Posted on 08/15/2006 4:44:45 PM PDT by wagglebee
UNITED STATES, August 15, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Scientific researchers are now beginning the tedious task of altering the public’s expectations of the aims of human embryonic stem-cell research, deviating from the primary goals of providing stem-cell therapies to cure diseases. In what amounts to a bait and switch, these researchers, no longer promising immediate theoretical cures for a myriad of diseases desired by a desperate public, are now justifying the research by claiming that human embryonic cells are instead marvelous research tools for investigating the mechanisms of disease rather than actively curing them.
According to an article in the New York Times, a number of scientists have desired to continue medical research on human embryos, but admit that the idea of ready cures from embryonic stem-cell therapies, if possible in the first place, are years down the road. This especially considering the inherent difficulties of developing these stem-cells for therapeutic use. Instead these researches want to change the primary focus to drug research or learning about diseases through embryonic stem-cell experiments.
“Many of us feel that for the next few years the most rational way forward is not to try to push cell therapies,” said Dr. Jessell, a neurobiologist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. Dr. Jessell hopes that embryonic stem-cell research will yield drugs for neurodegenerative diseases within the next five years, conceding that a long time must pass before stem-cell based therapies will be considered effective.
Another neurobiologist at Columbia University Medical Center, Dr. Henderson admitted, “We all thought cell therapy first, then many of us realized there were a lot of hurdles to be crossed before that.”
“Stem cell biology is just a rubric that applies to many things going on in biology,” said John D. Gearhart, a stem-cell expert at Johns Hopkins University. “I personally feel that the beauty of these cells is that we’ll learn a lot about human biology and disease processes, and that that information will be more important than the cells themselves.”
However, this latest admission validates the conviction of many scientists and bioethicists who have opposed embryonic stem-cell research on the grounds of the dearth of evidence proving any practical possibility of obtaining the promised cures from embryonic stem cells. Instead embryonic stem-cell research is seemingly being exposed as a playground for scientists pushing this new front in human experimentation.
In a previous interview with LifeSiteNews.com, Dr. Peter Hollands, who holds a PhD in Stem Cell Biology from Cambridge University in the UK, and had worked as a clinical embryologist at Bourn Hall Clinic - the world's first IVF unit said, "embryonic stem cells have yet to be used to treat any form of disease” and maintained that the real potential for cures exists in the use of adult stem-cells.
He added, “Adult and umbilical cord blood stem cells are readily available, have no objections associated with them and are tried and tested in clinical use. Umbilical cord blood stem cells, for example, have been used over 3000 times for 45 different diseases!"
However, funds that could advance real cures from ethical sources such as cord blood or adult stem-cells are siphoned off to embryonic stem-cell researchers, who whip up popular support among people through hollow promises of a medical panacea bought with the destruction of countless human beings.
David Kelly, a researcher and director of the Cures 1st Foundation, Inc. penned an article for the Seoul Times revealing that adult stem cells have consistently outperformed embryonic stem cells, which he indicated were “genetically unstable and function abnormally.” The recent statements from embryonic researchers justify for him his reasons for abandoning faith in embryonic stem-cell research in 2002: “a horrifying vision – the image of millions of desperate and trusting humans holding plates of hope to an empty sky.”
See Related LifeSite Coverage:
Adult Stem Cell Research: True Potential Sacrificed for Other Possibilities Says Biotech Writer
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jun/06061311.html
Why Embryonic Stem Cell Research? It's About Human Engineering, Not Ending Disease
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/may/06050902.html
Canadian Stem Cell Expert Speaks Out on Adult vs. Embryo Stem Cell Research
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/nov/03112001.html
Catholic Church NOT Opposed to Stem Cell Research: Catholic Bioethicist
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jul/06072709.html
Yet adult and umbilical cord stem cell breakthroughs are happening TODAY without the murder of innocents.
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Embryonic stem cell research has ALWAYS been a tool to protect abortion, it has NEVER been about a cure. If curing diseases through stem cell research was the goal, ALL efforts would be going toward the ALREADY PROVEN research of adult and umbilical cord stem cells.
I'm a biomedical engineer and everytime i tell my lib friends this they don't believe me. They think i'm just spewing propoganda and religion.
As evidenced by my engineering training, i can't spell.
California is trying to limit profits from products found through research in it's state run embrionic research fiasco. Manufacturers are balking at participation. Who'd a thunk it?
I live in a state where clowns run the government.
Scientists must think they've won the fight to get the research funded.
I'm SO glad we can count on science to be unbiased and factual.
Shalom.
So is their answer more embryos?
If ECS had any real potential, biotech companies would be pouring money into it and government funding would be irrelevant, the fact that they're not indicates they see no real profitability. They are, however, spending money on adult and umbilical stem cell research and I assume it is paying off.
The left's answer is ALWAYS more dead babies and more taxpayer money!
Susan Boetcher (sp?) the Idiarod gal just died from cancer because her stem cell therapy ATE her good cells....my guess is that it was ESC therapy. I think Christopher Reeve got cancer from his stem cell therapy.
Susan Butcher got stem cells from an adult male.
If you want to oppose ESC, fine, but get the medical facts straight.
Susan Butcher died of leukemia, which is treated with adult stem cells. ESC research is still early; they are not approved for clinical trials yet. The research is nowhere near that mature. Likewise, if you believe Christopher Reeve got cancer from stem cell therapy, it would have to be Adult stem cell therapy.
Wait. I thought we were simply months away from making people walk and the dead arise. Do you mean to me that isn't true? That President Bush didn't kill people with that VETO? That the people pushing it had another agenda other then saving lives? :gasp:
Arnold has invested how many Ca taxpayer $s in this?
That's it.
My older daughter must be destined to be a biomedical engineer.
She loves Science and can't spell.
If ECS had any real potential, biotech companies would be pouring money into it and government funding would be irrelevant, the fact that they're not indicates they see no real profitability. They are, however, spending money on adult and umbilical stem cell research and I assume it is paying off.
That's not consistent with what many pharmaceutical or biotech companies do. They typically don't want to do basic research, unless they can be very sure it will return a profit. That means they want to know it will work, AND that they will retain control of the results through patents. If there's any question as to whether they can patent results, they're not going to do it. The human genome project is a great example - Celera didn't jump in until after the NHGRI project was well under way.
The government should have no place in embryonic stem cell research.
If it was going to be profitable, the private sector would be able to fund it, as they have been doing with adult stemcells.
Adult and cord stemcells is where the future lies, and therefore the private sector is funding it, because it will be profitable.
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