I thought the question of when life begins was above Obama’s pay grade. At least, that’s what he said. If that’s the case, then how can he support embryonic stem cell research? Has he decided that the life of a human being does not begin at conception as is the scientific consensus?

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I saw this video today that shows how the different news outlets are reporting the story about Obama lifting the stem cell funding ban. It’s really interesting to see the difference in perspectives… definitely worth a look.

http://www.newsy.com/videos/stem_cell_funding_ban_lifted/

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President Obama Also Drops Executive Order for Adult Stem Cell Research Funds

Imagine that! Well, at least Obama’s consistent in his destruction of all things good in America. Funny too how the MSM hasn’t gotten around to reporting this part.

[excerpt] click her for the full article

Bioethcis attorney and watchdog Wesley J. Smith says the Obama decision to also reverse this executive order shows Obama is really the anti-science president, not his predecessor.

“Of course, the Administration didn’t have the candor or courage to publicize this part of his nasty work,” he said. “But the now dead order explicitly required funding for alternative methods such as the new IPSCs, which offer so much promise without the ethical contentiousness.”

“Alternative methods are one of the few areas in which we can all row in the same direction, which I thought this president wanted to do,” Smith added.

“I can think of only two reasons for this action, for which I saw no advocacy either in the election or during the first weeks of the Administration,” Smith says. “First, vindictiveness against all things ‘Bush’ or policies considered by the Left to be ‘pro-life’ and second, a desire to get the public to see unborn human life as a mere corn crop ripe for the harvest.”

“So much for taking the politics out of science,” he concludes

Mata Note: I took the liberty of correcting your URL to the article, pdill. You can find it on Lifenews.com

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Oops…nevermind my comment to Prag….Mata already addressed it in comment #33; plus, it seems he didn’t last long here. [sarcasm]Loved his poetic self-important elitist soapboxing in comment #40.[/sarcasm]

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It seems to be a no brainer to me.@Aye Chihuahua:

Why, oh why, can’t we focus on the research that is actually producing results without the moral dilemmas that come with ESCR?

But didn’t you get the transparency memo from President Obama, Aye? He’s speaking on behalf of science, whereas the opposition speaks only on grounds of ideology and politics.

@Pragpro:

BTW The National Academies of Science, agrees with President Obama, that this will allow faster treatments for paralysis, juvenile diabetes, and on, and on. Maybe God inspired the NAS to take this opinion because he/she/it doesn’t like needless human suffering? If you have that Memo from God instructing us on Embryonic Research, please let me know.

The only God they’re worshipping here is the Almighty Dollar, through government grants.

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can you please remove #48 and keep #49. Thanks (my first edit got stuck in spam)

Done – Aye

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Obama’s lift yesterday regarding taxpayer funds for ESC’s has nothing to do with cures. ESCR (from human embryos) is “so yesterday” even the state of CA is using its ESC voted taxpayer monies to fund grants for ADULT stem cell work.

The real breakthrough came almost 2 years ago when a Japanese group made iPS cells from patient SKIN cells. This was such a major break through even Ian Wilmut, of Dolly the Sheep, retired the ESC technology and switched to iPS technology. Consequently, labs around the world switched to iPS cells, even Harvard which was heavily funded with private ESC research monies (Bush never made the research illegal as many incorrectly report, only not available with tax payer money).

The ultimate goal of stem cell research is/was to get “patient specific.” The first group to do that was out of Australia using Adult stem cells from the nose. Harvard followed closely behind making groundbreaking news with patient specific iPS cells. George Bush even presented a coveted award to one of the leading Harvard scientists this past December, but of course it got no MSM coverage (I wrote of this about a month ago on one of the other threads here).

Patient specific means that for the first time, the actual diseases can be carefully studied, understood, and tested against drugs; all conducive of course to successful treatments and cures.

It was ONLY after the iPS patient specific work at Harvard this past year that the drug companies started putting in the money. Mata is correct in that when the technology is good, the public funds are always there. That has indeed been the case with Adult Stem cell technology, especially after the iPS technology.

The adult stem cell news continues to get better! Just this month, reported in nature, another breakthrough involving electroporation technology has now eliminated the problem of a carcinogenic gene (c-Myc) used in the iPS technology. In simple English, it means that any oncogenic genes used in the iPS technology (albeit necessary for the process), can now be eliminated by a “filtering out” so to speak, i.e., electroporation. This will be especially important when patients start receiving treatments. It was never a problem that any one didn’t think would be overcome.

To date, there are 73 known cures and or treatments using adult stem cells, and ZERO success and copious horror stories using embryonic stem cells. There are many reasons beyond ethical that ESC’s are not ideal. For starters, the research is complicated and involves human eggs which are very difficult to get, even with highly paid donors. Retrieving human eggs from women is an ethical issue in of it itself. Moral issues aside, the ovaries can over stimulate, and deaths have occurred in rare situations.

The other reasons involve incompatibility, owing to the fact that unlike iPS cells which are directly from the patient, ECS’s are foreign to the body. Without transplant drugs, the body will reject the cells. Of even more concern are the tumors that patients of ESC acquire (recent case mentioned in previous post)

This all leads to the million dollar question. Assuming that Obama was correctly advised by his scientific staff, why would he undo a ban that was a given to be divisive and most of all, at least in terms of scientific advancement, unnecessary?

I’m sorry to say it has absolutely nothing do with cures and a lot to do with abortion. I dare say (but I hope not), possibly eugenics. I want to be careful regarding the eugenics call because the guidelines have not yet been put into place. What I am sure about is that the entire “politics” of ESC’s has always been about the desensitization of abortion. It makes even more sense now since the “Stimulus” bill with big government calling the shots of our medical treatment from the mandatory electronic database. I suspect in some shape or form, abortions will be mandatory down the line. The more we “get used to it” now by cloning and killing embryos just because “we can”, the easier it will be to feed to the masses when “economic” decisions regarding “worthless disposable life” are at hand.

Of course there is also the “follow the money” crowd. Right now the “get it while its hot” crowd is porking on stem cell stocks, but know this is as phony as the easy housing loans.

Yes you will still find scientists who are adamant that we still need to “study the real living human stem cell.” Anyone in science knows that it’s simply code for “I can therefore I will.” It’s the ultimate ego/power trip, especially with human life.

That said, even iPS cells can be misused. So far they have not been, but that day is coming, rest assured. The technology already exists to make three parent embryos and embryos sans sperm. If we were not playing with human life, I could get pretty fascinated by it all myself. But the reality is, it IS human life, and regardless if you come from it as a civil rights issue or a religious issue, the misuses of any of these technologies are as evil as the FALL for the religious, and tortured and abused slaves for the secular.

Used correctly iPS cells hold extraordinary promise. The question of the day is, considering our entitlement and our over consuming society, how far, if at all, will we let the good get ugly? Do know that a one cell embryo contains all the DNA it will ever have, even as a 90 year old; totally unique to that person (or future person). It’s fully human and fully living.

The debate need not go into religion, merely only to civil rights, that under our founding fathers, all LIFE is to be equal and protected.

America, and especially the vulnerable, was duped from day one regarding ESC research. If anyone is going to get up out of their wheelchairs, it will be because of adult stem cell technology, which sadly, never fit the political agenda. I also want to mention that few, if any, are “disposing of frozen embryos.” Even non religious parents agonize over them.

From a moral standpoint, at least in my opinion, yesterday was one of the saddest days in American history. I am convinced that the consequences will be startling! If we haven’t proven that we are barbaric in our 4000 abortions a day, we certainly showed our greedy self-serving, power hungry face today by celebrating just how low we can go when it comes to human life. I guarantee you, in one form or another, this one is coming back to bite.

p.s. My first post went into spam while I was adding a link in the edit format

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@MataHarley:

Well, I didn’t get to hang around FA last night. I was up late working on an Op Ed piece for our local paper.

I see that the MoonBats were a’flyin in my absence.

Pragpro burned himself out rather quickly but not before we got to enjoy the full depth, width, and quality of his knowledge.

Oh well, another bug on the windshield.

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Blast,

I’m just following the Democrats’ lead – I’m being patriotic by criticizing the President.

Obama apparently thinks that the ends justify the means. But let’s be crystal clear on the stem cell issue. Before George Bush vetoed two bills on the matter, there was federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, and after he vetoed the bills, there was (still) federal funding on embryonic stem cell research. What the vetoes did was to limit federal funding to only the 21 lines of embryonic stem cells that had been in use at the time. So to say that George Bush didn’t allow funding for embryonic stem cell research is an absolute lie. Nobody seems to care about the facts, though, so so-called journalists take liberty with the facts (or don’t care to learn the facts) and get away with saying that Bush was against stem cell research. What’s the first thing taught in Journalism 101? Verify the facts.

The NAS is happy, because now they’ve been given the go-ahead to redefine life as embryos that someone wants. How long before we star using aborted fetuses for their stem cell rich cord blood? As soon as they are seen as having value, will babies “born” during partial-birth abortions be seen more as a valuable research commodity than as human persons worthy of legal protection?

And as has already been pointed out, there seems to be less need for embryonic each day as science finds more ways to coax stem cells from skin, bones, and even brain cells, without resorting to harvesting embryos.

The reason embryonic stem cells are desired is because they are plentiful. Why not use them if they’re just going to be thrown out, right? How do we keep clinics from producing these embryos solely for the purposes of embryonic stem cell research? After all, they’ve got lots of frozen eggs and frozen sperm just sitting around. What company wouldn’t try to sell off its inventory (or inventory by-products) if the price was right?

This is another example of change that the world could live without.

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Mata, I have seen posted here many things blaming the present President for the state of the economy and calling him a socialist for wanting to nationalize businesses, etc. I bet we end up with the major banks nationalized. I would not doubt that the US will own most of GM and combine it with Chrysler. The thought of these businesses failing and the implications on the rest of the economy is not to be understated. I just don’t know if we would have a free market if they all failed. We live in very very perilous times.

This just out tonight and no doubt we will see the markets continue to plunge:

WASHINGTON — America’s five largest banks, which already have received $145 billion in taxpayer bailout dollars, still face potentially catastrophic losses from exotic investments if economic conditions substantially worsen, their latest financial reports show.

Citibank, Bank of America , HSBC Bank USA , Wells Fargo Bank and J.P. Morgan Chase reported that their “current” net loss risks from derivatives — insurance-like bets tied to a loan or other underlying asset — surged to $587 billion as of Dec. 31 . Buried in end-of-the-year regulatory reports that McClatchy has reviewed, the figures reflect a jump of 49 percent in just 90 days.

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