Posted on 03/14/2003 5:35:38 PM PST by cpforlife.org
Edited on 06/29/2004 7:09:47 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Sixteen-year-old Dimitri Bonnville had already been accidentally shot in the heart with a nail gun while doing home repair, undergone open-heart surgery and suffered a massive heart attack, when doctors told his parents he needed a heart transplant.
The doctors did offer an alternative: Bonnville could become the first human to receive experimental stem-cell therapy to revive his damaged heart tissue. They went ahead with the procedure, the results of which could turn the stem-cell debate on its head.
(Excerpt) Read more at wired.com ...
But if we don't sacrifice human life on the altar of science, what's the point?
Research physicians are the ones who push for that, what doyou think their agenda is?
It shows every Fri and again throughout the week. Channel 261 on the Dish Satellite network. FYI EWTN streams live at www.EWTN.com, GO FATHER FRANK!!!
Is the reporter stupid, the editor, or do they just think we are?
Many scientists believe that embryonic stem cells -- usually taken from 4-day-old embryos that are often obtained from leftover stores at in-vitro fertilization clinics -- are the most powerful and flexible of all the cells. In the best chosen layman's terms I can muster, allow me to explain that assertion because the controversy involves whether the embryo is a distinct individual human life yet.
When conception occurs, the first cell division (beginning of mitosis) of one unique individual conceived has within the two cells produced the most potential for form and function of the entire lifetime begun at conception; the genes within the cell have the most cell division potential for future replication.
With each successive cell replication, tiny telomeres at the end of the genes 'lop off', and the original string of telomeres is finite, only has so many links in the chain. Additionally, as each cell division occurs in the embryo, more differentiation happens, and with each differentiation the future form and function of the dividing cells becomes more directed to specific tissues and organs of the organism. So far, without technological intervention, the direction of differentiation only goes one way, not in reverse. The trick in using stem cells is to identify cells already well along a specific pathway for tissues the treatment targets and not so undifferentiated that 'other' tissue might develop ... like bone tissue growing in a brain or brain tissue growing in a liver. Just such a tragedy has occurred with use of stem cells not sufficiently differentiated such that stem cells placed in a Parkinsons patient's brain developed into tissue not supposed to be in the brain of the individual being treated. The experiment met with a tragic end.
There are a few 50 cent words that flow in a direction ... totipotent cells have the potential to turn naturally into all the tissues and organ systems of the older organism; pluripotent cells are a bit more differentiated, going to placenta, yolk sac, the individual body within the placenta body, but not all those directions; multipotent cells can turn into the different tissue and structures of a certain type of organ system but not all organ systems of the individual body. That is kind of how it works.
Totipotent, pluripotent, and multipotent are designations for classes of stem cells. The trick technology is seeking to master is directing these stem cells to develop specific tissues or organs desired to fulfill specific form and function, i.e., brain cells to produce dopamine (for instance, in treating Parkinsons), blood cells to produce gas exchanging cells, etc.
The controversy over embryonic stem cell exploitation (and, because of stem cell harvesting, implicated in therapeutic cloning) revolves around the reality of the embryo as a natural age in the lifetime begun at conception ... the embryo age is as much a specific age of the individual begun at conception as puberty age or other 'from and function' defined age of the individual human life.
Controversy is still associated with exploiting individual human lives because to kill an embryo for its body parts, its stem cells, is as much an act of cannibalism as eating the embryo for treatment or eating the body parts of the individual at any later stage in its lifetime begun at conception.
Below is what I believe to be a part of the un-edited version. It was an excerpt that had the link I used. It was one of many stories from a regular email from "California ProLife Council" info@californiaprolife.org
I just realized the second para below is different than what I copied and posted. Hmmmm
A sixteen-year-old boy benefits from his own blood stream stem cells to repair his heart. "Sixteen-year-old Dimitri Bonnville had already been accidentally shot in the heart with a nail gun while doing home repair, undergone open-heart surgery and suffered a massive heart attack, when doctors told his parents he needed a heart transplant.
The doctors did offer an alternative: Bonnville could become the first human to receive experimental stem-cell therapy to revive his damaged heart tissue." Eliminating the need for creating and destroying cloned human embryos, or cannibalizing embryos from in vitro fertilization facilities, doctors at a Royal Oak Michigan hospital harvested Dimitri's own stem cells from his blood stream. After insertion into the damaged area of his heart, formerly dead tissue is apparently repairing nicely.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke 1770
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