Once again the media is distorting the facts on a controversial issue: embryonic stem cell research. The claim is made incessantly that only embryonic stem cells provide hope for cures of Parkinson’s, spinal chord injuries, etc., etc. and that the President’s veto of the bill opening up federal funding to such research is casting us back into the dark ages. The actual facts are that much more progress has actually been made through research involving adult stem cells and blood from umbilical chords, neither of which involve the destruction of the human life contained in an embryo. This more humane type of research, which the President and most of us in the pro-life community support, has so far shown much more promise for actual results than the much more speculative “results” of embryonic cells. Once again the media is not so much reporting facts as it is advocating for the liberal social position on an issue. For further specific information, check out these articles:
Science’s Stem Cell Scam, and The Veto: Shall We Cross the Great Moral Divide?, and the most poignant Sliding Down the Slope.
More on stemcells
July 29, 2006 · Leave a Comment
The case for embryonic experimentation isn’t dubious just ethically but scientifically. To quote Robert P. George, a law professor at Princeton who served on the President’s Council on Bioethics: “Researchers know that stem cells derived from blastocyst-stage embryos are currently of no therapeutic value and may never actually be used in the treatment of diseases. . . . In fact, there is not a single embryonic stem cell therapy even in clinical trials. (By contrast, adult and umbilical cord stem cells are already being used in the treatment of 65 diseases.) All informed commentators know that embryonic stem cells cannot be used in therapies because of their tendency to generate dangerous tumors.”
Read the rest of this excellent (yet somewhat scary) article at
The Frankenstein Syndrome.
Categories: Social Commentary