Stem Cell Research

Leftists (MoveOn.org. and CNN/MSNBC kind) lie. They lie often.  They lie routinely, and as a matter of course.  They lie without guilt, for a "higher" cause than truth. 

 

Stem cells are an area where the left has tired to DECEIVE as much as possible, because they think the issue "works" for them (because of the usual mainstream media assistance).

 

1. NO ONE (not Sarah Palin, not ANYBODY) opposes adult stem cell research.  And adult stem cell research is, in addition to research on umbilical cord blood, amniotic fluid, and other areas not involving the destruction of fetuses or embryos.  No one opposes funding on any of these, except to the extent too much government spending may be opposed on fiscal grounds.  Leftists often try to confuse the issue by seeming to suggest that conservatives are against all kinds of stem cell research, which is obviously untrue.  Conservatives are against the wanton generating and killing of embryos, and against cloning.

 

2.  NO ONE is prohibiting, that I am aware of, PRIVATE embryonic stem cell research.  This is the only controversial kind.  If this is so "promising" an area, why is more PRVIATE money not available?

 

3.  NO "breakthrough" has been achieved through embryonic stem cell research in ANY country, even though restrictions on public funding in the U.S. have obviously not applied to foreign countries.  In other words, embryonic stem cell research has provided NO effective treatment for any major health problem.  Dirty little secret:  The MAIN push for embryonic stem cell research FEDERAL FUNDING (or other government funding) comes from the PRO-ABORTION lobby, which wants to bootstrap this "issue" into support for ABORTION.

 

4.  President Bush provided the FIRST Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.  The only restrictiion was that the funding was limited to existing stem cell "lines" already in existence.  In other words, no Federal funding would be provided for killing NEW embryos.  The old stem cell lines are in such a form that they generally remain available for NEW stem cell research.

 

5.  Probably trumping all of the above. Scientists have been developing the ability to convert cells other than "embryonic stem cells" into stem cells.  The reason embryonic stem cells were used by some experimenters is that the cells have not yet "specialized" (developed into a certain kind of cell, like a heart cell), and can theoretically be transformed in ways to regenerate diseased/damaged cells in areas (like the nervous system) where that cannot be done by the body.  The idea is that maybe entire organs could be generated, but cells from the SAME individual (adult stem cells or cord cells) are more useful for this type of purpose, and almost any kind of purpose, because you presumably don't have a rejection problem (the body rejecting foreign tissue).  But the ONLY advantage of embryonic stem cells is that they are unspecialized cells, that can be changed into many different kinds of cells.  In recent years, however scientists have reported success in developing this kind of mutable "stem" cell from regular cells.  Once perfected, this technique makes the entire issue of "embryonic stem cells" MOOT.  The Paul Harvey radio news program had another item a few days ago on this, which flatly seemed to say that the whole argument was about to go away because of continued new advances.

 

Even if you quibble over some item above, and I am personally aware of the truth of essentially all of it, this is hardly much of an "issue".  As I said, I don't think pro-abortion groups care much about stem cell research itself.  They just want to PROMOTE the idea that abortion is okay. 

 

Doesn't John McCain support paying for embryonic stem cell research?  What made you think I LIKE John McCain (politically).  I like HER (Sarah Palin).  This is being raised as an argument against HER.  It is hardly a very powerful one.