Saturday, November 24, 2007

End of the stem cell wars?

I don't know if the war is really over as suggested in this Weekly Standard piece by Ryan Anderson.

The stem cell wars are over. Leading scientists are telling us that they can pursue the most promising stem cell research without using--much less killing--human embryos. This breakthrough enables researchers to create human embryonic stem cells directly from adult cells. In fact, the new method may actually prove superior to embryo-destructive alternatives. This is the biggest stem cell advance since James Thomson became the first scientist to isolate embryonic stem cells, less than a decade ago.

As I said, folks- I don't know. Even as this new research was being announced to the world, there were those still continuing to push for the traditional embryonic stem cell research-

Thomson said much more research needs to be done using this approach, and it could take years before it is certain that the new cells work the same way as embryonic stem cells. He said it is premature for scientists to step away from ongoing embryonic stem cell research.

Now, I am not a scientist or an expert in any type of medical field, but it is a little hard to understand why some folks are still so insistent on crossing a moral barrier that so many find offensive. Especially since there are now other options.

The fever by which embryonic stem cell research has been defended is hard to understand when other forms of stem cell research have proven positive results and embryonic stem cell research has done nothing.

Even now, nine years later, embryonic stem cells are thought by many scientists to have greater potential than other types. This reputation persists even though adult stem cells are already used in therapies to treat several diseases and are being tested in hundreds of clinical trials, while not a single embryonic stem cell therapy exists, even in trials.

I am more and more convinced that there are many liberals still wanting to challenge the moral barrier of others, just like they did in the 60's and 70's.

The Michael J. Fox liberals now are forced to ask themselves this question-

Are you more interested in the science of healing or challenging people's moral barriers?

Imagine that Liberals-now you have to act like grown ups in this debate!

With this huge medical breakthrough, you will have to defend the destruction of human embryos, in the advancement of science, when there is no need to destroy these embryos.

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