Is the author right ?

[JHAQ]

This is not at all what I have understood yet it appears to be an authoritative source ----http://americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5977

[Bluenoise]

That is in no way an authoritative source!!! It's just political propaganda with an MD.

 

You should try reading articles on science based sites. Instead of pro-republican political sites, or for that matter pro-democrat sites either. There is no way you can trust any material posted on a site like that.

 

Try searching on Nature, Scientific american, New scientist, Science etc...

[ecoli]

...many Americans oppose for destroying a human life in the name of curing other people’s diseases

This statement at the beginning of the article is logically fallacious, I don't even know where to start.

 

Begging the question, factual error, appeal to emotion, Hasty Generalization I'm sure there are others

[lucaspa]

Yes and no. There are a lot of claims in the article. Some are correct, others are not.

 

It is true that many Americans oppose ES cell research because they have an ethical position that human life in the ethical, political sense begins at conception. However, we also have the ethical tradition that it is OK for one human to die so that many more can live. Our military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan are part of that ethical position. It is OK to send them to get killed (even if they

were drafted) in order to save people here in the US.

 

It is also true that adult stem cells have been used to regenerate some tissues in animals and there are clinical trials using them. However, altho "Adult stem cell therapies are already being advertised and promoted ", these have not passed clinical trials. Talk about flim-flam!!

 

Also, by far the most extensive source of biomedical research funds in the US is the federal government. What individual states can contribute is nothing in comparison to the budgets for NIH and NSF.

 

California and other states are just doing a stop-gap. If ES cell research is to go anywhere, it must have federal funds.

Both ES cells and adult stem cells have problems in being used in clinical trials. For instance, cord blood cells form bone marrow, but no other tissue reliably. The article didn't tell you that when it mentioned that those cells were being banked, did it? Many adult stem cells (there are several types) have been shown to have either limited ability to form tissues or limited ability to self-renew, or both.

 

So, while claiming that Fox was preying on the ignorance of the public, this article does the same thing. Dust mote and logs.

 

ES cells have unlimited ability to form tissues and unlimited ability to self-renew. But they come with their own problems. Adult stem cells tend to respond to signals in the local area and form the tissues of that area. ES cells form tissue without regard to where they are: they generate their own signals, apparently. Thus, much ES cell research is geared toward directing ES cells to form specific tissues.

 

When implanted in a mass, ES cells form tumors called teratomas. When injected in a suspension, they don't. Go figure.

 

IMO, ES cells are indispensable in understanding developmental problems such as spina bifida or Down's syndrome. Adult stem cells can't provide us with any of those answers because they are past that stage of development.

 

OTOH, adult stem cells probably are a safer and more reliable route to treatment of some diseases or trauma, such as bone defects, osteoarthritis, heart attacks, kidney disease, making new blood vessels, etc. Places where you need a mass of stem cells in a particular shape.

 

ES cells may be better for more diffuse diseases where individual cells need to be replaced. Parkinson's or muscular dystrophy would be two of those.

 

So Michael Fox was not wrong: ES cell research does hold the most promise for his disease. But the point is that we will never find out what the promise of ES cells are unless we do the research! Fox is protesting that a narrow ethical position is being forced on the majority of the population.