The Hype Of Stem Cells
Jean Swenson writes:
Pretty sobering stuff, huh? I mean, here we have someone who is suppose to be a prime example of who stem cell research can cure and they're saying it's a "fictitious belief". Wait a sec... I was told people who think like this are Bible-thumping cavemen who seek a return to the flat-Earth and the theocracy of old. What gives? Well, science, that's what.
Now I know I've heard this somewhere else. Where was that?
Oh, yeah! That was me! Enough tooting my own horn:
Meanwhile:
The article goes on much further but I think this is enough for now. The bottom line is that embryonic stem cells do nothing and even if they were shown to do something it would be available to the public for a least a decade. Probably longer!
Hear that? 20 to 30 years before medicine derived from embryonic stem cells would find routine use. But that after those stem cells produced some kind of cure, which, after 20 years of work, they haven't. So, again, I petition, let's go with what we know works, adult and cord blood cells, and leave the social engineering out of the laboratory.
As a quadriplegic who could possibly benefit from stem cell research, I fear many of us are being sold an imaginary garment of hope—a fictitious belief that embryonic stem cells will cure us.
In reality, no such cures exist now or in the near future.
Pretty sobering stuff, huh? I mean, here we have someone who is suppose to be a prime example of who stem cell research can cure and they're saying it's a "fictitious belief". Wait a sec... I was told people who think like this are Bible-thumping cavemen who seek a return to the flat-Earth and the theocracy of old. What gives? Well, science, that's what.
For over twenty years scientists, using animal ES cells, have failed to solve the same roadblocks faced by researchers working on human ES cells. Problems such as tumor formation, tissue rejection, and genetic instability are enormously complex and must be overcome before ES cells can have medical applications.
Now I know I've heard this somewhere else. Where was that?
And the fact that embryonic stem cell research has led to the cure of zero diseases in the 20 years we've been doing it, I think, speaks volumes of its real potential.
Oh, yeah! That was me! Enough tooting my own horn:
The Lancet, a British medical journal that favors ES cell research, calls cure headlines “sensationalist” and “hype.” In fact, this journal reports that “no safe and effective [embryonic] stem cell therapy will be widely available for at least a decade, and possibly longer.”
Meanwhile:
However, embryonic stem (ES) cells have serious problems that currently prevent human use. Adult and cord blood cells do not, and are already being used to treat nearly sixty conditions. (See www.stemcellresearch.org )
The article goes on much further but I think this is enough for now. The bottom line is that embryonic stem cells do nothing and even if they were shown to do something it would be available to the public for a least a decade. Probably longer!
William Haseltine, ES cell research advocate and CEO of Human Genome Sciences said, “The routine utilization of human embryonic stem cells for medicine is 20 to 30 years hence...
Hear that? 20 to 30 years before medicine derived from embryonic stem cells would find routine use. But that after those stem cells produced some kind of cure, which, after 20 years of work, they haven't. So, again, I petition, let's go with what we know works, adult and cord blood cells, and leave the social engineering out of the laboratory.
