Stick With Science

ChelseaPro Life, Religion, Right to Life1 Comment

This was a response to a comment on my Devil in Disguise post which began to take on a life of its own, so I though I’d rather put it into a post. One reader suggested:

This is the key: stick with the science. Irrespective of religious differences and/or whether or not a supreme being exists, we know as a scientific fact that human embryos are human beings. Stay away from religion-based arguments and all will be fine.

I have long thought that the cloning/ESC research argument could be won on a purely secular level, with nothing more than scientific facts and practical sense. After all, the “science” is on our side and there are many practical reasons not to pursue embryo destructive research – namely the fact that it fails to produce positive results over and over again.

However the goal of the pro-life movement is not just to stop research on embryos or prevent abortion. The goal is to help create a culture of life – a culture that values and respects human life in all stages and forms. This cannot be done by simply sticking to science. “Science”, that is to say biology, can tell us that a human being is, in fact, human and point out the different ways in which humans are different or superior to animals. But it cannot tell us why human life is unique and precious and worthy to be preserved – especially when you’re talking about an embryo in a petri dish.

“Science” alone will not move someone who looks into the eyes of a Down Syndrome child to realize that she, and others like her, should not be screened for and killed before they are born. “Science” will not open the eyes of a scientist to realize that the embryo from whom he is extracting stem cells is a unique individual human life that should not be destroyed for research. “Scientifically” abortion providers know that the child they are about to “operate on”, if you will, is a human. Yet instead of preserving that human life they end it, often very violently by dismemberment, salt poisoning or by sucking its brain out in partial-birth abortion.

Again, science tells us that a human being is human. Which then leads to the question of what does it mean to be human and how shall human life be treated. For that we look outside of the realm of strict “science” and are lead to our own moral philosophies about life, many of which are religious in nature, though they don’t always lead one to belief in a higher power per se. Science (and here I mean biology or natural science) and religion (or theology, a science), science and philosophy (also a science), can, and should, coexist peacefully because they all have their own shortcomings separately and therefore compliment each other when working together.

Despite popular belief, secularism is not the answer to all of our problems or conflicts. It is precisely because we have removed God from the equation that many of the problems we have exist.

The Power to Cure?

ChelseaPolitics, Stem Cell ResearchLeave a Comment

SanFranNanSpeaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi spoke on the House floor in favor of embryonic stem cell research and the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act that passed last week. In her comments she mentioned that:

Science is a gift of God to all of us and science has taken us to a place that is biblical in its power to cure and that is the embryonic stem cell research.

Yes, science is a great gift from God. Through it we have made incredible advancements in many areas. But an ethical line must be drawn defining what constitutes good, moral and ethical research and the destruction of human embryos for their stem cells crosses that line.

Now to Pelosi’s most ridiculous claim. Does ESC research have the power to cure? To date ESCs have not lead to any treatments, let alone cures – NONE! Yet speaker Pelosi talks about the benefits of ESC research as if they already exist today:

Every one of those families, every one of us, is one telephone call, one diagnosis away, from needing the benefits of embryonic stem cell research.

I can’t help but think that even those who are against this legislation today would want their family members, their child with diabetes, their husband with Parkinson’s, their father with Alzheimer’s, their mother with breast cancer, to have the benefit of stem cell research.

There is one word dominate her speech – hope. This is what it’s all about, giving hope to families. These families hoping for cures and treatments from stem cells should rather be shown the amazing results coming from research on adult stem cells. Instead, in the current political climate, they continue to be told that their last and greatest hope lies only in research that requires the destruction of embryonic human life. No cause, not even the high and noble goal of relieving or even eliminating human suffering is worth such a price.

The Devil in Disguise

ChelseaMiscellaneous2 Comments

After reading this article from Life Site News it should be clear who is behind the push for research that destroys living human embryos. Now one supporter, a politician from Australia, accepts the possibility of eternity in hell if that’s the cost of supporting embryonic stem cell research:

“Maybe I’ll go to Hell, but if I go to Hell I’m going to do so by saving a lot of lives, because that’s what this bill is about,” said Tony Stewart. “We don’t need a religious leader telling members of parliament what should be done.”

He is responding to Archbishop George Cardinal Pell who:

told Catholic state lawmakers Tuesday that human cloning and destruction of embryos for research was a “serious moral matter” and their votes would have “consequences” for their lives in the Church

The bill in question would:

permit “human-animal hybrids”, “fertilizing immature eggs from aborted girls with adult male sperm” to form new embryos, and “mixing the genetic material of more than two persons” and destroying them at 14 days for their stem-cells

This is not just about obeying a rule of the Church, but protecting and preserving the dignity, the sacredness, of human life.

The Devil already has an advantage in this issue because, unlike in the abortion debate, it is harder to show and to know the humanity of the life at risk of being taken. With regard to abortion, the life in question is a developing child in utero – one whose features we can see on ultrasounds, whose presence can be felt in a very real way by the mother in her womb. It is not clear to everyone, but it is still easier to comprehend than the life of a days old embryo in a petri dish.

He is also getting craftier and, dare I say, smarter. In the current debate, the face of the pro-cloning/ESC research movement is a lot harder to say no to. This face is the sick and suffering – those affected by disease and disability. Whose heart doesn’t move with sympathy for children and families who must endure such hardships? How could you not want to give them every possible hope that their sickness may one day be cured?

But there is good news for us! Science and the truth are on our side. Scientifically we know that the embryos involved in this research are unique living organisms that are distinctly human in genetic make up and that all humans begin life this way. Truthfully we know that all human life, made in the image and likeness of God, is sacred and must be preserved. Scientifically we know that research on embryonic stem cells, which requires the destruction of the living embryo, is not producing any cures or treatments and hasn’t in the many years it has been operating. We also know that adult stem cells are currently treating 73 known diseases and disabilities with new breakthroughs everyday. Truthfully we know that false hope is no hope at all. There is real hope for cures, the science just points in a different direction.

Our job is to remain steadfast in the spirit of truth – that an embryo is a unique human life that must not be harvested for scientific research and that there are alternatives to such research that are more promising and do not require the destruction of human life. We must keep these truths in our hearts and spread them to the many who are mislead by this Father of Lies.

Also check out:
An explanation of stem cell science by Dr. David Prentice

Brownback on Stem Cells

Chelsea2008 Election, Politics, Stem Cell ResearchLeave a Comment

Here are some excerpts from Sam Brownback’s interview with Life News:

I have long supported alternatives to embryonic stem cell research. This is the area that is making progress and the area that I think we need to focus on. I am fully committed to supporting and funding adult stem cell, cord blood and amniotic fluid research. I think deriving stem cells from amniotic fluid could really be the next new source of a tremendous number of treatments and provide the hope we all seek. These are ethical cures, that don’t involve crossing that moral line of taking the life of the young human. They also appear to be less likely of developing tumors that we see again and again with embryonic stem cells…

It is absolutely wrong to create life simply to destroy it. Our society will be judged on how we treated the weak and vulnerable among us. We must not be involved in human cloning or research that destroys human life…

LN: Why are these disease groups [who lobby for ESC research funding] so out of touch right now?

Brownback: I honestly don’t know. It would seem to me that if you wanted cures and you wanted treatments you would push for funding where we are seeing treatments and seeing patients healed. More than that, we are seeing these treatments take place using ethical research. We do not have to treat persons as property. We shouldn’t do it and we don’t have to do it. Every person, including these young humans, are beautiful, precious, unique children of a loving God. That is true for all of them. We ought to fight for that and fight for them and not back down. I think it is essential that we get this right. It is so important for our culture and for our country’s future…

[on those opposed to abortion but in favor of ESC research] I think we ought to ask people, what do you think we are dealing with here? For me, that is what it has always come down to: Are we dealing with a person or a piece of property? I’m a person, you’re a person, that desk is a piece of property.

The question is, what is the young human? If it is a person, then it is entitled the dignity and the respect and the protections of any human. If it is a piece of property then it can be used as the master sees fit.

We must stand for everybody, particularly the weak and the innocent. We want a culture where the strong protect the weak. That is a culture we can be proud of…

LN: How important is it for pro-life Americans to get involved in the 2008 elections and ensure a pro-life president is elected again next year so we’re protected further?

Brownback: It is critical. It is an absolutely critical time for the pro-life movement. We need a president who is willing to lead on these issues, who will stand for life even when it may be difficult.

These are the basics. If you get these things right, you will have success as a nation. If you get them wrong, you will only have more problems.

I think people ought to get involved and get involved early on in helping to ensure that the real progress we have made in the cause for life is not lost. It is a crucial time and I really hope people get involved and stand firmly and consistently on the side of life.

brownback

Patients not Politics

ChelseaStem Cell Research2 Comments

From National Review Online:

Living, breathing people who have been treated by stem cells — some who would have otherwise died — are signs of the great hope of stem-cell research. Take Doug Rice, a bear of a man who was told he had months to live because of heart disease, yet after being treated with his own blood stem cells, his heart function is almost normal. Then there’s Dave Foege who also received the same treatment for his ailing heart, after his doctors had sent him home to hospice. And accident victim Jacki Rabon can walk with the aid of braces after she had her own nasal stem cells injected into her spinal-cord injury. Carol Franz is an incredible woman who suffered from multiple myeloma, a bone cancer, until she had her bone-marrow stem cells transplanted. Stephen Sprague has been free from leukemia after having a cord blood stem cell transplant. And Keone Penn no longer has sickle-cell anemia after receiving a cord-blood stem-cell transplant.

I support stem-cell research that is treating people now — the kind that saves and changes lives without destroying life. The aforementioned did not involve research that requires the destruction of human embryos…

Neither human embryonic-stem-cell research, which the administration has funded to the tune of over $150 million over the past several years, nor human cloning, has treated anyone of any disease.

Read more

Adult Stem Cells Revert to Embryonic Stem Cells!

ChelseaAdult Stem Cell Research, Cloning, Embryonic Stem Cell Research, PoliticsLeave a Comment

From the Washington Post (H/T: LifeEthics.org):

Research reported this week by three different groups shows that normal skin cells can be reprogrammed to an embryonic state in mice. The race is now on to apply the surprisingly straightforward procedure to human cells.

If researchers succeed, it will make it relatively easy to produce cells that seem indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells, and that are genetically matched to individual patients. There are limits to how useful and safe these would be for therapeutic use in the near term, but they should quickly prove a boon in the lab.

How amazing is that?? I’m telling you, these stem cells are really something to marvel at. There is still a lot of research to be done to get this to work with human cells, but imagine what this could mean for the future of cloning and ESC research if it does work. Patients could be treated with their own genetically matched ‘ESCs’ without the messy business of having to clone themselves first.

Perhaps this is why Dr Patrick Dixon sees the future of stem cell research in this way:

In summary, expect rapid progress in adult stem cells and slower, less intense work with embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cell technology is already looking rather last-century, along with therapeutic cloning. History will show that by 2020 we were already able to produce a wide range of tissues using adult stem cells, with spectacular progress in tissue building and repair. In some cases these stem cells will be actually incorporated into the new repairs as differentiated cells, in other cases, they will be temporary assistants in local repair processes…

And along the way we will see a number of biotech companies fold, as a result of over-investment into embryonic stem cells, plus angst over ethics and image, without watching the radar screen closely enough, failing to see the onward march of adult stem cell technology.

Using embryos as a source of spare-part cells will always be far more controversial than using adult tissue, or perhaps cells from umbilical cord after birth, and investors will wish to reduce unnecessary risk, both to the projects they fund, and to their own organisations by association.

Do you think he’s right? With stories like this one it seems he’s on to something.

Related story:
The US House defeated the deceptive cloning ban

A Sign From God?

Chelsea2008 Election, Abortion, PoliticsLeave a Comment

I know I’m far from the first or only pro-life blogger to post this video, but I couldn’t help myself.

Working on a Cure for Blindness

ChelseaAdult Stem Cell Research, MiscellaneousLeave a Comment

LONDON, June 5 (UPI) — British researchers hope to make stem-cell treatment of blindness caused by macular degeneration routine within a decade…

Lyndon da Cruz of the University College London Institute of Opthamology has had some success transplanting retinal pigment epithelium cells within patients’ eyes. Now Cruz and his colleagues hope to use cells grown in a petri dish.

The project received an $8 million gift from an anonymous U.S. donor whose father became blind.

Now that person knows how to spend their money!

House Vote Coming Up

ChelseaAdult Stem Cell Research, Embryonic Stem Cell Research, PoliticsLeave a Comment

This week the House is supposed to vote on the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, S. 5. This is the bill to expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and is expected to pass, though the President is still expected to veto it when it makes it to his desk. In an interview with Life News, Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins rightly points out that Congress is wasting time (and money) focusing on ESCs that are nowhere close to helping patients, and may never, while ASCs are doing just that:

“Is it just me or is something wrong with that picture?” he told LifeNews.com.

“While Congress fritters away its time on science that has yielded little in the way of real treatments, the journal Cell Proliferation has published a study on adult stem cells extracted from the umbilical cords of newborns,” he said.

He’s referring to the study that shows ASCs have successfully been engineered to produce insulin and are a step closer to treating patients with diabetes. Our country, it seems, is obsessed with ESC research. This is of course due to the incredible hype surrounding it – CURES CURES CURES!! Why else would our politicians be spending so much time and trying to spend so much money on something so unproven and ineffective? I am afraid that many in the scientific and political field are pushing to advance life destroying research to the detriment of more promising research that has been successful in treating a growing number of diseases and disabilities. That is why some feel they can’t wait for U.S. scientists to prove new adult stem cell therapies safe or effective and spend tens of thousands of dollars to seek treatments out of the country. In my home state, a very large research institute held off building new research facilities until they were assured in a constitutional amendment that they could conduct ESC/human cloning research without any restrictions or legislative oversight, and they’re still complaining. Instead they could have been advancing ethically sound research that actually leads to “stem cell therapies and cures”.

This is not to say that the research is not being done here of course. In fact I think a number of medical and scientific professionals are catching on to the reality of stem cell research, that is, the promise and effectiveness of ASCs over ESCs. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, as they say, and right now ASC research is chowing down. If only our politicians could understand that.

Contact your rep.
Adult stem cell research archives
Americans for Research Ethics

Speaking of Ballot Initiatives

Chelsea2008 Election, Activism, Amendment 2, Cloning, PoliticsLeave a Comment

Missouri Right to LifeThe fund raising process for working on getting a cloning ban on the ballot here in Missouri has begun! Unlike our opposition we don’t have one wealthy couple ready to give us $30 million for our campaign (but if you know of any such couple – please send them our way!). If you or someone you know would like to help out, please contact Missouri Right to Life (a donation of any size is appreciated – a $15 donation comes with a subscription to their bi-monthly newsletter).

Nice plug, huh? On their website you can also sign up to be on their email list and find out about all of the other pro-life work that MRL does along with their efforts to truly ban cloning in Missouri.

Other organizations helping out:
Missouri Catholic Conference
Missourians Against Human Cloning