There are no human subjects yet, because embryonic stem-cells cause malignant carcinomas in 80% of the test animals. You come up with a product that causes cancer 80% of the time and the Tobacco Industry will thank you for taking the heat off of them.
HORSE FEATHERS!!
The Left makes it sound like ALL stem cell funding, from ANY source is at risk..
There is no ban, and no proposal from either major Party to ban, the use of **animal** stem cells in research.
However, what the nutballs want is to force human-only stem cells to be used so as to maximize the number of human embryos destroyed.
But that's not where medical research starts. You don't start on humans and then move to animals. You begin your testing on animals, in this case on animal embryos/stem-cells.
Show an embryonic stem-cell cure for animals and only **then** come talk about using humans for lab research.
Could you start with a story with pictures about someone who was helped with adult stem cells, or cord blood stem cells? Then talk about the scientific findings about the problems with embryonic stem cell treatment, and then returning to the theme of proper sources for stem cells - and ask the question, why, with the evidence that embryonic stem cell treatment is not only not effective but dangerous, the dems are so determined to destroy embryos?
Well, looks like this isn't going to get in front of many FReepers' eyeballs, where it's been put.
Guess they'll just go on reading news stories and writing to each other, as the liberals are active in campaigns, these last two weeks, and the conservatives cry out for activists. :-)
Stem Cell Research: Questions and Answers
http://www.mccl.org/pdf/StemCell63.pdf
Rush just played a commerical against Talent and is discussing it now.
Adult stem cells and to a lesser extent umbilical stem cells have been proven to have beenficial effects, yet the advocates of research on embryonic stem cells, whihc have no demonstrated beenficial effect on anything, insist on lumping all stem cells together. Why is preserving the useless research on embryonic stem cells, rather than the proven adult and embryonic stem cells, so critically important to them? What is that really about?
This one is more user friendly:
http://www.pathlights.com/abortion/Stem-cell.htm
Embryonic stem cells have not cured or successfully treated a single patient. Contrast that with the more than 70 conditions that are treatable using non-embryonic stem cell therapies.
Note: Conditions treatable using non-embryonic stem cells are listed in this article.
Adult Stem Cells: It's Not Pie-in-the-Sky
Though embryonic stem cell research advocates euphemistically refer to the current state of research as an early stage, the unfortunate reality is the goal of embryonic stem cell therapies is, at this point, more accurately described as a pipe dream. No researcher is anywhere close to significant progress in developing practical embryonic stem cell therapies.
The only thing certain is that the cost of that research will be high. If embryonic stem cell research had real and imminent possibilities, private investors would be pouring capital into research hoping for real and imminent profits. Instead, venture capital firms are contributing to political efforts to get taxpayers to fund research. What the venture capitalists seem to be hoping for is that taxpayer funding of stem cell research will increase the value of their stakes in biotech companies. The venture capitalists can then cash out at a hefty profit, leaving taxpayers holding the bag of fruitless research.
Ron Reagan Wrong on Stem Cells
"Using embryonic stem cells, researchers at Stanford University who are working on a cure for Type I diabetes are producing new pancreatic islet cells that could be used in human transplants and could herald a cure for this devastating illness."
Actually, the latest research findings regarding embryonic stem cells are that they do not actually produce insulin in response to glucose changes in their environment and are NOT the pancreatic beta cells needed to treat diabetes. When placed in animals, the cells did not reverse diabetes; instead, they formed tumors.
"A Korean research team recently made history by using human embryonic stem cells to cure Parkinson's disease in rats."
That is what they claim, but the research is a long way from producing a safe and effective treatment for humans. On the one known occasion when earlier-stage (before 6 weeks) fetal tissue was used to try to treat a human Parkinson's patient, the tissue killed the patient by forming clumps of bone, skin and hair in the middle of his brain.
Moreover, animal trials with embryonic stem cells repeatedly kill many of the animals because of formation of brain tumors.
Meanwhile, the first clinical trial using a patient's own adult brain stem cells to treat Parkinson's has produced a lasting 80% reversal of symptoms, and wider human trials are being planned.
You might check their website for other updates on this.
Sorry I'm in a rush, but some links for the grassroots group fighting
the pro-cloning amendment in Missouri are posted below.
Additionally, they've been handing out 1-page flyer titled something like
"10 Facts You Should Know About Stems Cells and Cloning".
I can't find a .pdf for it on their site.
If you can't find it either, and are really interested, you could drop
a dime and ask them about it at: 636-536-9877.
(there might be an e-mail contact on their site, but I'm just too rushed
to search)
Good luck!
http://www.nocloning.org/
(pdfs listed at this site)
http://www.nocloning.org/facts.html
(one of the more pertinent pdfs)
http://www.nocloning.org/Reasons_to_Vote_NO.pdf
This is an article by Dr. Robert J. Cihak titled "Stem Cell Bigots" it is worth the read. www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/9/26/91505.shtml