Right-Wing Dishonesty In the Stem Cell Debate
Right-Wing Dishonesty In the Stem Cell Debate
The House will vote today on two bills related to stem cell funding. One bill would provide funding for embryonic stem cell research, the procedure which holds the greatest possibility for medical advancement due to the various types of cells it can generate. A second bill being offered by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) would provide federal funds to research stem cells from umbilical cords, a procedure that can only reliably produce blood cells.
The umbilical bill is a canard, proffered by radical conservatives so that they can say they’re supporting something. As Roll Call reports, right-wingers hope the umbilical cord bill will “give cover to conservatives who oppose federal funding for embryonic research but are wary of getting on the wrong political side of the issue.”
The worst part of this whole debate is the deception and dishonesty being carried out by conservatives who want to claim umbilical stem cells are no different from embryonic stem cells. The Washington Post writes:
“Published studies have shown that [umbilical] cord blood stem cells have the capacity to change into other cell types, which give them the potential to treat . . . debilitating conditions such as spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s, diabetes and heart disease,” [Rep. Chris] Smith said in a recent statement.
But several researchers said that statement stretches the truth of what is known about umbilical cord cells… Umbilical and embryonic stem cells “are not in any way interchangeable,” said David Scadden, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and chief of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Regenerative Medicine and Technology.
Even Bush acknowledged the difference in these two types of procedures when he announced his stem cell policy in August 2001:
You should also know that stem cells can be derived from sources other than embryos — from adult cells, from umbilical cords that are discarded after babies are born, from human placenta… However, most scientists, at least today, believe that research on embryonic stem cells offer the most promise because these cells have the potential to develop in all of the tissues in the body.
If Bush vetoes federal funding of embryonic stem cell research as he has pledged, he and other right-wingers should at least be honest with the facts and not provide false hope to an American public seeking true scientific progress.
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calling for honesty from the Republicans? that’s SO September 10th…
May 24th, 2005 at 1:04 pmThis may sound ignorant as I’m still baffled when it comes to “riders” on bills. I don’t understand why this procedure is allowed, but why don’t the Dems make one bill a rider on the other and both would have to be voted on. I’m sure the Dems have no problem allowing umbilical cord stem cell research as long as it’s not the ONLY option.
May 24th, 2005 at 1:26 pmIt isn’t like entities CAN’T use any other lines. They just won’t get government funding if they do. I do realize stuff is much easier to do if someone else is picking up the tab though.
bushco/republisnakeoil salesman honest? C’mon now, they may live in some fictional universe. But we’d like to think that we are on solid ground.
May 24th, 2005 at 1:28 pm‘kindness’, are you deliberately misleading people, or are you just misinformed? Federal funding is banned from going to *institutions* performing embryonic stem cell research (apart from existing lines), not just from the project itself.
May 24th, 2005 at 1:54 pmIf it was just the particular research project itself, that wouldn’t be as much of a problem.
Most research organizations cannot afford to lose federal funding for all of their projects just to do stem cell research with private donations.
At best, you are uninformed, at worst, disingenuous in your presentation of the situation.
Brian, I support government funding and grants to research the viability of using all stem cell sources. That is my point of view.
What I said was that the government won’t pay for research or grants on research for work done outside of bush’s approved 16 lines. I further said that private groups are not prohibited from doing work on lines outside the bush 16, they just will recieve no government money to pay for that. What about that is confusing to you? I don’t see any MISINFORMATION, do you?
So, what is your point, or do you just like fighting?
May 24th, 2005 at 3:30 pmHow Democrats can win on stem cell research: “The Ronald Reagan Life Legacy Act”
May 24th, 2005 at 3:44 pmPart of the need for these reforms is that the currently available 16 lines are contaminated and as such are useless for advanced research, though still good teaching tools. Funding of private stem cell research institutions under the new legislative proposals would open the door for vast amounts of research, that once conducted in private can be expanded along less faith-challenging paths in publicly funded institutions. Sort of a win-win. For all the oppositional rhetoric, it seems that an awful lot of people are willing to sacrifice cognitive liberties on the altar of idolatry.
May 24th, 2005 at 5:56 pmCan’t make $$ curing disease. Chimpy’s a whore for Big Pharma. Stem Cell = possible cures for many diseases Big Pharma makes a fortune treating! Ergo- no stem cell research.
Voila!
May 24th, 2005 at 6:43 pmThis is actually great news for us in the UK, it just means the research will be done here rather than in the states. All Big Pharma companies have research divisions over here and it means that this part of the ‘Brain Drain’ can be reversed.
May 25th, 2005 at 4:09 amThe only people to be hurt by this are the US scientists, and hey science is just bunk to this president.
So this is what it felt like at the beginning of the dark ages. Not a very good feeling. And this time, the Church is not saving the storehouse of knowledge until the darkness passes, it’s bringing on the darkness just as fast as it can.
It’s almost–but not quite–enough to make me wish I could be around 50 years from now to see what the planetary power structure looks like. Wouldn’t it be the ultimate irony if the Muslim world was the beacon of learning and light, with Christian Europe trying to catch up, and America full of hovels, dumps, and churches on every corner to make the hovel-dwellers feel better about their hovel-filled lives?
May 25th, 2005 at 10:36 amSorry about the double post but my brain has already advanced to the dark ages. I meant to respond briefly to Kindness:
Assuming that Biran is right (I have no personal knowledge either way), your post is not misleading by commission, but my omission. If a research institution loses ALL federal funding if it does any prohibited stem cell research, then the institution is not likely to do ANY stem cell research. And in America, that means that the only stem cell research likely to occur is by extremely tiny groups set up specifically for that purpose only. They would be at a severe disadvantage in competing with much bigger institutions elsewhere in the world.
If that’s true, that should be made clear in any discussion about the effect of the federal funding ban.
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