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2006-09-26 Science & Technology
A Dream Month For Ballistic Missile Defense
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Posted by DanNY 2006-09-26 09:10|| || Front Page|| [11128 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 Missile defense has had far more successes than have ever been achieved with embryonic stem cells, yet notice which is being pushed so hard.
Posted by Jackal">Jackal  2006-09-26 10:39|| http://home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html]">[http://home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html]  2006-09-26 10:39|| Front Page Top

#2 All your third world crackpot missiles are belong to us!
Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader  2006-09-26 11:38||   2006-09-26 11:38|| Front Page Top

#3 “Missile defense has had far more successes than have ever been achieved with embryonic stem cells, yet notice which is being pushed so hard.”

Hmmm, how many billions have been spent on missile defense and how many lifes have been saved? (I’m not against missile defense, just against ignorance.)

How many millions have been spent on embryonic stem cell research and how many diseases may be cured in the next two decades?

http://www.genengnews.com/news/bnitem.aspx?name=5822430

"These observations are very exciting as they show that one day it will be possible to treat diseases of human eyes with cells," says Ian Wilmut, Ph.D., Editor-In-Chief of Cloning and Stem Cells and director of the Centre for Regenerative Medicine, in Edinburgh, Scotland. "They also emphasize the great potential benefit of research with human embryo stem cells, in this case for cell therapy."

“The authors reported 100% improvement in visual performance (spatial acuity) in treated animals compared to an untreated control group, and the transplanted RPE cells did not cause any pathology. In the treated rats, spatial acuity, or the ability to see fine detail, was approximately 70% that of normal rats (that had no RPE defect).”

“Macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in persons over age 60 in the United States and affects more than 30 million people worldwide. Embryonic stem cells would offer a readily available, safe, and reproducible source of replacement tissue to restore photoreceptors damaged or destroyed by disease and to restore a range of visual functions.”
Posted by Hupeger Creamble4059 2006-09-26 15:15||   2006-09-26 15:15|| Front Page Top

#4 "Hmmm, how many billions have been spent on missile defense and how many lifes have been saved?"

I guess we dont' know that just yet, do we?

"I’m not against missile defense, just against ignorance."

Well, since this thread isn't about stem cells (it was mentioned merely as a comparison of the press that one thing gets vs. another), surely you aren't ignorant of the successes of ballistic missile defence?

Posted by Mark E. 2006-09-26 15:46||   2006-09-26 15:46|| Front Page Top

#5 IIUC, stem cell advances haven't done anything for incineration "wounds" nor high gamma and neutron exposure from a nuke ICBM blast. Correct me if I'm wrong, though....
Posted by Frank G 2006-09-26 16:07||   2006-09-26 16:07|| Front Page Top

#6 Quite so Frank. I'll vote for genetic survival over genetic engineering any day.
Posted by Besoeker 2006-09-26 16:09||   2006-09-26 16:09|| Front Page Top

#7 
The public has been lead to believe that there have been advances in embryonic stem cell research in foreign countries and the US must “catch up” or be “left behind”. We now know that these well publicized advances in Italy and Korea were frauds, yet we still see the results quoted by scientists who wish to receive state funding; scientists whom you would think would have the intellectual honesty to admit that there have been no such advances. So failing obtain private funding from knowledgably investors in the public sector, researchers turn to the not-so-knowledgeable politicians.

The researchers you quote would be the direct recipients of embryonic stem cell funding so of course they’ll be proponents. Not everyone is as enthusiastic about embryonic stem cell research. Dr. Lyle Sensenbrenner, who is not a proposed recipient of this funding, is not so enthralled. Dr. Sensenbrenner is a retired physician/scientist who spent most of his professional career doing both laboratory and clinical research in the use of stem cells for the treatment of human disorders. He was the director of the Experimental Hematology Laboratory at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center from 1976 until 1987. He states “After 25+ years of research, embryonic stem cells have not produced a single cure. While scientifically fascinating, so far embryonic stem cells have not been shown to be medically useful.”

In fact, embryonic stem cell treatment worse than not medically useful. Research on animals has shown that in each and every case, the animal “patients” were worse off than before the treatment with embryonic stem cells. Not only were the animals not cured of their (often human induced) diseases, they were often left with tumorous growths and crippling arthritis. How could any responsible person suggest that after 25 years of failure in animal trials, we now begin treating humans knowing that they would be exposed to heavy doses of anti-rejection drugs, tumors and other crippling side effects that result from having foreign cells implanted in their bodies?

Embryonic stem cell research is reminiscent of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment where humans were unknowingly used for publicly funded research on the effects of syphilis. In this 40 year long experiment, black men received fake treatments for syphilis in an effort to gain scientific data to combat a devastating disease. Just like the recipients of the unproven embryonic stem cell research, these desperate men and their families were given false hope by scientists and politicians they trusted. To lead people on, to give them false hope just to obtain funding and further one’s scientific career in this manner is not only unethical, it is barbaric.

According to Dr. Sensenbrenner , non-embryonic stem cells, from adult tissue, umbilical cords, umbilical cord blood, and placentas, and even the patient’s own body have been used to treat at least 65 conditions to date. Almost every day, one can read about advances using adult stem cells. After 25 years we are still waiting for one positive result from embryonic stem cell research. Even researcher who promote embryonic stem cell research have to admit that treatments for real diseases in real people are 10 or more years off using embryonic stem cells. Private funding for adult stem cell research is pouring in to start-up companies in the US and abroad. The paucity of results for embryonic stem cell research has resulted in this miss-guided and reckless plunge into dangerous and un-ethical research funded by your tax dollars.

Telling people with crippling or incurable diseases that embryonic stem cell research will help improve their condition is not supported by facts and it’s cruel to suggest it is.
Posted by John J. Simmins">John J. Simmins  2006-09-26 20:42||   2006-09-26 20:42|| Front Page Top

#8 Facts, JJS??? Facts??? We don't need no stinkin facts!
Posted by MSM 2006-09-26 20:50||   2006-09-26 20:50|| Front Page Top

#9 JJ Simmins - thks for your comments - as I understand it, private investmnt has shied away from embryonic stem cells for lack of progress, pushing the grant-feeders to ask for gov't funding. If it were that promising, private money would be all over it, irregardless of the moral/ethical issues.
Posted by Frank G 2006-09-26 21:04||   2006-09-26 21:04|| Front Page Top

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