is new to me, and I will try to find the link for this:

Now, something that has really been hidden from the public:

"Even more important than the dollars and the difficulty is that the process of harvesting a woman’s eggs for stem cells places that woman at risk. Superovulation regimens for fertility treatments would be used to obtain women’s eggs. The risks associated with superovulation regimens or high-dose hormone therapies are debated. But there is a growing body of evidence showing that these practices, when used for standard IVF, can cause a wide spectrum of problems including memory loss, seizure, stroke, infertility, cancer, and even death. This points to yet another ethical issue: the future commercial exploitation of women, and particularly poor women, to collect their eggs. "

[Sun]

Here's the link:

http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/wm749.cfm

It's the 2nd paragraph under "Ethical Issues."

The entire link is interesting and informative.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

From the article: "But the eggs in question are going to be destroyed eventually anyway. Why not put them to good use? "

Gee...uh...maybe because they didn't sign a release form? And the normal procedure for organ donation is that you have to sign a form. Duh... Other than that utilitarian reasons for using human beings in medical experiments which result in their death was specifically identified at the Nuremberg trials as a serious ethical/human rights problem. At least in a civilized society. 20th-century World History 101. Boy, we really need to get to work on those schools!

Is there perhaps a VERY serious problem with a state education system completely separated from moral and religious traditions of ethical reasoning? Looks like it. Here

[nmh]

"The same problems are likely to occur in any attempt to implant embryonic stem cells in humans, he said. But there's a much easier -- and more ominous -- means of employing the technology, he said. The most efficient way of turning embryonic stem cells into the cells needed to treat a certain disease would be to create an embryo that is a clone of the patient. If that embryo could then be implanted into a uterus, the resulting fetus would contain a perfect copy of every cell in the patient's body. The ominous part is that the only way to gain access to those cells would be to abort the fetus. Smith fears that's where we're headed."

And as the article states later, it is perfectly LEGAL in New Jersey. McGreedy REDEFINED things and now we can CLONE!

Scary stuff.

[nmh]

"What I think will happen is that when everything that can be obtained from research in a petri dish is obtained, then there will be a move to go from a petri dish to early gestation," Smith told me.

That's a disturbing thought. Even more disturbing is that such a practice would be perfectly legal in at least one state: New Jersey. A bill signed into law last year by Gov. James McGreevey permits exactly that sort of practice, Smith said. The bill's ostensible purpose was to enable stem cell research, but it also contained language regulating the traffic in fetal tissue. And the only way to turn stem cells into fetal tissue is through implantation in the womb, Smith notes.

The bill also purports to ban human cloning, but it defines cloning as "cultivating a cell with genetic material through the egg, embryo, fetal and newborn stages."

That would seem to permit cloning as long as the fetus in question were to be aborted, Smith notes.

[nmh]

"And it's not even illegal to the research, so what are all these jackasses crying about? "

They want YOUR money through tax dollars!

"If embryonic stem cell research is really the philosopher's stone of modern medical science, where is the private money to fund the research? "

Because investors KNOW it's like throwing money down the toilet and they're not willing to do that so they harass the STATE and FEDERAL government for YOUR UNLIMITED tax dollars.

[nmh]

Lunch bump!

[American_Centurion]

Hey, Paul Mulshine, you are going to die someday too, why don't we just take you out right now and experiment on you?

Inevitability, a good excuse for everything.

[MHGinTN]

"And the only way to turn stem cells into fetal tissue is through implantation in the womb, Smith notes." Uh, science is already way ahead of this level. At Harvard they are already implanting alive embryos into extra-corporeal uterine tissue; the Japanese are able to keep a goat fetus alive for seventeen weeks in their artifical womb.

[nmh]

Scary stuff!

IMO, a soul is a result of God. If I am right and down the road they perfect this ... it will give new meaning when someone says, "that person has no soul". When they do say this about a person, it's one evil person.