It makes no sense at all! I am completely stymied at the fervor to get taxpayers’ money for research on embryo stem cells. I am aghast at the reason people insist on embryonic stem cells at all! I had always thought that people we have elected to office had reasoning power. I was mistaken. I have written concerning this research before, yet all the studies of this research have eluded the media, and have been ignored by everyone, particularly those who should know better. Maybe they do, but don’t feel that to fight for the truth will get them reelected to office – political expediency. Scientists and other observers have pointed out over and over that the truly miraculous cures have come through adult and other types of cells that pose no ethical problems. Embryonic stem cells have cured no one; in fact, the one time these cells were used, they caused the death of the patient (in China). With these facts so prevalent, why is there so much fury concerning embryonic stem cells? It boggles the mind!
Let us examine the facts:
Phil Coelho, CEO and chairman of the Board of Thermogenesis Corporation, which provides cord blood stem cell processing and cryopreservation systems used by major cord blood stem cell banks, has stated that adult stem cells have been “used clinically about 30,000 times”. They can morph into several and perhaps all the different tissue types, they involve no donor risks; and they have the capacity for many cell divisions. They’re perfect for the job now credited to embryonic cells. Mr. Coelho added that, in 1988, the first patient that was treated with adult stem cells had Fanconi Anemia, which he had had since he was a child. He was cured and has shown no evidence of the disease since.
Furthermore, as of now, over 6,000 patients have been successfully treated by adult stem cells. Coelho says that the results from the stem cells from umbilical cord blood have been tremendous. He quoted a recent study that discovered a survival rate of about 70% among high-risk adults treated with cord blood, and show results of an 80% survival rate for children with immunodeficiency diseases. They’ve been proven! Yet we still clamor for (so far) unsuccessful embryos that have shown no success rate. How intelligent is that?
Florida Congressman Dave Weldon, an OBGYN states, ”Adult stem cells and cord blood stem cells are going to be the sources for the regenerative miraculous medicine in the future.”
I repeat: embryonic cell research has not cured a single patient. After twenty years of research on these cells, the only results are that they are unsafe. They have produced tumors, caused transplant rejection, and have formed the wrong kind of replacement cells (the last of which killed a patient in China). Why hasn’t this been more widely reported? What’s the real agenda of the “intellectuals” and the media?
William Haseltine, CEO of Human Genome Sciences, although an advocate of embryonic stem cell research, states that his company will not invest in embryonic cells, for they know that any success with them is 20-30 years in the future. It’s not worth it. People need them now.
Kelly Hollowell, PHD, a molecular and cellular pharmacologist and patent attorney, approaches the matter in another way: the harvesting of so many cells and the requirement of so many women’s eggs. In her words: “To treat . . . the 17 million diabetic patients in the U.S., from 850 million to 1.7 billion would be required. Collecting 10 eggs per donor would require from 85 million to 170 billion donors. Each patient would require from 50 to 100 eggs, and the total cost would be $100,000 to $200,000 per patient. Dr. Hollowell also said at a Heritage Foundation conference that the process would also put the donors at risk. The spectrum of problems includes “memory loss, seizure, stroke, infertility, cancer, and even death.” How’s that going to cure anyone?
Christopher Reeve gave many examples of stem cell successes when he spoke to the Congress. Ironically, every example was one in which adult stem cells were used. No human life was threatened.
In one case, a boy donated his own bone marrow to cure his own sight. Whether the cure is permanent will not be known for years, but we don’t have to wait to find out that embryos are not, and will not cure anyone for decades, if ever. I certainly would not want to chance death to find out, would you, especially with so many proven cells just waiting to cure? Placentas, which are thrown away, offer miraculous cures, and are plentiful. They are also for NOW, not decades hence.
I just listened to Governor Mitt Romney on television. He stated all the stem cells that can be used successfully to cure diseases. Why is it, then, that we still fight to use those that kill the most innocent of us all?
Oh, they’re not yet persons, you say? Consider this:
1. Everything that grows is alive; It’s not “potential” life, but living life.
2. Every life has chromosomes, which define what that life is.
3. Every life with human chromosomes is human.
4. Every human being is a person (definition).
5. Every person is complete, not from the point of viability, nor from the moment it transplants itself into the mother’s womb, nor from the moment of birth, but from the impact of the sperm and the egg at the moment of conception. This tiny bit of humanity needs nothing more to go on living than what it’s adult counterpart needs – oxygen, nutrition, and a whole lot of love.
That’s as scientific as anything can get!
