Using Our Taxes to Emulate Josef Mengele

If at First You Don't Succeed, Pay for More Failure

Yesterday, (1 Dec 2009) the National Institutes of Health released the first 13 lines of cells under Obama's new policy to destroy life in the name of embryonic stem cell (ESC) "research."

"This is the first down payment," said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, drawing a perfect picture of the commodification of life under this administration. Obama's decision puts the government in a business which is not only unethical but also medically unnecessary.

As recently as this week, researchers announced that they successfully used adult stem cells to treat lung disease in mice. The week before, scientists produced evidence that they had used patients' own cells to repair heart damage caused by heart attacks. President Obama would like us to believe that, through his policy, the U.S. is on the cutting-edge of science. In reality, the best technology is moving in the opposite direction of ESC research. To see how ethical science is helping patients now, check out FRC's new "Adult Stem Cells Saved My Life" videos on our website.

What strikes me as 1 of the most unethical lies used to justify unethical actions is the statement by Dr. Francis Collins, director of the NIH. He said: "In accordance with the guidelines, these stem cell lines were derived from embryos that were donated under ethically sound informed consent processes." That means the couples donating their embryos to researchers know that the embryos will be destroyed, are not offered any financial incentives to destroy them, and are given the option of donating their embryo to another couple. No mention is made of the fact that those "embryos" are human beings that will be murdered.

At this point, taxpayer funding is only for the research conducted with these lines. For now, the actual destruction of embryos & the creation of hESC lines is still performed with private money. For now.

The 13 hESC lines approved yesterday were "harvested" by scientists at Children's Hospital Boston & at Rockefeller University. More that 20 additional stem cell lines were being considered for approval soon. 96 lines are currently submitted to the NIH for consideration.

I hate the word harvested to describe the killing of the innocents as harvesting. Like so many other terms used by the "culture of death", it dehumanizes them.

As the FRC article I started with pointed out, there are even more & more successes coming out using adult stem cells (almost daily it seems) that show there is no need for embryonic stem cells to be used.

& it gets even better. In fact, the use of adult stem cells to repair heart damage even undermines the whole need for pluripotent embryonic cells claim. According to the news reports the 53-patient, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase I trial gave the strongest evidence thus far indicating that adult stem cells can actually differentiate, or turn into heart cells to repair damage. According to results from the Phase I study, stem cells from donor bone marrow appear to help heart attack patients recover better by growing new blood vessels to bring more oxygen to the heart. If the results are confirmed by further trials, the new therapy could be in general use within five years. This according to an estimate by Dr. Joshua Hare, a University of Miami cardiologist & lead author of the 10-university study.

According to Dr. Robert Simari, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester who was not involved in the trial: "This is an exciting first step in a direction many thought cell therapy couldn't go. It has demonstrated safety and good changes.''

What happenned in the study? A group of 53 patients who had heart attacks in the previous ten days received adult mesenchymal stem cells & were kept under close study for two years. Without going into all the details (you can read them here or here), after 6 months the patients who received the adult stem cells were four times as likely to have improved overall condition. They were able to pump more blood with each heartbeat than untreated patients (those given the placebo). They had only one-quarter as many dangerous heart arrhythmias & suffered no toxicity or other serious adverse side effects from the treatment.

So why continue using embryonic stem cells? Especially since a former director of the National Institute of Health bluntly declared earlier this year that "embryonic stem cells are obsolete." There are many reasons: pride, hubris, playing god. A lot of this is payback to the "culture of death" by Obama for helping to get him elected. This research helps groups like Planned Parenthood & the National Abortion Federation justify their ongoing daily slaughter of over 3200 innocent children. Mengele justified what he was doing under the guise of improving humanity. In other words, eugenics, something PP founder Margaret Sanger was also a huge proponant of. & PP continues to follow in her footsteps even if they don't use the term.

Additional info: NIH Approves First Embryo Stem Cell Lines under Obama Executive Order