Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., had a commentary in Tuesday’s USA Today pleading the case against the latest Senate effort to further fund embryonic stem cell research. “For the sake of the patients, we should fund adult stem cell research to the exclusion of unethical embryonic stem cell research,” he wrote. Rooted in his opposition to destroying embryos and his contention that “embryonic stem cell research has not yielded any treatments or applications to date,” Brownback’s call is unlikely to receive majority support in the Senate. But President Bush sides with Brownback and likely will veto this stem cell bill, as he did the last.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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Even this link, below, bemoans the fact that the government isnt spending money on emryonic stem cell research.However, the major story is that stem cells from the patients own blood can be used to cure diabetes!The story doesnt say that federal money or government money was used in this research.Bush and Brownback are not “outlawing” private research, and private investors are NOT funding emryonic stem cell research because it has, so far, but a huge flop!Anyway, this story is obviously written by someone who supports embryonic stem cell research, doesnt understand that all the breakthroughs seem to be comming with other types of stem cells, and doesnt understand that the other breakthroughs are happening, in large measure, without government funding:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article1637528.ece
Every time this subject is brought up and like today watching the Senate debate. Several times I heard “ Saving a life by taking a life” and how they were not in favor of it! How it is a moral question and ethical question. How these embryos are human life and a real person. How using these embryos that are not being used to in pregnant the donor and thus allow to come to full term. Who fate is to be discarded into a insinuator and burnt till there is nothing left. But instead allowed to be used in research That may or may not find a cure, help the infirmed is ethical wrong and murder!
Fine self righteous asses my question is since it is murder, since it is a human life, since it is morally and ethically wrong to at least try to make the deaths of these unborn maybe mean something.
OH WHERE IS YOUR RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION OUT SIDE OF THE INSINUATOR? WHY ARE YOU NOT SCREAMING FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOPS ABOUT THESE LIFE WITHERING AWAY IN THE FLAME? WHO AMONG THE SELF RIGHTEOUS ASSES IS CALLING FOR A BAN ON THE DESTRUCTION OF THESE EMBRYOS?
OK I feel better now I got that out….Thank you.
The stem cell ethics issue has been beaten to death by the religious faith healers and Voodoo priests who don’t want the competition. We desperately need to start definitive research into ALL practical techniques and uses, and need to start now! This is way overdue; people are dying every day from illnesses that would likely respond to stem cell treatment, if only the research had been done sooner. Those people, and their suffering, not potentially unborn zygotes will be the legacy of the religious right, who seem to want to force pain on others to “purify” those who are already pure enough by any standard!
FYI: Recent ruling from the EU Court. Not much is relevant to the issue here, however it does involve frozen embryos, now scheduled for destruction on the paternal request.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6530295.stm
Ok, I’m going to show my true ignorance on this issue and ask a few questions: Where are the stem cells coming from? Am I correct in assuming embryos that would/could be implanted in a woman? If so, have the parents given permission or decided not to use these embryos to try and have more babies?
hen this issue first came out I was against it because I was told that this could lead to future cloning and I think that is just something that we shouldn’t be messing with but the more that I hear about it an learn about it, I’m starting to think that the good outweighs the potential bad. This is one of those issues that I keep meaning to do more research on but never have time for…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16513279/site/newsweek/
The left is playing up the embryonic cell issue for political purposes. Look at this article. Note the hope expressed here. In embryonic fluid we have an unlimited source of stem cells without the moral questions associated with those obtained from necessitating the destruction of embryos. Yet the constant drone is about lack of government funding for the so far fruitless embryonic stem cell research. So fruitless and unpromising that it apparently can’t get private funding.
Politics.
AFN the embryos are a cluster of cells that have been fertilized and are then froze. They are about the size of a pen head, they are used in artificial insinuation and can not grow into a fetus unless they are implanted in a womb. Yes at some point the family is asked if once a pregnancy has occurred if they wish to continue to have the cells kept. If so they will have to pay for the storage, if not then the embryos are then deposed of. Most of the time they are put in a incinerator and burnt as they are consider a bio hazard.
There is a movement called “snow flake babies” that if a parent should not want the remaining embryos but wished to donate them. They can be “adopted” and someone else pays for the storage. But as it stand most embryos are just destroyed.
Cloning and the research is two different things, oddly one of the Senators yesterday was talking about a unfertilized egg can be “cloned” with some of your DNA and used to produce stem cells. He was in favor of this but not using the decanted embryos in research?
This is really just one step beyond calling sperm by its self and a egg by its self a baby!As you may have guessed by my first post, those opposed to the use of these cells are being ridicules!They say that these are babies and living human beings, yet saying nothing about the practices of incinerating them. No call for the practice to be stopped, no laws to save them from being destroyed.
I hope this answered your questions.
Thanks, it certainly helps and I intend to do more research on these items, from what I’ve read so far I would have to agree with you and outlander. We need to continue with the stem cells but I have also heard of other research that may do just as well as the stem cells.
No one can say for sure that using the embryos is a “silver bullet”. But it should be at least explored.For those saying it is a moral or ethical issue, I would ask is it any more moral or ethical to simple throw them in a incinerator? If nothing would come of it then they are being destroyed anyway, if something does come from it. Then it could be taken as their deaths would have had more meaning then to be ash.To me that is far more moral and ethical then the future they have now!
My main concern is not what to do with these already cast away embryos, but the possibility of creating embryos just for harvesting. That makes me uncomfortable. However, embryonic stem cell research is not outlawed, and is in fact government funded, if done with the established stem cell lines. My question is, if it’s such a great and wonderful promising thing, why hasn’t private dollars jumped into the arena? My guess is they think it’s a losing enterprise. Why cannot those celebrities and others who support embryonic stem cell research fund it themselves? Answer, they could. Nothing keeps them from it except for the possiblity of pouring money down a hole. I don;t know if it holds the promise some claim. maybe so. Go for it with the means alrady available.
Not all states permit research on embryonic stem cells, whether privately or publicly funded. Apparently Kansas has no law about it at all. There’s a good chart at:http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/genetics/embfet.htm
Interesting table. So Kansas could be a hotbed of Embryonic research if the dollars were there. However, I still think this is best left to private resources. I don’t think tax dollars should be paying for it.
lj, I will posit that one reason for the lack of private money going to ESC research is due to governmental funding of at least some research in the area, which raises issues concerning patentability of future discoveries. Now that I’ve exhausted my knowledge of intellectual property law, I’ll get on to other things.
Littlejohn,
There was a bill in the Legislature this year that would have places major restrictions on stem cell research in Kansas. I don’t know the particulars, only that it didn’t pass. It wasn’t one of the bills I’ve been following this year.
Thanks to both VT and Tom for the information. Personally, i applaud both sides speaking out, if done so in rational speech. That is how we as a country decide things (at least in theory–doesn;t always work that way). only by public discourse of all sides of an issue can we come to an agreement. it may even take an election to get the candidate of our choice to support our issues, but that is how things are decided, I;m thinking
Thanks to both VT and Tom for the information. Personally, i applaud both sides speaking out, if done so in rational speech. That is how we as a country decide things (at least in theory–doesn;t always work that way). only by public discourse of all sides of an issue can we come to an agreement. it may even take an election to get the candidate of our choice to support our issues, but that is how things are decided, I;m thinking
Being a diabetic the newest stem cell research sounds promising. The fact that this study involves the use of the persons own stem cells extracted from their own blood doesn’t speak well for ESC. I think if the embryonic stem cells from existing cells have shown to be so lackluster that they haven’t attracted private money to expand the research then we should put our government dollars in the programs that do show promise.
Politicians have made this a much bigger issue that it is. Don’t be taken in by the arguments presented in today’s column. Do your own research and make an informed decision.
Being a diabetic the newest stem cell research sounds promising. The fact that this study involves the use of the persons own stem cells extracted from their own blood doesn’t speak well for ESC. I think if the embryonic stem cells from existing cells have shown to be so lackluster that they haven’t attracted private money to expand the research then we should put our government dollars in the programs that do show promise.
Politicians have made this a much bigger issue that it is. Don’t be taken in by the arguments presented in today’s column. Do your own research and make an informed decision.
Sorry for the double post. Having connection problems today.
During the U.S. Senate debate on a bill to force taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) LIED through his teeth, claiming that funding for ESCR is necessary because ethical adult stem cell research has not helped juvenile diabetes. In reality, the most promising new treatment for juvenile diabetes in recent years is the “Edmonton protocol,” using adult pancreatic islet cells from adult cadavers, which has freed 80% of those diabetics treated from insulin shots. While the supply of cadavers is limited, new research into the use of adult stem cells found in the pancreas, and also in the patient’s own blood, as published in JAMA, is promising. The new successful adult blood stem cell treatment for juvenile diabetes, autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, has also already shown benefits to individuals with a range of auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and lupus.Richard Burt, a co-author of the study from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, said the adult stem cell cure for juvenile diabetes should be widely availabe in 5 to 8 years.Meanwhile, embryonic stem cell research, as far as insulin production in mice, is a total failure, as embryonic stem cells still cause unstable tumors.Meanwhile, Attorney General Gonzales is subpoenaed, accused of LYING to Congress about scheduling the replacement of U.S. attorneys, which is his right and privilege in enforcing the President’s policies.It seems we need a subpoena for Senator Harkin, so that he can explain his LIES on the Senate floor. Are you game for calling Harkin to account, Senator Brownback, or will you go on just telling the truth while being drowned out by the lies like those of Senator Harkin expounded in the major media?
Senator John “Flip-Flop” Kerry also LIED to the U.S. Senate in Wednesday’s stem cell debate, citing research in Massachusetts which he claimed had used embryonic stem cells to “cure” a mouse suffering from immune deficiency disease — but the mouse wasn’t cured, failing to improve enough to show any real benefit, and the research he referred to fell far short of the scores of treatments already being carried out using ethical adult stem cells. Kerry and also RINO Senator Orrin Hatch tried to downplay adult stem cell research, which has been producing new cures and beneficial treatments every year, while ESCR produces nothing but deception, scandal, fraud, and embezzlement.
RINO Senator Arlen “Spooky” Specter also LIED to the U.S. Senate, claiming 400,000 leftover frozen human embryos could be used to save lives. There are in fact nowhere near that many available for donation to research, only 3% of them, and their killing would not save anyone from death or disease, nor would it satisfy the desires of clone-and-kill lab goons who want highly profitable patents on the manufacture of human life for destructive testing through cloning and human egg trafficking.
“It’s clear that the ultimate utility of the bill is to further erode respect and protections for human embryos and thus pave the way for creating embryos purely for experiments–including through sperm and egg donation and human cloning. Creating human embryos and harvesting their stem cells, ostensibly for disease treatments, is a highly speculative, impractical and unethical proposition. Human cloning would exploit poor and vulnerable women and subject them to harmful egg collection processes,”. . . Dr. David Stevens, the director of the Christian Medical Association, denouncing the U.S. Senate’s bill for funding useless, unethical ESCR
That is because Brownback- like all religious zealot neo cons- is an idiot. Only idiots think that a sperm and egg are a person. If anybody thinks they are a person, try having a conversation with one. In fact, if a 20 year and 3 month old shows up and you sell him a bottle of Jack Daniels, argue in court that he is really 21 and see where that goes.
I wonder why thousands of neo cons are not rushing to “adopt” all these embryos and give them good Christian homes.
I suppose the term “With Child” no longer has any meaning.
Brownback is looking out for Brownback. Where has dear old Greenback been for the last 6 years of stem-cell debate. Nowhere to be seen.Brownback has not a snowballs chance in hell in even putting a dent of competition for the Presidency. The religous right once again has run out of steam and will come to a grinding irrelevant standstill of support for thier candidate. Moral debate is becoming a tired old mantra.
“Only idiots think that a sperm and egg are a person. If anybody thinks they are a person, try having a conversation with one.”
Kev I have met lots of men who fit this description. They couldn’t carry on a conservation if they had to. You know the kind where uh is a two syllable word.
I guess we can just tie them up and strip off the stem cells. Sounds good to me.
Talking about embryos.
“If anybody thinks they are a person, try having a conversation with one. In fact, if a 20 year and 3 month old shows up and you sell him a bottle of Jack Daniels, argue in court that he is really 21 and see where that goes.” -Kev
Brilliant!
Well it is, in Kev’s world.
Chuckle…
“If anybody thinks they are a person, try having a conversation with one.”
kev– Who’s the idiot? That makes no sense. How ’bout a conversation with a 2 year old.You, sir, are the idiot.
Don’t know about the ovum, but every sperm is sacred! :)
Having raised three myself, I could make a fair argument that fetuses aren’t fully human until they leave home- sometimes not even then!