Stem Cell Debate
Saving Lives is the duty of science, doctors, and government. And the truth about stem cells is what will free us to save lives.
Hype versus hope
Hype versus truth
On the promise of cures with embryonic stem cells:
Hype: Embryonic stem cells (ESC) offer the promise of cures for diabetes, cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson´s, sickle cell, spinal cord injury.
Hope: Only adult stem cells have been used to date to treat diabetes, cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson´s, sickle cell, spinal cord injury, Lupus, Crohn´s, cerebral palsy, Severe Combined Immuno-deficiency, corneal reconstruction, and others in over 1,200 FDA-approved clinical studies. Vital to the debate is the issue of where we put our dollars…whether private or taxpayer. Whatever the science, funding is always assured when there is real progress and, therefore, real HOPE. No ESCs have been used to date in treating patients and pro-cloning scientists admit that we are (at best) several decades from using ESCs for therapeutic purposes, if the obstacle of tumor formation and tissue rejection are overcome. "The potential benefits of embryonic stem cell research have probably been oversold to the public", states Lord Winston, fertility expert and president of the British Association of the Advancement of Science. For those of us who have loved ones afflicted by debilitating and life-threatening diseases, the promise of potential cures 10-20 years down the road is not as hopeful as learning that there are clinical trials, treatments, and yes, cures going on right now.
Winston warns of stem cell 'hype'
By Jonathan Amos
BBC News science reporter, Dublin
The potential benefits of embryonic stem cell research have probably been oversold to the public, fertility expert Lord Winston says.
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South Florida studies aim to mend hearts with patients' stem cells
Cardiac patients' own stem cells will be used
By Bob LaMendola | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 24, 2007
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Bioheart, Inc. Expands Clinical Trials Of Adult Myogenic Stem Cell Treatment
For Heart Attack And Advanced Heart Failure Patients
Bioheart, Inc., a Florida biotechnology company focused on the development of innovative cell therapies designed to repair areas of damaged muscle tissue in a patient's heart and improve cardiac function, is expanding its United States and European clinical trials of its MyoCell™ adult myogenic (muscle) stem cell composition and MyoCath® needle-injection catheter product candidates.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/56898.php
VesCell™ Adult Stem Cell Therapy for Heart Disease
As featured in TIME Magazine, not only once...but TWICE!!
VesCell™ adult stem cell therapy is used by cardiologists and vascular surgeons to treat heart disease for men and women suffering from Coronary Artery Disease (Coronary Heart Disease), Cardiomyopathy, and Congestive Heart Failure.
Read more …
Transplants Using Adult Bone Marrow Stem Cells Restore Functions for Spinal Cord Injury Patients; PrimeCell Therapeutics Provides Research Support
Preliminary Results Involving 38 Patients Presented at 2007 Congress of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting
IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PrimeCell™ Therapeutics LLC
September 24, 2007
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From The Times
April 11, 2007
Diabetics cured in stem-cell treatment advance
David Rose
Diabetics using stem-cell therapy have been able to stop taking insulin injections for the first time, after their bodies started to produce the hormone naturally again.
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Adult stem cells in the treatment of autoimmune diseases
J. M. van Laar¹ and A. Tyndall²
¹Department of Rheumatology, Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands and ²Department of Rheumatology, Felix-Platter Spital, Basel, Switzerland.
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Axcan Pharma Inc.
Oct 01, 2007 17:00 ET
Axcan Licenses Rights to Cx401, an Innovative Biological Product in Development for the Treatment of Perianal Fistulas, a Significant Unmet Medical Need
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Additional stem cells AND heart disease clinical trial information
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Additional stem cells AND diabetes clinical trial information
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On reprogrammed adult cells:
Hype: Federal funding is essential for both adult and embryonic stem cell research (using human embryos) even in light of the recent technology in which adult cells are reprogrammed to become embryonic stem cells (induced pluripotent stem cells, iPS ).
Truth: Embryonic stem cells from reprogrammed adult cells (iPS) have been fully tested against embryonic stem cells from embryos (ESC) and found to have no differences except that iPS do not form tumors in mice like ESC. Rather than heralding this breakthrough as a scientific and ethical alternative to destruction of embryos, those with a financial stake in ESC push even harder for continuing research which destroys the embryo. In either case, neither approach prevails over the therapeutic advances with adult stem cells.
On tissue rejection:
Hype: Creating embryonic stem cells that are genetically matched using somatic cell nuclear transfer will avoid stem cell transplant rejection.
Hope: Adult stem cells in clinical studies are taken from the patient being treated and, therefore, are not rejected. * Cloned embryonic stem cells can still cause rejection because of residual mitochondrial DNA that remains in the donor egg that was used for cloning.
Fact file
Cloning and genetic engineering
What is genetic engineering?
Genetic engineering (GE) is the manipulation of genetic material (ie, DNA or genes) in a cell... new studies have found adult stem cells with almost the same abilities as embryonic stem cells in various human tissues, including: the spinal cord, the brain, connective tissue and in the blood of the umbilical cord. …some DNA from the original embryo remains in the form of mitochondrial DNA…(that) can lead to genetic defects that are not fully understood.
read more…
Stem Cells in Class
Shahira Badran
Some immune rejection may occur…about 1% of the DNA in the clone (from) mitochondrial DNA in eggs http://biotechinstitute.org/resources/documents/StemCells.pdf
On fiscal responsibility:
Hype: Faster medical breakthroughs will come from federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
Truth: Use of federal funds for embryonic stem cell research diverts money from a finite funding pool away from the more advanced adult stem cell research, in essence, postponing the realization of viable cures.
AAMC Reporter: December 2004
California Says Yes to Stem Cells, No to Hospital Funding
…fiscally irresponsible way to conduct research. Vincent Fortanasce, M.D., president of Doctors, Patients and Taxpayers for Fiscal Responsibility, said Californians should expect funding for many productive research efforts to evaporate. The new law will also divert money from research methods with already proven results, he said.
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Dr. Coburn Disappointed Senate Diverts Funds from Ethical Stem Cell Research
April 11, 2007
(WASHINGTON, D.C.)—U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) today expressed disappointment the Senate voted to divert resources away from pluripotent stem cell research to increase funding for unproven and destructive embryonic stem cell research.
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On funding for embryonic stem cells:
Hype: President Bush banned public funding of embryonic stem cell research.
Truth: In 1995, President Clinton signed into law the Dickey Amendment which prohibited federally appropriated funds to be used for research where human embryos would be either created or destroyed. In 2001, President George W. Bush enacted laws permitting federally-funded stem cell research on already derived embryonic stem cell lines and subsequently endorsed Congress in providing approximately $100 million for research using these embryonic stem cell lines over the next five years. * There are no restrictions on funding ESC research by private individuals or foundations, or companies.
The Administration's Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Funding Policy:
Moral and Political Foundations
On August 9, 2001, in a televised address to the nation, President Bush announced his Administration´s newly crafted policy for the limited funding of human embryonic stem cell research.
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Stem Cell Research 101
Legislators Toolkit: Federal Public Policy
Federal Policy To Date
Prior to the August 2001 Bush Administration decision to allow federal funds for research on early human stem cells, the Dickey Amendment, which essentially restricts research related to human embryos.
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On Use of Embryos:
Hype: "An embryo is not a life"
Truth: From the time of Aristotle to the present day, scientists and philosophers agree that the human embryo is alive and human, an organism with an independent inherent built-in active potential to develop into a human person and, therefore, physiologically alive and genetically human.
ABAC Quarterly
Fall 2002
The corruption of the science of Human Embryology
By C. Ward Kischer Ph.D.
the science of Human Embryology was being rewritten according to political correctness… in all of the Supreme Court cases since 1973 and at all of the Congressional hearings on these issues, no human embryologist has been called as a witness and no reference to Human Embryology has ever been made… The media have preferentially published a distortion of this science while totally ignoring the many references available for factual information… We exist as a continuum of human life, which begins at fertilization and continues until death. At any point in time, during the continuum of life, there exists a whole, integrated human being.
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When do human beings (normally) begin?
"scientific" myths and scientific facts
Dianne N. Irving, M.A., Ph.D.
(copyright February 1999)
The purpose of this article is to focus primarily on a sampling of the "scientific" myths, and on the objective scientific facts that ought to ground these discussions.
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The New Atlantis
A Journal of Technology & Society
Summer 2006
The First Fourteen Days of Human Life
Patrick Lee and Robert P. George
…claims have been repeated by policymakers, scientists, and bioethicists alike, yet they fly in the face of the embryological evidence.
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Lifeissues.net
When Does Human Life Begin? The Final Answer
A human embryologist speaks out about socio-legal issues involving the human embryo.
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Human Embryology & Teratology (3rd ed.)(New York: Wiley-Liss, 2001): Ronan O'Rahilly and Faiola Muller, pp 87-88
On Saving Lives:
Hype: Embryonic stem cells will ultimately save lives.
Truth: First principle of medicine, derived from Hippocrates, is "First, Do No Harm". Embryonic stem cell research using embryos and somatic cell nuclear transfer harms the embryo, endangers healthy women who donate eggs for this research subjecting them to multiple hormone injections and surgical procedures, and exploits those in financial need.
The Health Risks of Egg Extraction
Elana Hayasaka, Our Bodies Ourselves (Boston, Massachusetts, USA)
Korea Womenlink Forum on Biotechnology and Women´s Rights
Seoul, South Korea
September 21, 2006
(Focuses) on the health risks to women asscoatied with the egg extraction process…
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The Boston Globe
Risks to women in embryo cloning
By Judy Norsigian | February 25, 2005
There is a disturbing lack of attention to the risks to women´s health posed by the advent of embryo cloning.
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Health Effects of egg donation may take decades to emerge
By Helen Pearson
Nature, August 10, 2006
A Nature Special Report investigates the ethics and economics of donating eggs for stem-cell research.
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On Ethics:
To fly in the face of a highly charged issue where ethical concerns are not resolved and where advanced alternatives are available is irresponsible.
Supporting the use of adult stem cells and not the use of embryonic stem cells is not a religious issue, it is not a Republican or Democratic issue, it is a human rights issue:
- The right of patients to faster potential cures.
- The right of embryos to be respected as human life.
- The right of women to be protected against exploitive and risky research practices.