Stem cells......

[belladonic-haze]

President Bush’s Veto Of Stem Cell Bill Dashes Hope For 100 Million Americans [7/20/2006]

Adapted from the following source: Sean Tipton, President of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR)

“President Bush single-handedly dashed the hopes and prayers of the American people today while severely compromising America’s leadership position in the fields of science and medicine. By issuing the first veto ever during his Presidency to shoot down the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, President Bush once again ignored the will of the people and the best scientific expertise and advice in favor of the wishful thinking of his political advisors.

“Nearly three-quarters of Americans and the majority of both the Republican-led House and Senate support federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. For the President to give in to an extremist, single-issue minority on this issue is a travesty.

“More than 100 million Americans suffer from cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, spinal cord injuries and other debilitating diseases and disorders for which embryonic stem cell research holds great promise in finding new and better treatments and cures. Those individuals, along with their families, friends, and caregivers, will remember this day as the day their President signed away their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

“It’s a sad day in America when a President thinks it is okay to say:

• To the toddler with diabetes, we’re sorry that you’ll have to endure 3,000 finger sticks and 1,000 insulin shots every year for the rest of your life.
• To the father suffering from Parkinson’s, we’re sorry that you may not get to see your daughter walk down the aisle at her wedding.
• To the college student with a spinal cord injury, we’re sorry that you may never have the chance to leave your wheelchair behind and walk again.

“Despite our outrage and anger at this veto, we will continue to do whatever we can to advance embryonic stem cell research in America. We will always be grateful for the strong, bipartisan support on this issue in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and among the American people.”

(from the site: http://www.scrfinfo.org/NewsUpdates/SCRF/SCRF_NewsUpdateSearch.asp#Latest )

So, what are you thinking about this?

 

[selfinflikted]

So, what are you thinking about this?

I'm thinking, that Bush's presidency won't last forever, and when it is over he will never be back. I'm thinking that almost my entire 20's were spent with him in office, and that I will never get that time back.

 

[DieHappy]

Yep, and if Kerry were elected Christopher Reeve would have gotten up out of his chair and walked! Edwards said so.

Stop believing the hype.

 

[Robinsegg]

I'm thinking that if these scientists would use what's available (both adult & umbilical cord blood stem cells), things would go faster than if they just keep whining because there are no new embryonic lines funded by the people's taxes. Remember, there's no law saying companies can't research new embryonic stem cell lines, just that the government won't fund it.

So, either use what's available through the government or find a company/group that wants to do it and find private funding.

Rachel

 

[KarateCowboy]

*ahem*

Stem cell work could heal ethical rift

Let's think win-win here, people.

 

[JustOneWay]

So, what are you thinking about this?

Time, and time again Bush demonstrates that his personal beliefs are more important than American citizens.

 

[Yusuf Evans]

Is there any evidence that embryonic stem cell research actually works? I know it's done by private industries. Using adult stem cells along with umbillical cord stem cells have been proven to work, but I've never heard about embryonic stem cells working.

With that in mind, I don't want my tax dollars paying for something that has not been proven to work.

 

[Kroger99]

Is there any evidence that embryonic stem cell research actually works? I know it's done by private industries. Using adult stem cells along with umbillical cord stem cells have been proven to work, but I've never heard about embryonic stem cells working.

With that in mind, I don't want my tax dollars paying for something that has not been proven to work.

Well said

 

[shadowmage36]

Is there any evidence that embryonic stem cell research actually works? I know it's done by private industries. Using adult stem cells along with umbillical cord stem cells have been proven to work, but I've never heard about embryonic stem cells working.

With that in mind, I don't want my tax dollars paying for something that has not been proven to work.

Just because something hasn't been proven to work yet is no reason not to fund it.

There's this neat little thing called basic research. It comes before the applied research. Basic research quite often takes a lot more time and money than applied research.

</scientist's interjection>

 

[Yusuf Evans]

Just because something hasn't been proven to work yet is no reason not to fund it.

There's this neat little thing called basic research. It comes before the applied research. Basic research quite often takes a lot more time and money than applied research.

</scientist's interjection>

Wow, did you have to research all that information yourself? Do you want a cookie for being so smug?

 

[shadowmage36]

Forgive me for neglecting the second tag. This should have followed that post in addition to the </scientist's interjection> tag:

</snark>

And now, for real:

</snark>

 

[JedPerkins]

Is there any evidence that embryonic stem cell research actually works? I know it's done by private industries. Using adult stem cells along with umbillical cord stem cells have been proven to work, but I've never heard about embryonic stem cells working.

With that in mind, I don't want my tax dollars paying for something that has not been proven to work.

It "works" as least as well as umbilical cord stem cells, since they are just a specialized version from embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cell research has the advantage of the cells being more versatile (they haven't specialized yet).

As for you not wanting your tax dollars paying for something that hasn't been proven to work... they already are: they pay for all sorts of preliminary research to find out if further research is worth persuing. Oh, and it is a small portion of your tax dollars that goes towards this.

 

[belladonic-haze]

Sorry for my late reaction to all your posts.

First of all: I believe that President Bush is a jerk (and I wonder if it will say ****).

Secondly: He thinks he is send by God or something like that and believes that you cannot kill. So, instead of helping the scientists to help those who truly could benefit from stem cell research (imaging that the research works so well that they i.e. can make organs out of stemm cells and the list of people waiting for a new organ will be minimized because many people still refuse to be organ donors (and those often protest the hardest.....) or repair a damaged organ with stem cells , he starts wars all over the place and yells it is for the good of the freedom. And still he believes in "Thou shallt not murder (kill)". All your tax dollars go to war as well.

So, what do people want? War and death or research and saving lives?

I am glad that Bush will soon disappear from the political map.......It's about time!

 

[KarateCowboy]

Sorry for my late reaction to all your posts.

First of all: I believe that President Bush is a jerk (and I wonder if it will say ****).

Secondly: He thinks he is send by God or something like that and believes that you cannot kill. So, instead of helping the scientists to help those who truly could benefit from stem cell research (imaging that the research works so well that they i.e. can make organs out of stemm cells and the list of people waiting for a new organ will be minimized because many people still refuse to be organ donors (and those often protest the hardest.....) or repair a damaged organ with stem cells , he starts wars all over the place and yells it is for the good of the freedom. And still he believes in "Thou shallt not murder (kill)". All your tax dollars go to war as well.

So, what do people want? War and death or research and saving lives?

I am glad that Bush will soon disappear from the political map.......It's about time!

Given that I posted a link about breakthrough research that could solve this ethical dilemma, and it was completely ignored, I see now that this is the heart of the issue: Bush is President, Bush started a war, Bush is the cause of high gas prices, Bush killed my dog, Bush is why I just failed that aljebra test, blah blah blah . . . Never mind the fact that Clinton and Democratic Congressman were talking about the use of physical force years before Bush even took office in his first term --Bush is teh evul waRm0ng3r! Of course, none of the Democrats complained about how it wasn't our right to topple a sovereign government when Clinton decided we would attack Slobodan Milosevich in the Yugoslav region, even though *gasp* the war had nothing to do with us! Then it was A-O-K to go to war over a 'moral obligation'; but then, Billy Clinton was a good boy and had the Mother U.N.'s permission then, so it must have been ok. I'm not exactly happy with the situation in Iraq, but actions speak louder than words, and thus every time I hear an anti-war protester speaking, I think:

SAY NO TO WAR!!
(unless a Democrat is President, of course)

 

[KarateCowboy]

It "works" as least as well as umbilical cord stem cells, since they are just a specialized version from embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cell research has the advantage of the cells being more versatile (they haven't specialized yet).

As for you not wanting your tax dollars paying for something that hasn't been proven to work... they already are: they pay for all sorts of preliminary research to find out if further research is worth persuing. Oh, and it is a small portion of your tax dollars that goes towards this.

Ummmmmm, stem cells by nature aren't specialized. That's why they're called stem cells. And it's called 'differentiated', not specialized.

 

[JedPerkins]

Ummmmmm, stem cells by nature aren't specialized. That's why they're called stem cells. And it's called 'differentiated', not specialized.

http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/scireport/chapter5.asp
"Differentiation—The process whereby an unspecialized early embryonic cell acquires the features of a specialized cell such as a heart, liver, or muscle cell."

Bad choice of words on my part, what I meant was that adult stem cells have a more specified potency (they can't differentiate into as many cell types)...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_cell
"Embryonic stem cells are cultured cells obtained from the undifferentiated inner mass cells of an early stage human embryo (sometimes called a blastocyst, which is an embryo that is between 50 to 150 cells). Embryonic stem cell research is "thought to have much greater developmental potential than adult stem cells," according to the National Institutes of Health.[3] Research using embryonic stem cells remains at the zenith of stem cell science because, unlike somatic cells, embryonic stem cells are pluripotent. However, research using stem cells derived from the human embryo is still in the basic research phase, as these stem cells were first isolated in 1998 (at least for humans), whereas adult stem cells have been studied since the 1960s.[4] Research with embryonic stem cells derived from humans is controversial because, in order to start a stem cell 'line' or lineage, the destruction of a human embryo is usually required. In an attempt to overcome these moral, political and ethical hurdles, medical researchers have been experimenting with alternative techniques of obtaining embryonic stem cells by extraction, which does not involve the cloning or destruction of a human embryo."

"Pluripotent stem cells are the descendants of totipotent cells and can differentiate into cells derived from the three germ layers."

(hematopoietic stem cells are not pluripotent)

 

[KarateCowboy]

http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/scireport/chapter5.asp
"Differentiation&#8212;The process whereby an unspecialized early embryonic cell acquires the features of a specialized cell such as a heart, liver, or muscle cell."

Bad choice of words on my part, what I meant was that adult stem cells have a more specified potency (they can't differentiate into as many cell types)...

Well, that and I was splitting hairs and being a smart-aleck.

I do believe the issue may be solved soon, thanks to the Japanese

 

[Archivist]

Is there any evidence that embryonic stem cell research actually works? I know it's done by private industries. Using adult stem cells along with umbillical cord stem cells have been proven to work, but I've never heard about embryonic stem cells working.

With that in mind, I don't want my tax dollars paying for something that has not been proven to work.

So we shouldn't have built the atomic bomb or the B-29 bomber? Neither of these were "proven to work" before the government poured huge amounts of money into them.

 

[shadowmage36]

Ah, war. The greatest catalyst of human achievement.

"Governments spend billions developing machines of war, when they will not spend a penny for medical research in times of peace." -Academician Prokhor Zakharov

 

[Vylo]

What Bush did was a crime against humanity. I can never forgive him for that veto. Perhaps if he had to live with a grandmother who was paralyzed from the waist down, or watch a great-grandmother have her mind slowly fade from Alzheimer's he would begin to understand what he is doing when he takes funding from such research.