New Rules on Stem Cell Research Announced

Washington Post ^ | July 6, 2009 | Staff Writer

[Ben Mugged]

The Obama administration today announced far-reaching new guidelines on the use of stem cells in medical research, and promised federal funds to study many of the hundreds of stem cell lines whose use was prohibited by the Bush administration.

President Obama had promised during the presidential campaign to ease restrictions on the use of stem cells in research, and has cited the promise of stem cell research in finding cures for disorders that have so far proven intractable.

The new guidelines were announced today by officials at the National Institutes of Health. In an important shift from draft guidelines issued April 23, the NIH announced that stem lines developed before the guidelines go into effect tomorrow -- Tuesday, July 7 -- will not need to meet the letter of new ethics requirements.

This means that the conflict of interest policy articulated earlier -- embryos must have been leftover from clinically necessary in-vitro fertilization procedures and full informed consent be given for their use -- be a rule that is observed in principle. Programs that did not adhere to the standard on procedural grounds, but did adhere to the spirit of the standard, will now be deemed permissible, with an NIH committee making a case by case decision. Officials stressed that only ethically derived stem cell lines would be eligible for federally funded research.

[DustyMoment]

Numerous studies have previously concluded that embryonic stem cells DO NOT live up to the hype. Other stem cell research has proven much more valuable and that research was never affected by any of the Bush policies - ONLY embryonic stem cells.

However, Dems don’t care about life - especially the life of the unborn - so I’m not surprised that the president who believes that a woman “should not be punished with a baby for a maistake” would agree to any of this!

[DoughtyOne]

Few things would please me more than to see adult stem cells provide thousands of cures to all the supposed things fetal stems cells were the only hope and more, and fetal stem cell research to go nowhere.

[Sacajaweau]

Embryonic stem cells failures:

And God said: Why do you insist on trying to do it the hard way and setting aside your moral compass to justify it?

[Freee-dame]

The WaPo used the expression “stem cell” four times in the first two paragraphs, without the clarifying adjective “embryonic.” They continue with their dishonesty about the conservative position on stem cell research. They are disgusting. I will write a letter to the WaPo today.

[Houghton M.]

I urge everyone to go to the link and read the comments. Despite the fact that adult stem cells are the only ones that have been successful, those who support embryonic stem cell research without exception resort to hackneyed falsehoods, portraying opposition to embryonic stem cell research as unenlightened, unscientific, religious fanaticism while portraying their side as “purely scientific”—this indicates the depth of blind fanaticism on the part of advocates of the Culture of Death. They absolutely despise and hate those who disagree with them on abortion, embryonic stem cells etc.. They are incapable of listening to reasoned argument or facts.

Most of us knew this already. But it is sobering to read the comments and note the vitriol. This is the future we face. It helps to know what we are up against.

[MrB]

For a leftist to maintain sanity, embryos MUST be destroyed.

Otherwise, we’re giving them human value, and they don’t want to walk down that path,

because it leads to “that abortion I participated in killed a child”.

[Ben Mugged]

Embryonic stem cell proponents are divorced from reality and unresponsive to any facts that contradict them.

[muawiyah]

The whole trick with embryonic stem cells was that they could be turned into anything anybody wanted.

That, of course, has been proved to be quite impossible.

All that's going on here is a scam where superannuated biological researchers will get new offices and presumably lots of graduate students to work for them at very modest stipends.