I think there is great benefit to stem cell research. If inside each of us is tissue that when properly presented can become identical to a different organism in our body, well thats divine genius. Tissue taken from my brain or my neck or somewhere else inside my body or from stored umbilical cord blood that can become a new liver or a new cartilage for my knee or repair a damaged spinal cord is a testament to applied science.
The ethical debate on whether this course of study should be applied to fertilized eggs from inside a woman has completely complicated this fascinating program. I am whatever you want to call me, anti-abortion as bitrh control mostly. Stem cell research to me is not so much about my thoughts on abortion as it is my thoughts on courses of actions and real movement in the area.
The pro-fertilized egg crowd has done absolutely nothing to progress real results in the stem cell scientific community. They end up being portrayed as feminists and activists wanting more rights over reproduction. If a woman wants to abstain from sex, go through the two month fertility treatments and painful shots to harvest and sell her dozen or two fertilized eggs for a couple grand, that will be nurtured until life in created in those eggs and then those eggs will be destroyed and dissected. That is a choice those people are willing to live with.
President George W. Bush's ability to withhold federal funding for scientific study in this specific stem cell foray has only whipped that rabid mob into a frenzy. But he said he used his religious beliefs and unquestioned legal authority to maintain his personal moral's and convictions while in office. Thats his right, much as a liberal president would want to increase my taxes.
People against him can call him hypocritical but the claims goes both ways. People in the middle get lost in the muck, is it an activist issue or religious conviction.
I heard all the plea's at the democrat presidential convention. I listened to Ron Reagan Jr. rally the crowd about how embryonic stem cell research could have saved his father the late President Ronald Reagan from Alzheimer's disease. I saw the commercials after Christopher "Superman" Reeves died from complication of being a quadriplegic saying his condition could have been treatable only if this research was allowed to continue. Michael J. Fox did PSA's on this as well for Parkinson's disease. These where pandering idealistic platitudes based on the near future models of the embryonic program.
Look at me. I have had several sever brain injury's; subdural hematomas, fractured skull, swelling of the brain, amnesia, about a dozen concussions with more than half of those involving unconsciousness. Its understood that one more knock to my head and I could be a vegetable. I am really interested in any science that can help me out just in case I could become a carrot.
The problem with all this debate is that its not open. Liberals demand they have higher ground in that embryonic stem cell research is the future of stem cell discovery but they refuse to acknowledge that its not one hill that this fight is fought on, its a ridge with multiple peaks and honestly what their refusing to admit is that their little hill is in the shadow of some much bigger and older mountains in this venue. What they refuse to listen to is that the most promising forms of stem cell research is from adult stem cells which have been funded continuously by the federal government for thirty years. Yet even now with all the things they have succeed in doing with it, they haven't come close to curing Parkinson's or Alzheimer's and it's questionable but optimistic about spinal injuries. The Bush position was not to make embroynic stem cell research illegal, in fact public donations care well excepted at major universities around the country. The state of California passed a $6 billion tax plan for this research.
The best way for an individual to protect themselves is for parents to store their child's umbilical cord which holds more viable stem cells than anything available currently and are a perfect match for DNA. But individual responsibility is not really a buzz word in liberal circles. Liberals and bleeding hearts would rather make you feel a certain way rather than have you see a certain way.
The liberal flagpole of irrefutable scientific research in egg cell research has been destroyed not by lack of federal funds but by sabotage by the very scientists leading the studies. The first case and the most important in the egg stem cell debate was by a South Korean, Hwang Woo Suk, who completely falsified his own results with doctored charts and photos. Now another significant study done at the University of Minnesota by Catherine Verfaillie has been completely misleading with photoshopped pictures and false claims of study.
But it seems that people who push the embryonic stem cell debate are so indoctrinated in their own cause that they can't seem to have an intellectual conversion when confronted with overwhelming contrary evidence to their theory or at least admit a divergent avenue of success is even more possible. Adult stem cells have the most research and the most promise for radical changes in patient treatment in the 21st century and beyond. While the debate on federally funding embryonic research is on hold at least until the next presidency in 2008, millions are spent federally on adult stem cell research and private money and state money can cover the gap. Lets not also forget that as other countries devote their resources in this research we can simply outbid those scientists salaries in other countries and bring them to America with citizenship in hand once another president decided a change in the Bush policy is needed.
The ethical debate on whether this course of study should be applied to fertilized eggs from inside a woman has completely complicated this fascinating program. I am whatever you want to call me, anti-abortion as bitrh control mostly. Stem cell research to me is not so much about my thoughts on abortion as it is my thoughts on courses of actions and real movement in the area.
The pro-fertilized egg crowd has done absolutely nothing to progress real results in the stem cell scientific community. They end up being portrayed as feminists and activists wanting more rights over reproduction. If a woman wants to abstain from sex, go through the two month fertility treatments and painful shots to harvest and sell her dozen or two fertilized eggs for a couple grand, that will be nurtured until life in created in those eggs and then those eggs will be destroyed and dissected. That is a choice those people are willing to live with.
President George W. Bush's ability to withhold federal funding for scientific study in this specific stem cell foray has only whipped that rabid mob into a frenzy. But he said he used his religious beliefs and unquestioned legal authority to maintain his personal moral's and convictions while in office. Thats his right, much as a liberal president would want to increase my taxes.
People against him can call him hypocritical but the claims goes both ways. People in the middle get lost in the muck, is it an activist issue or religious conviction.
I heard all the plea's at the democrat presidential convention. I listened to Ron Reagan Jr. rally the crowd about how embryonic stem cell research could have saved his father the late President Ronald Reagan from Alzheimer's disease. I saw the commercials after Christopher "Superman" Reeves died from complication of being a quadriplegic saying his condition could have been treatable only if this research was allowed to continue. Michael J. Fox did PSA's on this as well for Parkinson's disease. These where pandering idealistic platitudes based on the near future models of the embryonic program.
Look at me. I have had several sever brain injury's; subdural hematomas, fractured skull, swelling of the brain, amnesia, about a dozen concussions with more than half of those involving unconsciousness. Its understood that one more knock to my head and I could be a vegetable. I am really interested in any science that can help me out just in case I could become a carrot.
The problem with all this debate is that its not open. Liberals demand they have higher ground in that embryonic stem cell research is the future of stem cell discovery but they refuse to acknowledge that its not one hill that this fight is fought on, its a ridge with multiple peaks and honestly what their refusing to admit is that their little hill is in the shadow of some much bigger and older mountains in this venue. What they refuse to listen to is that the most promising forms of stem cell research is from adult stem cells which have been funded continuously by the federal government for thirty years. Yet even now with all the things they have succeed in doing with it, they haven't come close to curing Parkinson's or Alzheimer's and it's questionable but optimistic about spinal injuries. The Bush position was not to make embroynic stem cell research illegal, in fact public donations care well excepted at major universities around the country. The state of California passed a $6 billion tax plan for this research.
The best way for an individual to protect themselves is for parents to store their child's umbilical cord which holds more viable stem cells than anything available currently and are a perfect match for DNA. But individual responsibility is not really a buzz word in liberal circles. Liberals and bleeding hearts would rather make you feel a certain way rather than have you see a certain way.
The liberal flagpole of irrefutable scientific research in egg cell research has been destroyed not by lack of federal funds but by sabotage by the very scientists leading the studies. The first case and the most important in the egg stem cell debate was by a South Korean, Hwang Woo Suk, who completely falsified his own results with doctored charts and photos. Now another significant study done at the University of Minnesota by Catherine Verfaillie has been completely misleading with photoshopped pictures and false claims of study.
But it seems that people who push the embryonic stem cell debate are so indoctrinated in their own cause that they can't seem to have an intellectual conversion when confronted with overwhelming contrary evidence to their theory or at least admit a divergent avenue of success is even more possible. Adult stem cells have the most research and the most promise for radical changes in patient treatment in the 21st century and beyond. While the debate on federally funding embryonic research is on hold at least until the next presidency in 2008, millions are spent federally on adult stem cell research and private money and state money can cover the gap. Lets not also forget that as other countries devote their resources in this research we can simply outbid those scientists salaries in other countries and bring them to America with citizenship in hand once another president decided a change in the Bush policy is needed.
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