The AP is reporting that President Barack Obama plans to lift restrictions Monday on taxpayer-funded research using embryonic stem cells. You can read the incredibly biased report here.
And here’s another incredibly biased report, but one that also points out a lot of stuff the mainstream media in their glee isn’t telling you.
For example, from the LifeNews.com article: “Expecting the executive order, National Institutes of Health officials indicated last month that they had already started working on the paperwork necessary to begin funneling public funds to projects involving the use of embryonic stem cells.
Story Landis, who heads NIH’s stem cell task force, says the paperwork is almost ready to go once Obama signs the executive order.
He added that some of the $10 billion the NIH is getting from the economic stimulus bill could be used to fund embryonic stem cell research.”
$10,000,000,000? TEN BILLION?
In the meantime, if you’re pregnant and want to make a real difference in someone’s life, please consider donating your baby’s umbilical cord blood. FOR FREE. Visit here to find out how.
The whole premise of embryonic stem cell research is that it could one day provide better treatments, if not cures, for ailments randing from diabetes to paralysis. But adult stem cell research – which does not destroy human life through the harvesting and destruction of human embryos – can do the same thing and has already been proven to have better results.
But apparently there is less money to be made. It’s all about your money.
Let’s look at some of the pros and cons and the differences between Embryonic and Adult Stem Cell Research. According to Dr Alan Moy, CEO of Cellular Engineering Technologies (CET), and Director of the recently formed John Paul II Stem Cell Research Institute (JP2SRI), he pointed out the following facts in a 2007 interview with Mercatornet:
Adult stem cells offer these advantages:
- No ethical controversy
- No destruction of human life (or if you don’t believe embryos are life, then the potential for life)
- No to minimal risk of immune rejection
- Better stability than embryonic stem cells
- Reduced cost and time to harvest and grow up an initial stem cell line from adult tissue than from embryonic sources.
- Can be easily and plentifully obtained by umbilical cord blood donations.
Adult stem cells They have some potential disadvantages:
- Restricted ability to become more diverse tissue cells
- Restricted lifespan in culture.
Stem cells derived from human embryos offer these advantages:
- They can be maintained in culture for a long time
- They have wide diversity.
But, Embryonic Stem Cells have their problems:
- Genetic instability
- Rejection potential
- Ethical controversy (Millions of people believe this destroys life)
- Difficult to culture and expensive and laborious
- They form tumors.
For me, it all boils down to life. Why destroy something that has so much potential. Worse yet, why create life only to destroy it?
Expect an official announcement on Monday when I’ll most likely be ranting about it on the radio.
Greg,
Keep ranting; this message must get out. Thanks to you and Jennifer for being on the front line regarding this issue.
This is a sad time for our country economically as well as ethically. With Obama we are now in the baby farming business and that is absolutely reprehensible. Couldn’t we mandate harvesting of cord blood before this?? Please try to find ways of getting success stories with banked cord blood out to the ears of our nation…
I’m with Leisa — keep ranting! Loudly. Stomp your feet if you did need to and raise your fists (but don’t bang your desk, you might break something or at the very least make a lot of loud noise that may not help).
I am so saddened by all of this. I hate it. It’s pointless and horrible and just sad.
Adrianne
I agree with the comments already made. First – keep ranting and pushing the cause. I am a firm believer in the use of cord blood from newborn babies – not so much the banking for personal use, but the donating to a public pool for research and treatment.
Why do they need embryos when there are millions of umbilical cords thrown out each and everyday – in fact there are more umbilical cords discarded each day than embryos – it sounds like a waste of perfect resource to me.
Keep fighting the fight – I am.
Thank you both so much for your dedication to ensuring the news gets out there and not just the obvious slant the media wants to blanket everyone with. I posted the link on your face book page when I first saw the story, & I wanted to add another point, The reason they want the embryonic stem cells is because science belives they’re ‘easier’ to replicate and manipulate. In other words use of the adult stem cells offer more ‘challenge’. People say over and over that “well God gave us this knowledge” yep and he also gave us the ability to choose right from wrong. To set the upmost moral and ethical example. I have several people in my life who suffer from debilitating despises but I know not one of them would want to take a child’s life in the vain hope of changing their own. I’m at this point keeping my fingers crossed wondering when the next protection will be taken away. Thank you for keeping HOPE out there.
In reply to Rebecca:
People say over and over that “well God gave us this knowledge” yep and he also gave us the ability to choose right from wrong.
I am convinced that it was not God that gave us this knowledge but the Devil. Why would God show us how to kill babies? I think the Devil gave us the knowledge and whispered so sweetly that it’ll be good and some like to think it was God — perhaps it makes the killing easier.
Adrianne
The Devil is not what empowers us with the grace of knowledge. God being our creator blessed his children with the ability to reason imbued us with the ability to learn and grow beyond ourselves to use logic to understand the world around us. God also gave us the ability to make the choice of how to employ this knowledge. Free will is his greatest gift but our challange is to make the right choice.
What I dont understand is why it is so easy for people to follow the common law created by man for the protection of human life (i.e. dont run a stop light u might kill someone) and yet so hard to follow the laws God set?
It would simply make so much more sense to say ‘We as Americans know the world looks to us in setting the right example, we have the ability to use two options to do potentially life saving research and we chose to cherish all life and accept & overcome challanges because the purpose of our research is to better life so why start by destroying it?’
Thank you for covering this issue. So many have made the choice to ignore this issue. Once the pen hits the paper lives will be lost…. LET US PRAY !!!!!
This is a great example of how this administration will bow to those in the industry of death, regardless of the facts, because they helped get President Obama elected. Just think, we are only into this administration a couple of months.
I am emailing a copy of this article to every Pastoral Staff member of every parish in my metro area, even if takes all day. I am asking them make this information prominent in their Sunday bulletins. I encourage everyone to do the same.
This order gives us the opportunity to educate:
– Catholics do NOT oppose stem cell research; we oppose EMBRYONIC stem cell research
– the order removes funding from the established lines as well as new adult cells – but I can’t put my finger on that article
– millions died under Hitler’s researh of ‘science.’ It wasn’t acceptable for him to experiment on humans for the sake of injury or death, so why/how can this be acceptable??
townhall.com and nationalreview.com are wonderful sources for interpretation and analysis in our troubled times. I just call him the Obamanible Marxman!
There is a scientific ethical option that Catholics need to be aware of and promote. It’s called the John Paul II Stem Cell Research Institute, which will advance medical research and education in regenerative medicine using only adult stem cells. The Institute has already achieved scientific milestones, which includes the following: (1) help support development of the largest and most diverse commercial supply of adult stem cells and progenitor cells in the world; (2) develop state of the art bioengineering technologies to study adult stem cell behavior; (3) developed processes to create patient and disease-specific stem cells to help find treatments for orphan diseases. The Institute has initiated a capital campaign to build a research and clinical facility to further advance adult stem cell research. The Institute web site is:www.jp2sri.org. We greatly encourage support from pro-life individuals who value ethical biomedical research and those who are driven by searching for cures in the most expeditious manner.