A few days ago I received the following E-note from the Republican National Coalition for Life. What encouraging news! Why, in the face of the clear success with non-embryonic stem cells and the failure of embryonic stem cells to show such success, do scientists continue to pursue it? Playing God perhaps? Is it "empowering" for the scientist who has severed his ties to the Almighty to dabble in life itself? Look at Josef Mengele and Jack Kevorkian. Pray for scientists ethically pursuing medical breakthroughs. They offer true hope!
Important Break-Through In Non-Embryonic Stem Cell Research
A huge breakthrough in stem cell research was announced last week as a new study revealed another technique to create stem cells without destroying human embryos.
Known as "induced pluripotent stem" (iPS) cells, these cells are functionally equivalent to stem cells derived from embryos, but iPS cells do not have the ethical concerns of creating or harming human embryos or of requiring the use of women's eggs. The new process also has the technical benefits of being a simple technique with a high success rate that can produce a large number of both patient-specific as well as disease-specific stem cell lines.
Many stem cell researchers are heralding the new technique and indicating that they will be concentrating in this area rather than embryonic stem cells in the future. This development underscores the need for any federal funding to be directed at this ethical, cutting edge area of scientific research rather than embryo-destructive research.
Prior to adjourning, the House passed by a voice vote the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act (S. 3751), a five-year reauthorization of the National Cord Blood Inventory Program which had previously passed the Senate. Umbilical cord blood is an ethical and effective way of procuring adult stem cells which are successfully treating over 70 diseases and does not involve destroying human embryos.
For more information on this exciting scientific breakthrough, you may be interested in these links to recent news articles on the subject: Associated Press, Bloomberg, Boston Globe, NPR, Reuters, TIME, Washington Post, and USA Today.
Meanwhile, federally funded embryonic stem cell research projects are continuing thanks to a recent federal circuit court ruling which reverses an August 23 preliminary injunction issued by federal Judge Royce Lamberth. Even though the Dickey-Wicker federal law bars federal taxpayer dollars from being spent for research using human embryonic stem cells, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has reversed the preliminary injunction, allowing federal funding of such embryo-destructive research to continue until the case is decided, ultimately at the U.S. Supreme Court.
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