He signed an executive order reversing the Bush administration's ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
The President himself billed this as a win of science over ideology. But is it really that plain and simple? Should harvesting embryos -- something so incredibly unacceptable to a such a large portion of the American public -- be funded with everyone's tax dollars?
And an article published just one week ago makes me wonder if the President cares at all about real science. From ScienceDaily:
Mount Sinai Hospital's Dr. Andras Nagy discovered a new method of creating stem cells that could lead to possible cures for devastating diseases including spinal cord injury, macular degeneration, diabetes and Parkinson's disease. The study, published by Nature, accelerates stem cell technology and provides a road map for new clinical approaches to regenerative medicine.Mr. President, as long as there are legitimate alternatives that produce the same results, why must we force Americans to pay for a scientific experiment that may not even be necessary?
"We hope that these stem cells will form the basis for treatment for many diseases and conditions that are currently considered incurable," said Dr. Nagy, Senior Investigator at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital, Investigator at the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, and Canada Research Chair in Stem Cells and Regeneration. "This new method of generating stem cells does not require embryos as starting points and could be used to generate cells from many adult tissues such as a patient's own skin cells."
Obama says he wants to focus on science over ideology -- but isn't ignoring the alternatives in order to appease his left-wing base doing just that?
You want to spend my hard-earned tax dollars to fund stem-cell research? Fine. But please, spend it on Dr. Nagy.
UPDATE: Want more info on stem cell research? Check out this blog.
Update x2: Here is another interesting article from the Concerned Women of America.
So what you are saying is that you would rather have these "embryos" destroyed than be used for any type of scientific gain. Cause that is what happens to 99% of these cels. These are unfertilized cels, cels that have zero chance of being any type of life form without specific things being added to them.
ReplyDeleteNothing like letting scientific facts get in the way of a talking point
I think you need to look up what an embryo is before going any further in this discussion. I'll help: A fertilized egg that has begun cell division, often called a pre-embryo (for pre-implantation embryo). An embryo is now defined as a later stage, i.e. at the completion of" the pre-embryonic stage, which is considered to end at about day 14. The term, embryo, is used to describe the early stages of fetal growth, from conception to the eighth week of pregnancy.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I mis-spoke on the first point.
ReplyDeleteWell until it can function out of the womb, its not alive plain and simple. The cels that are being used are either to be used for stem cel research, or as simple medical waste. They are left overs from invitro treatments. When my wife and I went through invitro, we were given the option of saving the cels for later use, donating them for research, or throwing them away.
My other question is this; why is it ok to spend trillions of taxpayer dollars on an unjust war in the black hole of Iraq, but its not ok to throw some of that money towards something that might have actual results that benifit the american people?
Plain and simple, you're wrong about what stem-cells are. Until you come to a proper understanding, it's difficult to debate your points.
ReplyDelete"Well until it can function out of the womb, its not alive plain and simple."
ReplyDeleteWow.