Rove: Bush to veto DeGette bill (stem cell)

Denver Post ^ | 10 july 2006 | John Farrell

[Notwithstanding]

President Bush will likely cast the first veto of his presidency if the Senate, as expected, passes legislation to expand federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research, White House aide Karl Rove said today.

"The president is emphatic about this," Rove said in a meeting with the editorial board of The Denver Post.

The U.S. House of Representatives has already passed the legislation, co-sponsored by Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, and Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del. If the Senate approves the bill this month it would go to the president's desk.

[jwalsh07]

Dublin, Ireland (LifeNews.com) -- A scientist in Ireland has made a major breakthrough in the field of adult stem cell research by producing insulin needed by diabetic patients from the stem cells from the umbilical cords of living babies. The result provides real hope for diabetics because the insulin from embryonic stem cells doesn't work as effectively and involves the destruction of human life.

Colin McGuckin, professor of regenerative medicine at the University of Newcastle, will soon present the findings to Catholic church leaders at a presentation at the Augustinian Institute in Rome.

“We have been able to produce insulin-secreting cells from cord blood, which is pretty much a first,” McGuckin told the London Times.

McGuckin said that insulin produced from adult stem cells will be more effective for those with diabetes.

“Although people have been able to do it from embryonic stem cells, they are not transplantable because they don't have a tissue match for the patient. Cord blood gives a big advantage,” he explained.

McGuckin also told the Times that the process is so effective that embryonic stem cells are not needed altogether.

“We are able to produce many different tissues from cord blood stem cells so we are really the first to rival embryonic stem cells,” he said.

While scientists must destroy human life to obtain embryonic stem cells, McGuckin says they're in ready supply from a newborn's umbilical cord and its blood and able to be find in specific matches for patients.

“Ultimately we will be able to achieve the same result from non-embryonic stem cells. Some 100 million children are born every year, that is an awful lot of stem cells if you want to find a tissue type that matches you," he said.

Meanwhile, embryonic stem cell transplants also have problems with cancers and tumors afterwards, but McGuckin said that's not the case with adult stem cells from the umbilical cord.

McGuckin also told the Times that a little bit of umbilical cord blood goes a long way. He indicated that storing the blood from just one baby born out of 5,000 would ensure enough adult stem cells for the entire population.

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I know, I know, it doesn't count because the utilitarians have not been sated.

[Southack]

"I looked at post #80, saw a different perspective, but my opinion remains unchanged. We are not talking about general therapies. We are talking about specific restorative treatments. Working on pigs is not going to get us any closer to a reversing cure for Alzheimer's."

Thanks for looking at the post. We disagree.

Surely some animal out there would help us with an Alzheimer's cure...use their stem cells...not humans.

...And if no such animal exists, then pursue the research along a different front (e.g. DNA codon by codon programming from scratch, or using stem cells from humans who have died naturally and recently).

Harvesting *human* embryos for research is as unacceptible as cloning humans in order to take their organs from them to give to their original.

Harvest animal embyros; fine. Clone animals; fine.

Program DNA from scratch; fine. Use stem cells from naturally deceased adult humans; fine.

But harvest human embryos for research?! Crops of humans?!

No way. You'd start a shooting war if you pushed that concept too far.

[mombonn]

I thank the Good Lord for our president. He is RIGHT to veto this matter if it arrives at his desk.

He may not be perfect, but he's WONDERFUL compared to the alternatives!

In fact, he's WONDERFUL, period; end of sentence.

[Lunatic Fringe]

ending life pointlessly at taxpayers' expense

Like the other pro-lifers, you are misrepresenting the issue. Nobody's life is ending at taxpayers' expense.

[Krodg]

Not strange if you truly know anything about the subject of stem cell research. From the vast majority of the posts in here, I see that most of us do not.

Would you care to show studies where adult stem research doesn't have better results than those by embryos?

[Republican Wildcat]

Correction: federal money to study the cells of ALREADY dead embryos.

They can't be dead, otherwise the cells would be dead, too. Funding is already taking place for the stem cell lines that had already obtained through the destruction of embryos. This bill is for funding to destroy more human embryos and create another profit-making enterprise for the abortion industry and its allies at taxpayer expense...and the only thing this option seems to be successful at is the creation of cancer tissue.

[Lunatic Fringe]

Yeah, emotions get in the way of facts.

[Republican Wildcat]

Sinkspur was talking about deliberately killing innocents. Comparing that to killing terrorists is ridiculous.

[jwalsh07]

Nobody's life is ending at taxpayers' expense.

The embryo's life is ending. A human embryo. Ergo, a human life has ended and the feds are paying for it. Otherwise the bill has no purpose.

[Sun]

Looks like Christopher Reeves took the wrong path. Too bad.

Here's why:

http://www.fremontneb.com/articles/2005/01/14/news/news5.txt

[1035rep]

bookmark

[jwalsh07]

Yeah, emotions get in the way of facts.

Yeah, your emotions. The facts are indispuatble, the purpose of the bill is to develop new ESC lines. You can't do that without killing more embryo's.

You can support that I suppose but pretending those that disagree with you do so based on emotions is delusional.

[Sun]

You have to register for my link in Post #130, so here's another link:

http://www.lifeissues.org/connector/05april.htm

[Republican Wildcat]

Your posts have been so over the top some of them have been removed. You are hardly in a position to lecture us on emotions.

In any event, the clear intent of the bill is to create new lines for this embryonic stem cell research. That is a fact, not an emotion. Your comment above saying the cells would be taken from "dead" embryos indicates you know nothing about this subject. You can't study dead cells for the purposes allegedly behind this bill.

[Dionysius]

My conscience would never brook the extension or improvement of my life through the extinguishment of another life. Whomsoever would desire such an outcome imperils his soul, if he ever had one.

[Suzy Quzy]

Not only that, but embryonic stem cells have caused GREAT damage.....to the DONOR of course, but also to the DONEE.

[Republican Wildcat]

I see you are well-trained... Save the hyperbole, nobody is killing children with taxpayer money. This is to fund research of embryonic stem cells that otherwise already exists. The money is not to create the stem cells, but to study them.

Wrong.

[Jorge]

Destroying lives to save lives is not ethical. Bush realizes that. You don't, apparently.

You don't get it. We can farm embryos to cultivate stem cells for our own purposes.

It's a brave new world.

[skr]

Wars kill some innocents. Embryonic stem cell harvesting kills all innocents. There are alternatives for harvesting embryonic stem cells from placenta and umbilical cords, not to mention using the far more successful adult stem cell research.

If you want to invest in embryonic stem cell research, you can do so through the private sector which can do all the research it wants if its willing to fund it. Taxpayers don't need to be doing what is private sector work.

[Puddleglum]

I hear the stem cells of senators hold the promise for theraputic breakthroughs (actually, no one would believe that).

I wonder where the hell the big money is coming from for the push for embryonic research? The senate wouldn't be giving it the time of day if some big $$$ lobbyists weren't pushing it.

I told a friend last year that "stem cell research" was going to be the next big investment bandwagon. Someone is trying to attract big bucks to this "industry," because banks and dim-witted legislators are always looking for something to invest in that promises to beat the average rate of return. In the 80's it was oil wells, in the 90's it was IPOs - in each case, it's something the money people have to trust "experts" about.