Who knew? I'm delighted that he is standing up for the scientific truth. Oz is a Turkish-American educated at Harvard, and University of Pennsylvania's Medical School and Wharton School of Business.
Posted on 04/07/2009 4:31:11 PM PDT by wagglebee
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A recent appearance by Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiovascular surgeon at Columbia University and a regular on Oprah Winfrey's popular eponymous television program, is generating buzz within pro-life circles. During the program, Oz told Americans the truth about embryonic stem cell research.
Oz made it clear that the "stem cell debate is dead" mostly in part because embryonic stem cells have yet to catch up to their adult stem cell and iPS cell counterparts.
The comments are drawing interest because Oz made them in front of the iconic television personality and embryonic stem cell research advocate Michael J. Fox who has warped and twisted the positions of pro-life advocates during previous elections.
"The problem with embryonic stem cells is that embryonic stem cells come from embryos, like all of us were made from embryos, and those cells can become any cell in the body," Oz explained.
"But it's very hard to control them and so they can become cancer," Oz added, pointing to the efficacy problems of the cells causing tumors after injection into animals during experiments.
Oz went on to talk about the new science of induced stem cells made by reverting skin and other adult stem cells into an embryonic-like state without the destruction of human life.
He said he believes researchers are within ten years of making major breakthroughs using adult stem cells, which have already helped patients with more than 100 diseases and conditions.
"I think we are single digit years away from making a big impact in the lives of Parkinson's disease (victims) but also diabetics, heart attack victims, people who have had a lot of problems," he said of the potential success of adult stem cells.
Those successes could be even sooner than Oz thinks.
In what is believed to be the nation's first such procedure, doctors in Texas were recently able to successfully use adult stem cells from a patient to treat the effects of his stroke.
Doctors removed the stem cells from the patient's bone marrow in the leg, then separated or purified the stem cells and intravenously returned them to the patient within a few hours.
Because they are the patient's own stem cells, rejection was not an issue as is the case with embryonic stem cells.
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If anyone can find a video of this, I’d sure like to see this.
Well if that’s true, then funding will dry up.
Since when did that ever stop a government boondoggle?
My unstudied opinion is that an embryonic stem cell desperately “wants” to become a baby. If it can’t, it becomes a tumor. That is the long and short of it.
That's quite amazing. I knew it was a lot, but I had no idea it was that many.
The fact that adult stem cells have already helped patients with more than 100 diseases and conditions, and yet the government's funding goes to embryonic stem cells , which has yet to help anyone, is so typical.
Private funds will dry up, but i will bet the government earmarks money that will have to be spent on embryonic stem cell research. So even though it makes no sense, embryos will be killed for no real purpose.
>>If embryonic stem cell research successes are falling behind those successes derived from adult stem cells we must simply increase funding for embryonic research, because we know this will work eventually. How can MJ Fox and Christopher Reeves be wrong? This will be the argument of the pro-abortion gang. <<
Well they may make the argument that the Federal government cut off funding for embryonic stem cell research for 8 years so of course its fallen behind.
I bet she looked like she took a hit on that one. I agree. It’s time to start telling the truth.
Who knew? I'm delighted that he is standing up for the scientific truth. Oz is a Turkish-American educated at Harvard, and University of Pennsylvania's Medical School and Wharton School of Business.
Did they get a reaction from any California taxpayers? They were delighted to put up $3B for an Embryonic Stem Cell Research Initiative that was cooked up solely as way to poke George w. Bush in the eye after he came down against using federal money to establish any more ESC lines.
Seems to me that the good doctor just told them they were conned. But then I’m a cynic.
This guy totally nails it — anyone still after embryonic stem cells at this point may (but not necessarily) just want to kill babies. Or be intellectually incoherent. Or both.
I wrote Mr. Michael J. Fox a letter in 2006 stating that he was so much in support of embryonic stem cell research he should he impregnate his wife and then “harvest” stem cells from their unborn child.
He and his wife have 4 children so they are clearly fertile.
I told him that it would do wonders from his cause if he would step up to the plate and show everyone how it’s done.
Surprisingly he’s never answered.
Good point! Also this issue has been such an “In your face Bush” weapon, I can’t see the left letting it go. So much for good science dictating where funding is directed.
The adult cell breakthrough was a Japanese thing. No dough from Uncle Sam involved.
Embryos will continue to be experimented with because the lure of being able to use them for "spare parts" is simply too much for some people who aren't capable of comprehending the horror of what they are actually doing.
He doesn’t look like a Muslim!
I think the government has been funding Adult Stem Cell research.
Unfortuntely Obama has cut the federal funding that would help bring the cures from adult stem cell research.
What about the lines of embryonic stem cells available at the National Institute of Health? Remember those? Were those all used up??
President Bush kept making the point that embryonic stem cell research was still available to those interested because those lines of cells existed and could be used in federally-funded studies.
There’s really no need for that.
“Embryos will continue to be experimented with because the lure of being able to use them for “spare parts” is simply too much for some people who aren’t capable of comprehending the horror of what they are actually doing.”
I won’t be surprised if, after people start getting cancer from the embryonic stem cells, John Edwards leads the law suits against the very researchers he was championing.
Well, Islam is a religion, not a race, so there are white, black, brown muslims, etc, even though many people think of Arabs and Islam as synonymous. He’s Turkish, so yes he probably is a Muslim, but there are Turkish Christians and probably Turkish Jews as well, so it’s not safe to assume he’s even a Muslim really.
Never.
Look at the stupidity of the global warming sturm und drang. It has so many vested interests vying for government money that it will never go away.
Not even when we wind up deep in another ice age.
I’m thinking he was joking. His religion and, frankly, his views on the ethics of embryo experimentation are irrelevant. What is relevant is that he chose to be intellectually honest to Michael J. Fox’s face, when it must have been very seductive for him to blow smoke like everyone else has been.
I don’t believe that he is; if you read the link I provided, he mentions being inspired by the works of the Swedish mystic Swedenborgian, who was a Christian.
BTTT
Thanks, I've learned two things on this thread!
Unfortuntely Obama has cut the federal funding that would help bring the cures from adult stem cell research.
If they can’t legitimize the killing of the innocent through abortion, how can they legitimize tyranny?
“The problem with embryonic stem cells is that embryonic stem cells come from embryos ...but it’s very hard to control them and so they can become cancer.” Oz explained.
That’s not the right reason to oppose it. Embryonic stem cell research is wrong, not because it’s difficult or ineffective, but because it’s morally wrong. It’s no more morally acceptable to kill babies by way of an abortion to get embryonic cells for research than it would be to kill two year old children to get them. Life begins at conception.
Yes, I saw that show last week when Dr. Oz said that. I did a double take at the screen because I thought Oprah was quietly having a cow. And Fox didn’t have too much to say after that either. I hope Dr. Oz’s days aren’t goling to be numbered on the show because of it.
That was precisely the argument made. My lib cousin is a devote of all things Oprah and that is what she said.
Long overdue. When Bush addressed this issue, it was already well known that embryonic stem cells have failed to live up to any part of the hype about them. Bush was right to ban embryonic stem cell research and fund other stem cell research that has proven more promising.
Well Oz does sell diet books (”fad diets” as the notoriously unbiased Wikipedia reports). That and Oprah go together like a hand and a glove.
Swedenborgian, who was a Christian
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I didn’t know ths.
Do you find it odd that actors put on glasses and the whole world thinks of them as smart?
interesting. I thought he was something like a mystic instead.
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