Embryonic Research & Progress Stifled By Bush's Incompetence



A

AbelMalcolm

Guest
America is falling far behind the rest of the world when it comes to stem cell research, because
of the Neanderthal Christian Fundamentalist idiot President that we have right now. Just because
of Bush, millions of people are right now suffering unnecessarily from all sorts of illnesses,
from a lack of transplant organs, & from Parkinsons disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Osteoarthritis,
Alzheimers, Lou Gehrigs disease as well as a host of other auto-immune disorders, & many many
other diseases.

For as long as we have this total idiot occupying the most powerful seat in the world, people all
over the world WILL suffer. This November, you MUST vote against this idiot Bush, otherwise you too
are an idiot. And that's all there is to it! Abel Malcolm

From: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=3Dstory&u=3D/ap/20040213/ap_on_hi_te= /cloning_lag_1

U.S. Losing Edge in Stem Cell Research

Fri Feb 13, 2004

By PAUL ELIAS, AP Biotechnology Writer

SAN FRANCISCO - It's official: The United States has fallen significantly behind in mining the
promising field of stem cell research to treat disease. =A0 A momentous milestone - a team of South
Korean researchers has announced its successful harvesting of stem cells from a cloned human embryo
- is a feat U.S. researchers have been striving to achieve since at least 2001.

The script, many U.S. scientists say, was essentially written by the Bush administration when it
decided to restrict federal funding for research in the politically charged field.

U.S. researchers say the therapeutic cloning accomplished by the South Koreans - creating embryos
not to make babies but to treat disease and prolong lives - mirrors research brought to a virtual
standstill in this country by domestic politics.

The promise of such research, advocates say, is that it may eventually create therapies that won't
lead to immune rejection problems in people.

While they hailed what they considered a landmark occasion, U.S. scientists lamented that a
technology largely created in the richest nation on earth was getting more support abroad.

Singapore in November unveiled "Biopolis," a $287 million government biotech center focused on stem
cell research.

Chinese researchers last year reported fusing human skin cells with rabbit eggs to produce early
stage embryos, which in turn yielded stem cells. The government is also building a stem cell
research center.

England, Israel and several other countries also have more advanced stem cell programs. Those
countries aren't as politically riven by the issue as the United States.

Some Christian and politically conservative groups oppose the research - especially cloning - as
immoral because fertilized embryos must be destroyed to harvest the stem cells. Leon Kass, chairman
of the President's Council on Bioethics, on Thursday called on Congress to ban all forms of cloning.

Chief among the U.S. scientists' complaints is the relative lack of money devoted to such research.
The federal government limits what researchers can work on with taxpayer-funded grants.

The Bush administration policy also forbids federal funding of all cloning research, even if the
projects are intended solely to create stem cells like the project in South Korea, where donor eggs
also are more readily available.

"All the money for this work has dried up," said Dr. Robert Lanza of Worcester, Mass.-based Advanced
Cell Technology, the one U.S. company that has publicly attempted to clone for stem cells, albeit
unsuccessfully. "We are lucky to still be in business. Our research has suffered immensely."

Lanza said he's been unable to work with human embryos since October because of the high cost of
obtaining eggs and the company's desperate need for investment. Meanwhile, Menlo Park, Calif.-based
Geron Corp. has laid off most of its stem cell researchers and shifted much of its effort to
developing a cancer-fighting drug based on a different technology.

The private sector is far from alone in its struggles. University researchers complain that
President Bush's stance on stem cell research has hindered them and could contribute to a brain
drain of talent overseas.

Bush ordered the National Institutes of Health not to fund any research on stem cells harvested from
embryos after Aug. 9, 2001.

But many scientists question the quality of the available stem cells and argue that many more stem
cell lines need to be developed to move the field forward.

To do that, they said more federal funds are needed. The NIH has awarded $60 million in funding for
human embryonic stem cell research, said Dr. James Battey, chair of the NIH's stem cell research
committee.

Battey said a lack of applications, rather than NIH restrictions, is the reason the federal
government has funded comparatively few stem cell grants.

"We would be happy to spend more," Battey said. But he said no federal funds are available to work
on cloning experiments involving human embryos.

"The administration has stated very clearly it is opposed to therapeutic cloning," Battey said. "As
part of the administration, that prohibits us from supporting that research."

Most U.S. research today is being conducted at a few universities such as Stanford University,
Harvard University and the University of California, San Francisco that have established privately
funded programs.

Small, private foundations such as the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation and the Juvenile
Diabetes Research Foundation also support the work.

California may breathe new life into the field if an ambitious $3 billion stem cell research bond
measure is passed in November.

A coalition of wealthy patient advocates, eminent scientists and Hollywood executives has launched a
well-funded campaign to qualify the measure for the ballot.

The proposed proposition would fund laboratory cloning projects intended to create stem cells for
regenerative and therapeutic medicine while specifically banning cloning programs aimed at
creating babies.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Educate yourself & go to these links:

http://www.moveon.org & http://www.salon.com & http://www.buzzflash.com & http://www.democrats.org &
http://www.commondreams.org & http://www.bushwatch.com &
http://www.academycomputerservice.com/economics/charts.htm &
http://earth.prohosting.com/songofth/jobcreation.jpg
 
abel malcolm sez:

"Just because of Bush, millions of people are right now suffering unnecessarily from all sorts of
illnesses, from a lack of transplant organs, & from Parkinsons disease, Multiple Sclerosis,
Osteoarthritis, Alzheimers, Lou Gehrigs disease as well as a host of other auto-immune disorders, &
many many other diseases..."
_________________________________
Just because of Bush?

Then tell us how "the rest of the world" has developed all those successful treatments for the
ailments you listed?

Maybe you ought to consider shipping out to China where you could volunteer to let them grind you up
for your superior stem cells.
 
"Docky Wocky" <[email protected]> wrote in inimitable style:

> abel malcolm sez:
>
> "Just because of Bush, millions of people are right now suffering unnecessarily from all sorts of
> illnesses, from a lack of transplant organs, & from Parkinsons disease, Multiple Sclerosis,
> Osteoarthritis, Alzheimers, Lou Gehrigs disease as well as a host of other auto-immune disorders,
> & many many other diseases..."
> _________________________________
> Just because of Bush?
>
> Then tell us how "the rest of the world" has developed all those successful treatments for the
> ailments you listed?

If successful treatments existed for those diseases mentioned, then it would be pointless for
nations to be spending billions of dollars for research into therapy and improved diagnosis for
diseases in which there is already a cure!

> Maybe you ought to consider shipping out to China where you could volunteer to let them grind you
> up for your superior stem cells.

The only thing that American scientists can do now is work with adult stem cells, namely those
multipotential cells isolated from adult tissues. Irv Weissman of Stanford, a leader in the field of
hES research, has reported results of controversial experiments in which he emphatically asserts
that these cells cannot be differentiated into a wide variety of types for tissues that would be
targets for therapy. More people in the stem cell research community think he could be right than
wrong, at least in one thought: that by taking away the ability to explore the possibilities with
the acknowledged pluripotentiality of embryonic stem cells, we are disadvantaged in finding
treatments for heritable and auto-immune diseases than if we lived in a world where no such nonsense
restrictions to research applied.

There are certainly many reasons for America to apologize by telling Bush he's fired in November,
but bans on research are one of them.

--

The world is too dangerous to live in---not because of the people who do evil, but because of the
people who sit and let it happen."

--- attributed to Albert Einstein
 
"Docky Wocky" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
| abel malcolm sez:
|
| "Just because of Bush, millions of people are right now suffering unnecessarily from all sorts of
| illnesses, from a lack of transplant organs, & from Parkinsons disease, Multiple Sclerosis,
| Osteoarthritis, Alzheimers, Lou Gehrigs disease as well as a host of other auto-immune disorders,
| & many many other diseases..."
| _________________________________
| Just because of Bush?

By denying funding to this break through research, Bush is preventing more rapid development of
potential cures for future suffers of many of these illness. It's stupid and totally
incomprehensible to the medical research community. And, yes it is just because of Bush.

|
| Then tell us how "the rest of the world" has developed all those
successful
| treatments for the ailments you listed?
|
| Maybe you ought to consider shipping out to China where you could
volunteer
| to let them grind you up for your superior stem cells.
|
|