Dear Colleague:
The lies long surrounding the stem cell debate may culminate in deceiving
pro-life Missouri voters into approving what they oppose.
Steven W. Mosher
President
PRI Weekly Briefing
27 October 2006
Vol. 8, No. 42
Stem Cell Dishonesty
By Joseph A. D'Agostino
As on so many issues, America's mainstream media and establishment
scientific organizations systematically lie about stem cells. Their
blatant dishonesty has dominated their discourse on the question for
years, and may soon lead to their greatest victory: The passage of a
deceitful voter initiative in conservative-leaning Missouri that would be
used as an example of a pro-life population granting approval to the
destruction of human embryos for experimentation. Killing the weak to
benefit the strong would be officially approved by the All-American people
of Missouri. But it wouldn't be true, on two counts: The state government
and media have deceived many Missourians about the effect of the voter
initiative, and embryonic stem cell research isn't likely to yield
effective therapies in any case-thus killing those it is supposed to help
by diverting funds from more promising therapies.
Here is the full text of the Missouri secretary of state's summary of
Amendment 2, the initiative that would support embryonic stem cell
research in Missouri. This is all voters will read, since hardly anyone
is going to wade through the legalese of the whole amendment:
"Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to allow and set limitations
on stem cell research, therapies, and cures which will:
· ensure Missouri patients have access to any therapies and cures, and
allow Missouri researchers to conduct any research, permitted under
federal law;
· ban human cloning or attempted cloning;
· require expert medical and public oversight and annual reports on the
nature and purpose of stem cell research;
· impose criminal and civil penalties for any violations; and
· prohibit state or local governments from preventing or discouraging
lawful stem cell research, therapies and cures?"
This technically true but highly deceitful summary is likely to confuse
enough pro-life voters into ticking "yes" on the ballot to pass the
initiative. No distinction is made between adult stem cell research,
which has yielded dozens of human medical therapies beginning in the
1970s, and embryonic stem cell research, which has never yielded any.
Citing "therapies" and "cures" imply that they already exist-true for
adult stem cells, false for embryonic stem cells. The references to
"permitted under federal law" and "lawful" imply that the amendment will
only facilitate that which is already lawful, good, and available to
residents of other states. The "ban human cloning" item will appeal to
pro-life voters, but the amendment actually allows embryo clones to be
created so long as they are killed.
Not only does Amendment 2 enjoy the support of most of Missouri's
establishment, but an enormous $29-million advocacy budget primarily from
Kansas City billionaire James Stowers, Jr., founder of American Century
Investments. Stowers is buying legal permission for human experimentation
at his Stowers Institute for Medical Research.
Embryonic stem cell research kills two ways: It kills the embryos used in
scientific experiments, and it kills those waiting for cures by suctioning
money away from lines of research that could actually yield fruit.
Embryonic stem cell research has long been an elite cause celebre,
attracting big money from the federal government on down (President Bush
only forbid research on new embryonic stem cell lines, not old ones). Yet
it has never cured or treated a single man, woman, or child, and probably
never can. What good might now be happening if those millions had flowed
in another direction?
So why can't embryonic stem cells cure anyone while adult stem cells have
treated many for decades? While visiting Australia, where Family Life
International and other groups are fighting an effort to legalize human
cloning, MIT Associate Professor of Biological Engineering James Sherley
recently explained why. Sherley is long-time researcher in the field of
adult stem cells. Embryonic stem cells' pluripotency, or ability to turn
into any other type of cell, means that they can easily turn into tumor
cells.
"When you put them in an environment where they can grow and develop, they
make lots of different kind of tissues," said Sherley. "This tumour
formation property is an inherent feature of the cells. And all you have
to do is simply inject them into an animal tissue--this happens at very
high efficiency. And although some might say we can solve the tumor
problem down the road, that's equivalent to saying we can solve the cancer
problem and we may, but that's a long time coming."
Sherley, one of the very few black scientists at MIT or any other top
university, has faced persecution and denial of tenure at his institute
despite the academic elites' oft-stated goal of achieving diversity.
Sherley has ascribed his problems to racism, but perhaps his heresy on the
question of embryonic stem cells is the real issue.
Actually, there may be one way of using embryonic stem cells for cures.
Researchers published in the July 7, 2004 issue of the Journal of the
American Medical Association (JAMA) have found that some women who have
had sons have male cells repairing their vital organs. They believe that
stem cells left by their unborn sons assisted these women in recovering
from disease. And nobody was killed to achieve this, but rather someone
was given life. Isn't that a beautiful thought?
Joseph A. D'Agostino is Vice President for Communications at the
Population Research Institute.
________
PRI
P.O. Box 1559
Front Royal, Va. 22630
USA
Phone: (540) 622-5240 Fax: (540) 622-2728
Email: jad@pop.org
Media Contact: Joseph A. D'Agostino
(540) 622-5240, ext. 204
Website: www.pop.org
_________
(c) 2006 Population Research Institute. Permission to reprint granted.
Redistribute widely. Credit required.
_________
If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to PRI, please go to
http://pop.org/donate.cfm. All donations
(of any size) are welcomed and
appreciated. _________
To subscribe to the Weekly Briefing, go to:
http://pop.org/subscribe-weekly.cfm or email us at
pri@pop.org and say
"Add me to your Weekly Briefing."
The pro-life Population Research Institute is dedicated to ending human
rights abuses committed in the name of "family planning," and to ending
counter-productive social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of
"overpopulation."