Posted by
Steve on Thursday, July 20, 2006 8:18:49 PM
This week President Bush vetoed his first bill. That bill would have allowed for federal funding for fetal stem cell research. I agree with that decision by President Bush.
Proponents of fetal stem cell research give all sorts of beautiful pictures of what fetal stem cell research will mean for you and for me. It can cure everything except for a hangnail and I am not so sure about the hangnail.
In all the research into stem cells, fetal stem cell research has obtained 75% or more of the total funding. In all the results from that research 100% of the cures resulting from stem cells are adult stem cells. If 25% or less of the funding is achieving 100% of the results, why are we even talking about continuing to fund fetal stem cell research. Adult stem cells have proven more versatile than anyone had dreamed possible. They have given rise to many cures. I will grant that the cures are not for any of the major illnesses that stem cells hold promise, but they are cures.
Whenever you hear someone talk about stem cell research, they almost always are talking about fetal stem cell research. You can usually tell for sure, if the expected result is a pie-in-the-sky result, it is almost always fetal stem cells they are talking about. If it is a practical approach to solve a real problem that has a possibility of being solved in the next 10 years or so, it is adult stem cells.
One reason people talk about fetal stem cells in such glowing terms is that they have not yet decided what they will be. They could be anything. If they could be anything, then they could be whatever the person would like them to be. This results in the pie-in-the-sky talk of solving everything using stem cells.
Adult stem cells have gone through the process and have already decided what they will be. This has not proven to be completely accurate. We are finding that adult stem cells are much more versatile than originally thought.
Which would you put your money on, something that has proven successful or something that holds a promise but is unsuccessful? I know where I would like to put my money. That is where the President is on this issue. He also does not believe that we should destroy life in order to possibly cure a life.