Aces Full of Links

A Blow to Cure Discovery

Yesterday, the president vetoed a bill to fund research into cure discovery, opposing a solid majority of Americans who want medical science to plumb the promising field of embryonic stem cell usage.

In the process, his supporters muddy the waters by claiming that “recent studies” show researchers “have far more promise from adult stem cells than from embryonic stem cells.” (Karl Rove) when the exact opposite is true. Scientists have been very clear that:

Current evidence suggests that adult stem cells have markedly restricted differentiation potential. Therefore, for disorders that prove not to be treatable with adult stem cells, impeding human pluripotent stem cell research risks unnecessary delay for millions of patients who may die or endure needless suffering while the effectiveness of adult stem cells is evaluated. - ACE, AAU, NASULGC Letter to HHS Secretary, with Transmittal Letters to the President and Congress, on NIH Guidelines for Embryonic Stem Cell Research

[Note: in the intervening years, there has been more research into adult stem cells, but it hasn’t changed the consensus the consensus that pluripotent stem cells have more potential than multipotent adult stem cells.]

He muddies the water by parading children in front of the nation. These are (luckily, healthy) children who were cultivated as embryos, failing to mention that embryos used in research were never on their way to becoming children and are destroyed if not used for research.

“How can you argue in the face of these children who were once embryos?”

And how about the baby born with diabetes? How do you tell her that she’s stuck with it? “Sorry, we might have found a cure, but the president chose to delay cure discovery. Even though a majority of Americans would have liked to have cured your disease, the president and his supporters have some extreme views, and he promised to promote those extreme views. Live with your diabetes, and all the consequences.”

How about her father, the Parkinson’s disease sufferer? “Sorry, you likely won’t see your daughter grow up. But maybe by then we’ll have found a cure by some other means — you never know! Too late for you, though.”

How about the person suffering from a spinal cord injury? Maybe even as a result of his service in the war. Sorry, live with it.

Don’t hand me the bullshit line of “How can you face the children who were once embryos and argue for stem cell research?” They were embryos once, we were all embryos once. Heck, you can trace us all back to a single sperm or egg, but we have not yet outlawed activities that shed sperm or shed eggs that never become little children.

In fact, if Bush or his supporters actually cared about these embryos, wouldn’t he oppose the activities that produce excess embryos that end up getting destroyed? Shouldn’t fertility treatments be banned for the same exact reason? Yes. If the answer is “yes” to one, it ought to be “yes” to both.

But I say, no. These activities should not be banned. People seeking to have children should not be punished because of some extreme view. And neither should people suffering from potentially curable diseases be punished just to assuage a minority of Americans so that they can feel good about themselves while doing nothing about the process that creates the hundreds of thousands of surplus embryos in the first place.

The president has dashed the hopes of people everywhere relying on cure discovery, while doing nothing to stop the creation of embryos that will eventually become nothing but medical waste.

Posted by James at July 20, 2006 11:12 AM
Social Bookmark del.icio.us Digg it reddit