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Embryonic Stem Cell
Delirium
by
John Horvat II
Most have already seen the
stem cell news stories. A handicapped person is shown in
a wheelchair suffering from his malady. The picture changes
to a laboratory where research is taking place. The message:
embryonic stem cell research will cure the poor suffering
person. The screen then focuses on a conservative politician
who raises cruel moral objections to the procedures.
It must be noted right from
the start that even if embryonic stem cell research did
help treatment and even cure diseases, it would be totally
unacceptable since it kills human embryos.
However, the tragedy of such
media portrayals lays not in the “cruelty” of
such moral positions but the falsity of the conclusion.
Embryonic stem cell simply will not cure the poor handicapped
person. There is no scientific evidence to support this
conclusion. However, the viewer is deliberately left with
that impression.
Such tactics are symptoms
of what might be called an embryonic stem cell (ESC) delirium
– a syndrome that causes patients to cling obstinately
to such false conclusions and compulsively black out any
other opinion.
Never mind that human life
is destroyed! Never mind the fact that such research is
not yielding results! Never mind that the conclusion is
unscientific! Don’t even think about the possibility
of sin. All these are minor considerations.
Nothing seems to stop embryonic
stem cell delirium. Bring up the facts and the media only
cry all the louder: embryonic stem cell research must go
forward.
Just consider the facts.
No approved treatments have
been obtained using embryonic stem cells. None at all. No
human trials are being done. After 20 years of research,
embryonic stem cells are not being used to treat people.
Scientists have spent a whole generation to find out that
embryonic stem cells are unreliable. Nature itself seems
to react against their use since they tend to produce tumors,
cause transplant rejection or form the wrong cells.
The record is extremely clear.
These cells are not working and are even hazardous. There
are no proven success stories in 20 years! There are no
promising prospects for the near future. However, that does
not stop the media’s cries. It does not stop celebrities
infected with this delirium from demanding: embryonic stem
cell research must be supported.
The worst thing is that ESC
sufferers will not even rationally consider other alternatives.
Adult stem cells have proven themselves time and again.
These cells can be obtained
without killing human life. They are practical and ethical.
Typically drawn from the bone marrow of patients, they have
an excellent track record being used clinically over 30,000
times. Researchers are constantly making breakthroughs in
this area.
Private investors are funding
adult stem cell not embryonic stem cell research. They are
making startling advancements using adult stem cells in
treating Parkinson’s disease, juvenile diabetes and
spinal cord injuries.
Stem cells from neo-natal
cord blood have also proven successful. More than 6,000
patients and 66 diseases have been treated. The results
are promising and exciting.
And yet the conclusion
from those with ESC delirium is not to pour public money
into these very successful treatments but those that have
failed. State governments across the country are climbing
over each other to get on this failing bandwagon throwing
good money after bad. Billions, not millions, of dollars
are being invested on this pipe dream that is really fast
becoming a nightmare.
Bad economics cannot deter them.
One would think sufferers would at least be concerned by women
whose health could be harmed by egg harvesting methods. However,
not even women’s health issues, so precious to feminists
worldwide, seem not to affect the heartless insensitivity
caused by ESC delirium.
Alas, perhaps researchers
would do well to search for a cure for this illogical malady.
Tragically, there are no regenerative stem cells that can
help.
No, ESC delirium is not
a biological or even psychological malady. It is the sad byproduct
of our culture of death. It is a moral illness that deadens
the sensitivity to a moral law inside the soul. It causes
society to lose its bearings and overturns all moral barriers
that stand in its way.
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