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On Embryonic Stem Cells, Frist Backs A LoserBy Michael Fumento Published 08/03/2005 [techcentralstation.com/images/article_menubar_email.gif](javascript:
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What does embryonic stem cell research have to do with the space shuttle? Seemingly nothing. Dig deeper, though. Whatever NASA may claim, there’s little the shuttle can do that unmanned spaceships cannot - at much lower costs. But NASA knows what sci-fi writers always have, that we’re enamored of manned space flight. The shuttle’s main mission is maintaining NASA’s prestige and budget.
Yet if the shuttle has proved to have little use, ESCs have so far had none. They’ve never been tested on a human, much less treated one. And like the shuttle, there’s a far superior alternative. Culled from numerous body tissues as well as umbilical cords and placenta, these are generally referred to as "adult stem cells." Yet the value of ASCs are routinely downplayed or even ignored precisely because ESCs, like the shuttle, are of such marginal value to the human race but of such tremendous value to individual reputations and budgets.
****Which brings us to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s support of new legislation (and his break with the Bush administration) that would tremendously expand federal aid** for ESC research. (Note: one of the myths surrounding ESC research is that it currently receives no federal support, while another goes even further to say such research is illegal.)**
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[E-Mail](javascript:[techcentralstation.com/images/article_menubar_bookmark.gif](javascript:doBookmark()) [Bookmark](javascript:doBookmark())[techcentralstation.com/images/article_menubar_print.gif](javascript: [Print](javascript:[techcentralstation.com/images/article_menubar_save.gif](javascript:doSaveAs()) [Save](javascript:doSaveAs())http://www.techcentralstation.com/images/friststemcell.jpg TCSWhat does embryonic stem cell research have to do with the space shuttle? Seemingly nothing. Dig deeper, though. Whatever NASA may claim, there’s little the shuttle can do that unmanned spaceships cannot - at much lower costs. But NASA knows what sci-fi writers always have, that we’re enamored of manned space flight. The shuttle’s main mission is maintaining NASA’s prestige and budget.
Yet if the shuttle has proved to have little use, ESCs have so far had none. They’ve never been tested on a human, much less treated one. And like the shuttle, there’s a far superior alternative. Culled from numerous body tissues as well as umbilical cords and placenta, these are generally referred to as "adult stem cells." Yet the value of ASCs are routinely downplayed or even ignored precisely because ESCs, like the shuttle, are of such marginal value to the human race but of such tremendous value to individual reputations and budgets.
****Which brings us to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s support of new legislation (and his break with the Bush administration) that would tremendously expand federal aid** for ESC research. (Note: one of the myths surrounding ESC research is that it currently receives no federal support, while another goes even further to say such research is illegal.)**
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