Posted on 07/02/2010 1:00:56 PM PDT by NYer
A treatment for Parkinson's disease that involves injecting patients' brains with cells from aborted foetuses could bring hope to thousands of sufferers.
It was first tested more than 20 years ago and hailed as a cure before being abandoned because of devastating side effects.
Many of the human guinea pigs lost control of their bodies and experienced writhing and jerking movements for the rest of their lives.
Now scientists say they have found a way to control these side effects, which will give hope to many sufferers - such as Hollywood star Michael J Fox and boxing legend Muhammad Ali.
But critics say the injection legitimises abortion, describing the use of foetuses in such treatment as a 'grisly trade in human life'.
The procedure involves drilling four holes into the patient's skull and injecting cells from aborted foetuses into their brains.
Around 300 sufferers had the injections in the late Eighties, mainly in Sweden and Mexico. But in 2001 fears were raised following a U.S. trial on 40 of those who had taken part, aged 34 to 75.
Although the condition of younger patients had improved, it had worsened for 15 per cent, with many experiencing uncontrollable and incurable head jerking, caused by their brains producing too much of the chemical dopamine.
Parkinson's sufferers have too little dopamine, which regulates the body's ability to move, and the injections were meant to increase the level.
The trials were halted and plans to carry out similar experiments in Britain were abandoned.
But British scientist Dr Marios Politis and his team from MRC Clinical Sciences Centre at Imperial College London now believe the jerking movements were caused by malfunctioning cells in the brains of foetuses being used.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Sick ... Ping!
I thought the foetus cells were unreliable compared to adult stem cells?
They are unreliable. This is a great way to go from parkinsons to a brain tumor.
Moloch must be fed.
Ok...nevermind. I skipped the part that talked about their first experiments. sigh....
Fetal stem cells (which is what this is about) have been proven to not be as beneficial a therapy as once believed. This "treatment" has been researched before and the results were less than disappointing but, for some reason, a segment of society (apparently, the most vocal segment) believes that fetal stem cells still hold the promise of cures that have not been confirmed by research.
Apparently, these are the same people who believe that humans are responsible for "global warming", and not the sun.
More's the pity.
“A treatment for Parkinson’s disease that involves injecting patients’ brains with cells from aborted foetuses could bring hope to thousands of sufferers.”
.
But it is far more likely to bring deadky, fast growing cancers, like all past uses of fetal cells have.
.
The Nazi’s lost, right? I’m sure they did. I saw it on HBO.
What kind of ghoul dreams up these experiments?
Josef Mengele MD, PhD
You are absolutley right to cite Moloch. I can’t even read this past th headline because it it so profoundly disgusting to me. THis is one of hte things that changed my opinion on abortion — the next step, which we’re arriving at, is the wholsesale commodification of foetuses, complet with concentration camps for breeding and “harvesting” them.
*such as Hollywood star Michael J Fox and boxing legend Muhammad Ali.*
That’s right folks, it doesn’t matter how many potential lives are thrown away, as long as a washed-up actor and a long-since retired boxer [who willingly had his brain smashed to pulp] might benefit.
Some side effect.
If you want "consistent" fetal stem cells, you will see scientists cloning (so that the baby is a known quality rather than taking whatever random DNA you wind up with, also they can patent a clone configuration).
We are told that the "experimental" cells comes from "ethical" sources but the elephant in the room they won't admit to seeing is that IF such treatments become industry standard, they will need to harvest fetuses (create life specifically to destroy it) to meet market demand.
The patient must be willing to confess,”Improving my condition requires the death of an infant every 15 years.”
The cure attaches a curse to the sufferer greater than the disease.
This horrible example is not unthinkable, rather, I have no doubt experiments like this are already going on with our taxes being used to finance. Disgustingly sick, perverse and sliding further down that slope every day.
My husband is suffering from Parkinson’s, and would never accept such barbaric treatment. Abortion is a sin, and he would have no part of it, even if ordered by the .gov!
What I've read/heard is that the foetus cells multiplied too rapidly and were unpredictable (i.e., tumors) and adult cells which had already gone through the multiplication phase rendered them as more stable... This would explain why children (whose growing process is ongoing) do better with the foetus cells...BUT my opinion (which doesn't count for much) is it seems if you inject cells from a donor who isn't the approximate age (or growth stage) of the recipient...you're going to have problems.
In the article it states they can attempt to take out the defective cells or control side effects with drugs. How is this any different than going back to square one? They're trying to justify a failed procedure...and abortion harvesting....
Adult stem cells are the way to go. They only have to match same as any transplant does. Age, gender, none of that matters. No ethics issues, either.
I’m a female in my late 20s and donated stem cells for a little boy born with no immune system. We’re both of reasonably similar overall German/Scots heritage if you look back a couple hundred years, but that’s the only thing that mattered...I matched for him.
What a wonderful thing...thanks! And it didn't have to involved anyone dying to make the process complete! :)
My comment on the age of donor/recipient was referring to the use of foetus cells... :)
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