New Cures, Fresh Hope
Most of my frustration with the stem-cell discussion in this country is the absolute apathy toward stem cell therapy that is already at work delivering cures today.That is right. I am not talking about research. I am talking about cures. From stem cells. Today. Already.
Why do we not hear about these cures?
Answer: human embryos were not destroyed to produce the cures. Adult stem cells were used. Inexplicably, this invalidates hope in the minds of some.
Instead, they would rather hurl invectives at Laura Bush and her husband for stealing their hope.
Take the puzzling case of Michael Kinsley, the editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times.
Wesley J. Smith writes:
Kinsley has Parkinson's. One would think he would be extremely interested in the successful experiment involving fellow Parkinson's patient Dennis Turner, who five years ago received an 83 percent reversal of his symptoms after a treatment using his own brain stem cells. Kinsley should also find great hope in the results of another human trial in which five Parkinson's patients, treated with a natural body chemical known as glial cell-line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), improved so significantly that three regained their senses of taste and smell.
But Kinsley is blind to this wonderful news. In a diatribe against Laura Bush and the president, Kinsley claimed that "stem cell research has been drastically slowed" by the president's stem-cell policy (again, apparently, the only real stem-cell research is embryonic-stem-cell research). Working himself into a blind rage, Kinsley accused President Bush of "ensuring there is no hope at all" for people like him who suffer from Parkinson's disease — a statement exhibiting sheer indifference to the very facts that hold out true hope for Kinsley's own health problems.
Here are the facts.
Private investors have poured money into adult stem cell research and shunned embryonic stem cell research. Why? Because embryonic stem cells have been shown to correlate with dangers such as tissue rejection and tumors. Adult stem cells, however, have shown much more success. If you are an investor, where are you going to put your money? Into research that produces tumors, or research that produces cures?
The federal government poured $200 million into adult stem-cell research and $25 million into embryonic stem cell research in 2003. The human-embryo-obsessed crowd would like to see these numbers reversed, and federal money poured into the research that has the least chance of success.
Go read the Smith article and help me get the word out. Perhaps bloggers can help correct the blindness of the print and news media to report the wonderful news today of new cures from adult stem cells.
