Posted on 10/25/2006 7:05:56 AM PDT by veronica
The popular and appealing actor Michael J. Fox has taken to the airwaves in Senate battleground states Missouri, Maryland, and New Jersey with a highly misleading ad urging defeat of Republican Senatorial candidates opposing the use of taxpayer dollars to fund new embryonic stem cell line research. He states,
Stem cell research offers hope to millions of Americans with diseases like diabetes, Alzheimers and Parkinsons . But George Bush and Michael Steele would put limits on the most promising stem cell research.
Mr. Fox and his ads sponsors are guilty of conflating embryonic stem cell research, which the GOP candidates and many Americans oppose for destroying a human life in the name of curing other peoples diseases, with stem cell research in general, which includes adult stem cell research and umbilical cord blood stem cell research.
The only limits in question are on federal funding of new embryonic stem cell lines, requiring the sacrifice of new embryos. Private and state-funded research (California voters are spending six billion dollars borrowing money to fund this) is ongoing. The implicit claim that research based on new embryos is the most promising is absurd, completely unsupported by the scientific literature, and an insult to voters, based as it is on the assumption that they are incapable of understanding the issue. Too stupid to tell the difference, is the elitist assumption underlying this campaign.
Flim-flam is a charitable description. Why would federally-funded research be more promising than state- and privately-funded research? And on what possible basis can the claim be made that embryonic stem cell research is more promising than adult stem cell research?
The plain fact is that embryonic stem cell research is proving to be a bust. There are currently 72 therapies showing human benefits using adult stem cells and zero using embryonic stem cells. Scientifically-minded readers can review this medical journal article on the status of adult stem cell research. while no such treatments are even remotely in prospect for embryonic stem cell research.
The fact is that adult stem cells have already produced remarkable cures, whereas embryonic stem cells have failed. This should come as no great surprise to anyone with a background in high school biology. When an embryo is created by the union of the sperm and egg, the cells begin to divide, creating embryonic stem cells from which all future tissues and organs are derived. Within days, the embryonic cells differentiate into three cell layers ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm. Cells in these layers continue to differentiate into tissues and organs. As the embryo matures into a fetus, child, and adult, some undifferentiated cells of the three types remain in various tissues such as bone marrow, fat, skin and olfactory tissue.
These adult stem cells are multipotent: they have the ability to turn into a variety of types of tissues. Successful stem cell therapies cause the DNA in the adult stem cells to further differentiate into more specific types of cells. There is no point in getting the adult stem cell to turn into a less differentiated type of cell, or using the more primitive embryonic stem cells. This would be going backward, in the opposite direction of providing a clinically useful therapy. Difficulties abound with proposed embryonic stem cell therapies. The growth of the more primitive embryonic stem cells is more difficult to control and leads to tumor formation. Recent research suggests brain tumors may result. Additionally, the use of embryonic tissue foreign to the patient can potentially lead to problems with immune rejection of tissue, a problem not encountered in using a patients own adult stem cells.
America is the most formidable medical research center in the world, but it is far from alone in pursuing the potential of adult stem cells. The worldwide effort is impressive and growing. For non-adult stem cell research, a morally unquestionable alternative source exists: stem cells drawn from umbilical cord blood. Already a bank exists in Dubai collecting cord blood stem cells.
In short, the claims made in the Michael J. Fox political ads are false and reprehensible, an insult to the voters of Maryland, Missouri and New Jersey, and to all Americans.
Mary L. Davenport, MD is an obstetrician and gynecologist, and a Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
bump
"I wanna live dammit! I don't care how many babies you kill - just let me LIVE!!"
The ABC Morning program was one long hit piece on Republicans. ...not one negative about the Democrats.
Surprising? No. ...just the outrageous indifference to their open bias.
Dr. Davenport is right on the money with her comments.
I regret that Mr. Fox has Parkinson's. My aunt just died from it while fighting it for years. But to deliberately mislead people about a certain kind of stem cell research for political purposes is crueler than the disease.
Shame on Mr. Fox and on Benjamin Cardin.
It's sad that Michael J. Fox has this disease. It doesn't even bother me that he would use the disease to bring awareness to it.
However, using that disease to manipulate the public into destroying more lives, just to save him is pretty pathetic, if you ask me. The media attempts to make Rush Limbaugh the villian by pointing out Fox's false assertions, I honestly don't think will work this time. It is Fox who injected himself into this debate and is using his "star power" to manipulate the public to vote for candidates who will vote to destroy human lives just to save his.
Because he stepped into this arena, he deserves much of the criticism heaped upon him for his "factually challenged" statements.
Good article. Also, to those of you who are in Missouri, Amendment 2 specifically permits cloning. If you believe this is wrong, please vote NO on 2.
I can't believe we live in a world where we have to defend against using the miracle of life for scientific experiments. God, please help us.
DhimmicRAT pimp...
Yes they are .. but I have to say he also did us a favor by bringing attention to this Bogus Amendment in Missouri and the lies behind it
It's not a stem cell amendment .. it's about Cloning and sucking in endless amounts of taxpayer dollars
Questions You Should Ask, Answers You Should Know Regarding the Human Cloning Amendment
They and their ilk have no conscience and so are incapable of truly feeling shame.
It also seems to be backfiring on Dems:
Talent: 48% McCaskill: 45% (LA Times/Bloomberg NEW 10/25)
Poll was taken Oct. 20-23, so there is a window for the Fox ads to have been seen. Lets assume as I always do that Dems are oversampled. That means that even Dems may have not liked the ads. Time will tell.
Diane Sawyer was indignant to Sean Hannity. "You can't criticize Mike Fox! Rush was terrible to be critical of Mike! He has Parkinson's! He has a right to say what he wants! Doesn't he have a right to say what he wants, Sean!?!?!??"
UGH. A partisan and despicable scene on ABC this morning. Sean slapped her back really good!
Stem Cell research is rapidly becoming the 'Global Warming' issue of the new millenium. Supporters of embryonic stem cell research do not let the facts get in the way of their rhetoric. Just like educated skeptics of global warming are villified by the likes of 'experts' such as Al Gore, those who actually know what they are talking about, the author of this article for example, are shouted down by the likes of 'experts' such as Michael J Fox. Emotions trump reason in this debate, just as they do in the Global Warming iusse.
When they write the history books ("if there's anyone left who can read by that time," as Oliver North once said) about this period in U.S. history, one of the defining characteristics of our culture will be the manner in which we've deluded ourselves into thinking the Nazis lost World War II.
Yes! I was able to see this ad....great sorrow that he is looking worse, perhaps Mr. Fox should be treated with those very same stem cells he is advocating for the general public. The senator's would be proud of him.
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