The Neolib Attack on Adult Stem Cells [Michael Fumento]

Michael Fumento ^ | 11.11.04 | Michael Fumento

[pharmamom]

Enjoyed and learned. Thanks for the post!

[jwalsh07]

ESCR has nothing to do with efficacy, its all about the divine right of scientists to do it because they can, life be damned.

[Coleus]

Adult stem cells work there is NO need to harvest babies for their body parts.

[transhumanist]

Nonsense. Embryonic stem cell research has suffered not from a lack of Federal funding, but from the puritanical mindset of people who believe that a non-viable group of sixteen or thirty-two cells is somehow a "person", and thus an entire line of potentially fruitful research is held back.

Vitalism as a theory to explain human consciousness has been discredited. It's simple superstition, and we cannot permit superstition to halt medical research.

You give embryonic stem cell research the same opportunities to be explored that adult stem cell research has had, and THEN make comparisons.

[TitansAFC]

Actually, it is only the Federal funding of Embryonic Stem Cell research in question. Private funding is and has been permitted and will still be even now.

Puritanical mindset or not, it is the entitlement mindset, that mindset which believes the taxpayer should pay for such research because said research is "entitled" to taxpayer money, that bothers me more.

Let them raise their own money, as several research entities already are. I don't support it, but at the very least I'm not paying for it....

[Wonder Warthog]

"Embryonic stem cell research has suffered not from a lack of Federal funding, but from the puritanical mindset of people who believe that a non-viable group of sixteen or thirty-two cells is somehow a "person", and thus an entire line of potentially fruitful research is held back."

Gee, if not impinged upon by outside force, that "non-viable group of sixteen or thirty-two cells" WILL become a person. THAT is a fact of chemistry. So, yes---human life begins at conception.

I'm sure you would be MUCH happier over at the Democratic Underground. They consider human life just like you do.

[Wonder Warthog]

"...its all about the divine right of scientists to do it because they can, life be damned."

Sorry, not true. As a percentage of the US population the scientist's who support embryonic stem cell research are a miniscule number. The REAL reason the liberals are so fond of ESCR is that it "might" some day provide a scientific justification for abortion.

[muawiyah]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041103230553.htm gives a little update on "sperm stem cells" and the uses to which they could be put ~ looks to be much more promising than the so-called "embryonic stem cell".

[TitansAFC]

[Clint N. Suhks]

there is NO need to harvest babies for their body parts.

Besides the obvious absolute moral and ethical concerns for creating human life to kill it so other human life may live longer and the intrinsic evil involved; this whole push from the neolibs reminds me of the “science fiction” movie Soylent Green. A creepy movie where government euthanasia centers exist to feed the masses who’ve lost their sense of humanity and reason.

[muawiyah]

If the problem of immunological rejection could be overcome for transplanted embryonic stem cells (or their "products") it's conceivable that the problem could be similarly overcome for transplanted stem cells from another adult.

There could be substantial advantages in "transplants" ~ for one, we'd already have an idea of how the stemcells so derived ought to perform.

Taking it a step further, we might find some people have superior stem cells. They could serve as a source for millions of others. In fact, some of them might have such superior stem cells that it could be argued that everyone should benefit from them now.

Only that same "puritanical mindset" will keep us from taking that adult with the good set and flensing, filtering and decanting his full content of stem cells into devices that can be used to pass them on to more deserving adults.

BTW, you undoubtedly have a superior set. Can we put you on the list for a contribution, should that time come?

Hmmmmm?

[muawiyah]

(Yes, I think I was among the first to argue that the interest in embryonic stem cells looks a lot like the laetrile issue of several decades back).

[Clint N. Suhks]

the puritanical mindset of people who believe that a non-viable group of sixteen or thirty-two cells

What makes them "non-vialble"? Are they not adoptable? Why is it "puritanical", is it not possible for non-Christians to believe your religion of moral relativism is objectively base and repugnant?

[muawiyah]

Hey, I've asked that guy if he wants to go on my "adult stem cell transplant donor" list, for future reference should the time come we can overcome tissue rejection problems.

Be nice to him; he may have a very good set of adult stem cells that the rest of us need more than him.

Besides, he's a "humanist" so he understands our needs and will go along with this.

[Clint N. Suhks]

ping

[flashbunny]

bump for later reading

[Clint N. Suhks]

BTW, you undoubtedly have a superior set.

Hehehe...

[DirtyHarryY2K]

Adult Stem Cells: It's Not Pie-in-the-Sky

This article is from last year, Focus on the family website. Dobson Argued this case on Meet the Press a few months ago. Problem is the MSM has Demonized Dobson as a Right wing "homophobic" religious zealot. He told them then that ESC research was unnecessary.