Hope is on the Way

I originally wanted to wait some period of time before posting this in respect to Mr. Christopher Reeves. However, after this messianic rant by John Edwards on 10-11-04 stating:
“We will stop diabetes, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other debilitating diseases…When John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to get up out of that wheelchair and walk again.”
I can wait no longer.

1) There are 2 types of stem cells, adult and embryonic.
2) Embryonic stem cells have yet to cure or even aid in the cure of any disease.
3) Many scientists feel clinical use of embryonic stem cell research is many years away from producing results.
4) Adult stem cells from bone marrow and cord blood are already being used successfully.
5) Adult stem cells have been used in treatments for cancer, arthritis, lupus, and in making new corneas.
6) Adult stem cells have been shown to repair neurons on the brains of mice and repair heart tissue in both mice and pigs.
7) Stem cells taken from liposuction patients have been transformed into bone, muscle, cartilage, and mature fat cells.
8) The National Institutes of Health states:
“Published scientific papers indicated that adult stem cells have been identified in brain, bone marrow, peripheral blood, blood vessels, skeletal muscle, epithelia of the skin and digestive system, cornea, dental pulp of the tooth, retina, liver, and pancreas." Basically anywhere scientists have looked.
9) Adult stem cells taken from the same patient have no chance of transplant rejection.
10) Embryonic stem cells would require life long use of drugs to prevent rejection…unless taken from a clone of the patient.
11) A viable embryo, or in the future a clone, must first be ‘manufactured’ in order to cultivate embryonic stem cells. An embryo is killed in this process.
12) The Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 12, that scientists have been frustrated by their inability to get stem cells to grow into endoderm (the cells that make up the liver, stomach and pancreas), whereas they can coax them to become heart and nerve tissue.
"Scientists speculate," the Journal explained, "that might be because the embryo early on needs blood and nerve tissue to grow, while endoderm-based organs aren't needed until later."
This would mean growing the ‘embryo’ until those types of cells were produced…how far are we willing to let the embryo develop? 1st trimester, 2nd, 3rd?
13) There is no ban on adult stem cell research. None.
14) There is no U.S. ban on embryonic stem cell research. Only on federal funding of such.
15) However, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Luxembourg and Austria ban it.

Come on, Mr. Edwards enough with the messiah complex…I thought that was for the far right zealots. You are either uninformed on the issue or you are a liar. And to the media, since it seems you are either too lazy or too biased to report the news, maybe you should start adding fine print to your news columns…I’m sure Mr. Edwards would be happy to help you with the wording. But for the rest of us…Hope is on the Way!!!