Stem cell politics. (Insider Report).

Embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) involves cannibalizing embryonic human beings for "stem cells" that can be used to grow vital tissues. This requires destroying a developing human being supposedly to benefit others. During the summer 2001 debate over ESCR, critics of the procedure pointed Out that "adult" stem cells offered more promise in medical research than embryonic stem cells. Note that "adult" stem cells can be taken from human fat or other sources without killing the donor. In recent weeks, however, a study publicized in Science magazine purportedly demonstrated that adult stem cells are of little use in medical research.

The alleged value of embryonic stem cells is their ability to help rebuild tissues throughout the body, something adult stem cells supposedly cannot do. "Blood-forming stem cells from adults make blood," stated Irving Weissman, the primary researcher in the recent study. "They don't make brain; they don't make heart muscle or any of these things."

Weissman's statement provoked the curiosity of Michael Fumento of the Hudson Institute. Fumento contacted Indiana State University biologist David Prentice, who observed: "The Stanford paper [compiled by Weissman and his colleagues] is the one at odds with the bulk of the published literature" on stem cell research. In fact, as Fumento points out, "a report published in Nature Medicine in November 2000 showed that [adult stem cells] ... when injected into mice rebuilt liver tissue. A minor co-author of the piece was named Irving Weissman."

"Ever hear of bone marrow or umbilical-cord-blood transplants?" continues Fumento. "It's the stem cells in the marrow and blood that makes them work. They've been used therapeutically since the 1980s and now some 70 different diseases, primarily forms of leukemia, are treated with them. True, these comprise direct infusions rather than the next step of 'reprogramming' the stem cells outside the body to make them into various types of mature cells. But there's tremendous progress here, too."

Dozens of anti-cancer applications involving adult stem cell therapies have been reported in peer-reviewed medical journals over the last year. Media accounts recently celebrated the near-miraculous recovery of a Dutch youth suffering from "bubble boy syndrome": His defective immune system "was restored when stem cells from his marrow were removed, cultured, and injected back into him."

Focusing on one eccentric and disputed study, the recent coverage of the supposed failure of adult stem cells is "part of a deliberate disinformation campaign" on behalf of embryonic stem cell research, concludes Fumento. "The worse the non-embryonics look, the stronger the case for using embryonic stem cells." With venture capital in the pharmaceutical industry going almost exclusively to non-ESCR research, "those working with embryonic cells are desperate for government funds." So the public is being primed for a campaign to subsidize the needless slaughter of embryonic humans on behalf of extremely dubious medical objectives.