New Pluripotent Stem Cells

ChelseaStem Cell Research1 Comment

Scientists at Wake Forest and Harvard Schools of Medicine have isolated and cultured stem cells from amniotic fluid finding them to be “truly pluipotent,” much closer to ES cells than ever thought before. After isolation, they were able to transform the cells into other types of tissues that can be found in fat, musscles, bone, liver, and even the central nervous system. Scientists say they may even have advantages over ES cells. Besides the obvious benefit of not requiring the destrution of a human embryo, these cells aren’t as “early and wild” and most likely will not form tumors, something that has plagued most research done with ES cells. And because the cells are easier to obtain and can produce thousands of stem cell lines, the director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine says that “If you banked 100,000 specimens, you’d be able to provide cells for 99% of the U.S. population with a perfect match for genetic transplantation.”

Now how do you like them apples? Think this will alter debate on capital hill this week regarding funding for ESC research? I doubt it, but it should.

Wake Forest scientists published their information in the online journal, Nature Biotechnology.

3 Year Old Infused With Own Stem Cells

ChelseaAdult Stem Cell Research, Politics, Pro Life, Umbilical Cord BloodLeave a Comment

CHICAGO: A three-year-old leukemia victim was given a life-saving infusion of her own cord blood, marking the first time a child with this disease served as their own blood donor, American doctors said Thursday.

This was largely thanks the the girl’s parent’s decision to save some of her umbilical cord after she was born. The future, my friends, is not in embryonic stem cell research. The future is in umbilical cord blood, and many, like Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm are catching on. Last week Granholm signed several bills that would help create a statewide network of UC blood stem cell banks. Unfortunately our US lawmakers are still preoccupied with spending more and more of the taxpayer’s money on thus far unproven ESC research. The House is scheduled to vote on another bill to expand funding on January 11th of this week.

Brownback Supported in Iowa

ChelseaEmbryonic Stem Cell Research, Politics, Pro Life, Right to LifeLeave a Comment

Iowa Right to Life has officially endorsed Sen. Sam Brownback for President in 2008. Other candidates, like Gov. Mitt Romney, are still trying to position themselves as ‘pro-life’ candidates, but Brownback, according to IRL president, “has been principled, consistent and unwavering in his support for the right to life.” Sen. Brownback will make his presidential bid official in an announcement in Topeka KS on Jan. 20.

Support Brownback for President

Women Deserve Better

ChelseaAbortion, Politics, WomenLeave a Comment

SanFranNanWell, Nancy Pelosi has been sworn in (and I have had to stop myself from vomitting a few times). She’s made history as the first female speaker of the house and many are calling this an advancement for women, but SanFranNan’s stron pro-abortion views, and voting record, is actually a disservice to women everywhere. With a 0% pro-life voting record from National Right to Life (and naturally a 100% pro-abortion rating from NARAL) Nancy is committed to the pro-death feminist agenda which exposes women to serious emotional and medical agony (Pelosi is also leading the push for more federal ESC research funding). Women deserve better than abortion. Women deserve better than Nancy Pelosi representing them in congress.

Check out:
Feminists for Life

Ashley the Pillow Angel

ChelseaDisabled1 Comment

I saw this story about the disabled little girl whose parents decided to stunt her growth to ensure that they would be able to treat her at home for a longer period of time. While realizing that the parents did what they thought was best to continue to treat her themselves, something still seemed wrong about the whole thing and I have not quite been able to put it into words. Nor have I had the time to sit down and really think about it – this is something new to me. Wesley Smith, however, has an excellent take on it:

“Still, the core questions as I see them, are whether these interventions supported Ashley’s intrinsic worth and whether they were therapeutic and therefore ethical for a doctor to perform.

The answer to both questions, I think, is no. The treatment involved invasive surgery requiring full anesthesia, the potential for infection and significant pain, perhaps even death. The purpose was to prevent healthy and natural development, not treat an illness or ameliorate an injury. The motive was love, I agree. But, in the end, I think it was wrong…

Cases like this are very tough. The parents, I believe, genuinely wanted to do what was right by their daughter. But in the end, actions matter more than the motive. I believe the doctor should have refused to perform the surgeries and probably not have agreed to prescribe unnecessary hormonal therapies. As for the parents, I honor their love and devotion to Ashley, but this was a step too far…

Post Script: How’s this for an irony. Ashley requires a feeding tube. If her parents had wanted her to receive “death with dignity” by removing tube-supplied sustenance, there undoubtedly would have been less of a ruckus and cluck-clucking.”

Read Wesley’s full assessment.

See Ashley’s parent’s blog

Exposing Media Bias on Abortion

ChelseaAbortion, Media1 Comment

Earlier last year Jack Hitt, a reporter for the New York Times, wrote an article attempting to explain the horrors of criminalized abortion, using the case of a woman who was allegedly put in jail in El Salvador for having an abortion. LifeSiteNews investigated this story and, in November, wrote an article exposing the truth. The woman was in fact put in jail for strangling her newborn infant after authorities found the dead child wrapped in bags in a box under her bed. Byron Calame’s column in the Times this week reports on the failure of the magazine to pursue and report fair and accurate information in the Hitt piece. This was definetely a ‘hit’ piece by the NYTimes to discourage any attempt in the United States to make abortion illegal. Further proof that the media will stop at nothing to advance the culture of death in our society.

Congress is at it Again

ChelseaEmbryonic Stem Cell Research, PoliticsLeave a Comment

Next week the US House of Representitives is scheduled to take up another measure that would overturn the limits President Bush put on funding embryonic stem cell research. Word is they’re still a good number of votes short of a veto override. Let’s just hope that the President remains faithful to his first veto.

Action: Call your member of Congress at 202-224-3121 and urge strong opposition to the embryonic stem cell research funding bill. You can find specific contact information for your elected officials at http://www.house.gov/

US Approves Adult Stem Cell Trials

ChelseaAdult Stem Cell Research2 Comments

A little late reporting this one, forgive me. “A WORLD-first Australian medical therapy that uses stem cells to treat degenerative spinal disease has been approved for testing on patients in the US. Researchers hope the treatment will replace painful bone grafts.” They will be conducting phase II research trials on human patients in the United States which, along with Phase I, is the introductory testing period to examine the effectiveness and safety of the therapy in treating the desired disease or condition. In other words, treatments are still a ways away, but progress is being monitored. This therapy will use “off the shelf” adult stem cells not genetically related to the patient.

View the company’s news release:
MESOBLAST RECEIVES FDA CLEARANCE FOR PHASE 2 STEM CELL CLINICAL TRIAL

Pro-Life New Year’s Resolutions

ChelseaAbortion, Pro LifeLeave a Comment

Human Life International has some suggestions of resolutions that you can make to defend life in 2007:

1. Find the local abortion clinic in your community and make a promise to pray there at least three times in 2007—minimum.
2. While you’re at it, find the local pregnancy care center and make contact with them. It is likely they are in need of volunteers. Be one of them! They all operate on shoe-string budgets too so support them!
3. Speak up in some forum and defend life, be it on the internet, in a letter to the editor, or in conversations with friends, family and co-workers. Of course they will call you a fanatic! It does not matter. You must think of that Day when the Lord will ask you what you did to defend His precious little ones. You must be able to say you spoke out on their behalf.
4. Boycott the businesses that fund the death industry. These groups don’t deserve one dollar of our hard-earned money if they are material cooperators in the killing of innocents. The most reputable boycott group that I know of is Life Decisions International whose detailed corporate boycott list you can order from their website (FightPP) and who provide ongoing insight into the activities of Planned Parenthood.

Mary the Mother of God

ChelseaAbortion, Family, Pro Life, WomenLeave a Comment

Madonna of the StreetsToday was the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God. Like the feast of the Holy Family, this special feast, which celebrates the motherhood of Mary, calls to mind the importance of family, with an emphasis on the beauty and sanctity of motherhood. By being born of a woman, Christ exalted the dignity of women. All women are called to be mothers, naturally and/or spiritually, and we are called to imitate Mary’s perfect example of humility and maternity. Women in today’s society, unfortunately, are not taught this humble example of femininity.

The modern feminist movement is lead by women who reject the traditional role of women and desire to become more like men. Abortion, specifically, turns the role of motherhood into a disease and encourages women to kill their own children to avoid the hardship altogether. Women also continue to use their bodies for other people’s enjoyment. We all recognize the disaster that is the pornography industry which is influencing our young women. Today I was deeply disturbed as I browsed through YouTube and found young women who video tape themselves in skimpy clothes dancing in front of the camera (and much worse) for men to drool over (this is why I have avoided MySpace like the plague and I will probably now avoid YouTube).

Women deserve better than this! They especially deserve better than abortion. Mother Teresa said, “the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child…By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems.” Christ gave us His mother as a perfect example of what it means to be a woman – to remain ever humble and pure and to love deeply, to “give until it hurts”. Mary stood by and watched her Son being nailed to the cross while her own heart was being pierced by a sword. This is the love we are called to imitate.

Recommended reading:
The Privelege of Being a Woman
True Devotion
Mulieris Dignitatem
Humanae Vitae
Theology of the Body
Mother Teresa’s National Prayer Breakfast Speech