Today, December 28, the Church remembers the “Holy Innocents” who lost their lives in Bethlehem. Then it was all boys age two and under who were put to death at the hands of King Herod and his soldiers because of Herod’s fear of the prophecy of the Messiah. Now over 4,000 innocent children lose their lives every day in this country because of abortion under the full protection of the law. As we remember the Holy innocents of the past, perhaps we should also request their intercession, and appeal to God’s mercy, on behalf of the millions of innocents being slaughtered today around the world.
The Year of the Stem Cell
Yes, this year will surely go down in history as probably the most significant year for stem cell research (so far) – and it had nothing to do with creating or destroying human embryos. From Discovery News:
Dec. 26, 2007 — It was the kind of breakthrough scientists had dreamed of for decades and its promise to help cure disease appears to be fast on the way to being realized.
Researchers in November announced they were able to turn the clock back on skin cells and transform them into stem cells, the mutable building blocks of organs and tissues.
Then just earlier this month a different team announced it had cured sickle cell anemia in mice using stem cells derived from adult mouse skin…
The new technique, while far from perfected, is so promising that the man who managed to clone the world’s first sheep, Dolly, is giving up his work cloning embryos to focus on studying stem cells derived from skin cells.
“The fact that (the) introduction of a small number of proteins into adult human cells could produce cells that are equivalent to embryo stem cells takes us into an entirely new era of stem cell biology,” said Ian Wilmut, the Scottish researcher who first created a viable clone by transferring a cell nucleus into a new embryo.
One of the greatest advantages of the new technique is its simplicity: it takes just four genes to turn the skin cell back into a stem cell.
This, unlike the complex and expensive process developed by Wilmut, can be done in a standard biological lab. And skin cells are much easier to harvest than embryos.
“It’s an explosion of resources,” said Konrad Hochedlinger, of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
This is not a perfect system, to be sure. More research is needed for this method to be available for patients, but there’s no doubt that this discovery will have a major impact on the future of stem cell research.
A Christmas Stem Cell Miracle!
Several months ago I mentioned six year old Rylea Bartlett, blind from birth, who was treated with umbilical cord stem cells in China and now has very limited vision. This year young Rylea had a Christmas like no other:
WEBB CITY, Mo. — Rylea Barlett has had Christmas trees in her home before. But this year is different.
Rylea, a totally blind child whose vision was restored by a stem-cell transplant, can do more than feel her tree now. She can see it.
“She never paid any attention to the trees we have had before,” said her mother, Dawn Barlett. “Now, when she comes home from school, she stands in front of the tree for a couple of hours every night.
“She touches the tree, and is fascinated by the lights and ornaments.”
Her tree has been rigged to turn slowly. Different ornaments and sparkling lights pass by her as the tree turns. She touches the ornaments and describes her favorites.
“This one is a ginger-bread man,” Rylea said last week as she stood close to the tree. “This one is a star. This is one with someone’s picture in it. I like this one of the baby in the moon.”
Find out more about this sweet little girl on her website, No More Darkness. Shamefully her story has progressed no further than the local media in Joplin MO.
Another Team Reverts Skin Cells!
According to Reuters, another team of researchers has successfully turned skin cells into embryonic like cells. This time it’s Dr. George Daley of Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston and his colleagues:
WASHINGTON, Dec 23 (Reuters) – A third team of researchers has found a way to convert an ordinary skin cell into valued embryonic-like stem cells, with the potential to grow batches of cells that can be directed to form any kind of tissue.
Their study, published on Sunday in the journal Nature, shows the approach is not a rare fluke but in fact something that might make its way into everyday use.
Scientists hope they are starting an age of regenerative medicine, in which people can get tailor-made treatments for injuries, diseases such as Parkinson’s and diabetes, and in which scientists can study disease far better than before.
Of course the story wouldn’t be complete without the researcher’s insistence that embryonic stem cell research must still go forward, but it’s good news, nonetheless.
The Hits Just Keep on Comin
Skin Cell-to-Stem Cell Pioneer Driven by Ethical Concerns
Christian Remember Your Dignity
The Christmas season has officially begun! Merry Christmas everyone. I have taken quite some time off blogging lately. Hopefully I will get back on track this week.
From Pope St. Leo the Great:
“Dearly beloved, today our Savior is born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness.
No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no man free from sin, came to free us all. Let the saint rejoice as he sees the palm of victory at hand. Let the sinner be glad as he receives the offer of forgiveness. Let the pagan take courage as he is summoned to life…
Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom.
Through the sacrament of baptism you have become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not drive away so great a guest by evil conduct and become again a slave to the devil, for your liberty was bought by the blood of Christ.”
Giuliani Who?
Hello there! You have probably noticed that I’ve taken a mini blogging break. I’m in Florida visiting relatives for an early Christmas and will return home tomorrow. But I did have something I wanted to comment on recently.
Mayor Giuliani seems to have been out of the media spotlight lately in the wake of all the “Huckabuzz.” I’m telling you, I can’t turn on my computer without a seeing how great he is or how terribly bad he is. The MSM and the bloggers are all over him. But this little story caught my eye after the final debate from Julie Rovner at the NPR news blog – a reminder that Rudy Giuliani is still in the race and still dancing around his abortion position:
During Wednesday’s final debate in Des Moines before the Iowa caucuses, Giuliani was asked about abortion — never an easy question for a pro-choice candidate in a largely pro-life party. He’s mostly managed to finesse the issue until now; professing his belief on the one hand, as he said at the debate, “that ultimately the government should leave that decision to a woman and her conscience,” but on the other hand promising to appoint “strict constructionist” judges that would, presumably, overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that guarantees that decision is left to said woman and her conscience.
This time, however, Giuliani went off in a different direction after professing his core pro-choice view, saying: “I would like to see limitations on abortion. I brought those about in New York City. We reduced abortions.”
In her post she quotes Kelli Conlin, President of NARAL Pro-Choice of New York for the last 15 years who served on Giuliani’s transition team and many of his high-level councils while he was mayor. Conlin doesn’t recall this latest claim of America’s mayor and in fact says that “[o]nly the state has the power to limit abortions.” Actually what he did was sign a bill that
“clamped down on those who would blockade clinics…he was a real booster and champion for reproductive choice and health in New York when he was here.”
Needless to say, no, I still do not trust Rudy’s promise to support abortion restrictions or his position on judges, for that matter. I question the constitutional judgment of a man who finds a “constitutional right” to abortion and his ability to pick judges who would interpret the document correctly as well
Regarding Huckabee: I am no supporter of his really. I understand that there is a considerable amount of disdain for the man among many conservatives, however I do agree with a fellow blogger who has said: I will take solace in one fact should Huckabee emerge as the nominee. We did not lose the soul of the party (as would have happen if Rudy were the nominee), only its brain.
Merry “Choice”mas?
Here’s another video from American Life League, your Planned Parenthood watchdog:
I find it sadly ironic that the word PP chose (no pun intended) to replace with the word “Choice” is “Peace” since that is exactly what is destroyed by the choice of abortion which they promote and carry out.
“The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion” ~Mother Teresa
Adult Stem Cells Treating Patients…Again
See my latest post on Adult Stem Cell Awareness…
9-11 Police Officer “Rescued” from Leukemia
Two years after saving victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks, NY City police officer Detective John Walcott needed his own life saved. From the NY Post (HT Vital Signs):
Walcott, 43, who was stricken with leukemia in May 2003, had received an NYPD line-of-duty disability pension for his 9/11 rescue and recovery work.
But it was Olaf Gierszewski, now 38, a petty officer in the German Navy, who came to Walcott’s rescue in an unusual international stem-cell transplant.
The Handiwork of the Creator
I don’t know if any of you saw this story last week about the doctor who was involved in an abortion at 32 weeks because the mother of the child was depressed and suicidal at the thought of giving birth to a child diagnosed with dwarfism. Despite advancements in medicine and public policy which make it easier for people with disabilities to associate with the real world, these peoples’ lives are still considered to have less “quality” and be less fulfilling.
I couldn’t help thinking of this story along with the many abortions that are committed on children prenatally diagnosed with one disease or another, as I read this passage from the book of Isaiah in the Office of Readings today:
Woe to him who asks a father, “What are you begetting?” or a woman, “What are you giving birth to?”
Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, his maker: You question me about my children, or prescribe the work of my hands for me!
It was I who made the earth and created mankind upon it; It was my hands that stretched out the heavens; I gave the order to all their host. (Is 45:10-12)
Even the most sorely afflicted child is the handiwork of such a Creator, deserving of life and happiness.
Standing tall: Life is magical for Roy teenager with dwarfism