George Bush's right-to-lifers are going nya, nya, nya we were right all along.
They're using a technique of using skin cells as a substitute for human-embryo cells for research as a boon for the their cause.
Boon to their cause it might be, but it's seven years too late for the sick who could have used any break-throughs in cures for catasprophic diseases, if there had been any.
It's not like researchers all over the world haven't been doing plenty of research on their own and/or with help from their own governments. But, if some of the might of the U.S. treasury had been thrown behind American researchers, we'd be seven years ahead of the game.
Thank you, George Bush on this day of Thanksgiving for your unChristian, wrong-headed, unconscionable, short-sighted, inhuman philosophies.
You haven't done one thing for the good of the average American people for whom you work. In this one specific case, refusing to allow government funding for embryonic stem cell research, you also haven't done anything to help the only people you care about...your very rich friends.
Sandy Sand began her writing career while raising three children and doing public relations work for Women's American ORT (Organization for Rehabilitation through Training). That led to a job as a reporter for the San Fernando Valley Chronicle, a weekly publication in Canoga Park, California. In conjunction with the Chronicle, she broadcast a tri-weekly, ten minuted newscast for KGOE AM. Following the closure of the Chronicle, Sand became the editor of the Tolucan Times and Canyon Crier newspapers in Burbank. She is currently a guest columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News and contributor to ronkayela.com
...have perished as a direct or indirect result of our "experiment" in democracizing Iraq, and if we can believe the reports on depleted uranium weapons, we've forever poisoned the region and condemned the Iraqi people to extraordinary rates of cancer and genetic birth defects.
All this the fruit of the same right-wing religious fruits who put Bush in office, got him re-elected, and supported him every step of the way, all the while railing against the immorality of stem cell research.
by
Robert Sargent (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 24 diaries, 290 comments)
on Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 11:58:18 PM
...have perished as a direct or indirect result of our "experiment" in democracizing Iraq, and if we can believe the reports on depleted uranium weapons, we've forever poisoned the region and condemned the Iraqi people to extraordinary rates of cancer and genetic birth defects.
All this the fruit of the same right-wing religious fruits who put Bush in office, got him re-elected, and supported him every step of the way, all the while railing against the immorality of stem cell research.
by
Robert Sargent (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 24 diaries, 290 comments)
on Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 11:58:49 PM
Stem cell research has produced dozens of cures. But every one has been produced through adult or cord blood cells. Embryonic stem cell research received much funding, but has failed utterly to produce any cures. Some systemic reasons for that have been found, showing inherent problems with using embryonic stem cells that no researcher has found a way to overcome.
The original theory behind using embryonic stem cells was that only these cells could be transformed into any kind of cell. The last few years of research has proven that false.
So with the theory behind embryonic stem cell research proven false and serious inherent problems with using embryonic stem cells having been discovered, why has the push for public funding of such research continued?
Simple capitalism. Lines of embryonic stem cells can be patented, meaning this kind of stem cell research has much larger potentials for profit should it ever succeed. And, typical of American capitalism, the companies involved have sought the usual source for their capital - the American taxpayer. And they have managed to succeed in this sale in numerous states, although they did lose a recent referendum in New Jersey.
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Bill Samuel (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 181 comments)
on Friday, November 23, 2007 at 5:22:52 PM
Stem cell research requires many new lines of stem cells. A limited number of lines of stem cells has been the problem. So all this time, fertility clinics have been destroying perfectly good embryos instead of supplying them for stem cell research. The research is promising. Only time will tell. But six years running interference with access to new stem cells is stupid. I consider it also to be immoral. Diabetes is rampant in my family. My late husband suffered terribly from Parkinson's. Our society should not be subject to the dictates of those who imagine that non-sentient embryos are babies.
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Pat Williams (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 81 comments)
on Saturday, November 24, 2007 at 12:07:04 AM
