The "Political Science"
of Stem Cells

 
   Congress is considering legislation to divert taxpayer dollars toward stem cell
   research that requires destroying live human embryos. In the campaign to
   promote such funding, political hype often substitutes for the scientific facts.
   This series of one-page "lessons" responds to mere politics with science.

 

- Lesson 1: The Fountain of Youth

             Do embryonic stem cells produce a fountain of youth, or an
        eruption of cancer?

- Lesson 2: Remember Not to Tell Fairy Tales About Alzheimer's

            Scientific experts agree that claims of an embryonic stem cell cure
       for Alzheimer's disease are far-fetched.

- Lesson 3: Pay Attention To Your Own Scientists' Results

            If Christopher Reeve had read his own researchers' results,
       he would have known that the unique promise of embryonic stem cells
       has been exaggerated.

- Lesson 4: The Myth of the 400,000 Embryos

            Embryos currently frozen in fertility clinics offer nothing like the
       inexhaustible supply of stem cells some claim.

- Lesson 5: Juvenile Comments About Diabetes

            Embryos currently frozen in fertility clinics offer nothing like the
       inexhaustible supply of stem cells some claim.

- Lesson 6: The Hard Sell on Cell Lines

            The stem cell lines eligible for funding under President Bush's policy are
       not as limited, and new privately created lines are not as superior, as
       some assume.

- Lesson 7: It's Not Political Hype That Will Get People Walking Again

            It's adult stem cell research that is beginning to get spinal cord
       injury patients out of their wheelchairs.

- Lesson 8: Bloody Nonsense

            Do umbilical cord blood stem cells treat only blood diseases? 
       Not by a long shot.

- Lesson 9: Making a Difference?

            Getting stem cells to make many different cell types in the lab,
       and getting them to make real treatments for people, are very
       different things.

- Lesson 10: You Can't Advance Science By Denying Science

       Denying that human embryos are human beings isn't just immoral. 
       It's unscientific.

- Lesson 11: Not Months or Days, But Decades

       Although the public is often promised miracle cures, it could be
       decades before embryonic stem cells can be used to treat any disease. 

- Lesson 12: Don't Throw Away the Future

Umbilical cord blood stem cells can now help suffering patients with six dozen illnesses, and show promise in treating many more. Due to a lack of national coordination and funds for cord blood banking, 4 million samples of cord blood are discarded in hospital nurseries every year – a tragedy that Washington-area Channel 4 News calls "throwing away the future."