Deception on Stem Cell Research

Stem cell research has potential to find cures for the many serious diseases that plague humanity.  Most people will agree with that statement.  What many do not know is that stem cell research comes in two flavors.  The media and some politicians are pushing embryonic stem cell research.  They rarely mention adult stem cell research.

Given that focus, one would think that the best potential must exist with embryonic stem cell research.   If you have been led to think that, you have been misled, or even deceived.  Adult stem cell research has produced all the progress toward effective treatments, including actual experimental treatments on real people, with some amazing results.   The FDA has even reached the point of approving some of these treatments for standard use.

Why is there all this push for embryonic stem cell research?  Isn’t President Bush restricting it?  No, he is just restricting use of tax money for this research.  Embryonic stem cell research is not regulated or restricted.  However, investors are seeing a dead end and have stopped funding the biotech companies that perform embryonic stem cell research.  When experiments using embryonic stem cells on animals are more likely to produce cancerous growths rather than cures, investors take notice.

The attempt to link embryonic stem cell research to Ronald Reagan’s death from Alzheimer’s is purely a marketing ploy to seek a new infusion of cash from taxpayers.  This linkage is itself deceptive because embryonic stem cell researchers have already concluded that it is extremely unlikely that Alzheimer’s could be cured using stem cells.

Ronald Reagan would not have supported embryonic stem cell research, even if it might have led to a cure for the disease that killed him.  He made it clear that human life must be respected from the moment of fertilization.  It is impossible to honor the memory of someone by doing the opposite of what he stood for.  Ronald Reagan was against killing human life as a means to help other human beings.

Adult stem cell research has shown great success so far, and promise for future breakthroughs, and it does not require the killing of human embryos.  If taxpayer funds are needed, they should be spent on adult stem cell research, not embryonic stem cell research.

William Beckman
Executive Director
Illinois Right to Life Committee
65 E. Wacker Place, Suite 800
Chicago, IL 60601
312-422-9300
www.illinoisrighttolife.org
beckman@illinoisrighttolife.org