Putting the cart before the stem cell

[Rosalinda]

Australia is having the same cloning debate as is Missouri. John Martin, an emeritus professor of medicine at the University of Melbourne, poses the question essential to this debate.

What is the evidence for any of these possibilities?
There are no cell-based therapies for any disease that would warrant the preparation of human embryonic stem cells by SCNT (“therapeutic cloning”). **Proof of this **as an approach has never been obtained from any experimental model of disease in animals. When claims of the benefits of embryonic stem cells are made, the list of diseases usually consists of diabetes, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, muscular dystrophy, the replacement of dead heart muscle following heart attacks, of brain tissue following strokes and so on. For several of these conditions there are appropriate experimental models that can be studied in animals, but it remains the case that embryonic stem cells have never yet been shown in animal research to provide a cure that is sufficiently prolonged and free of complications to warrant human studies…

theage.com.au/news/opinion/ethical-stem-cell-research/2006/07/24/1153593266100.html?page=fullpage

 

[Della]

The thing that is driving embryonic stem cell “research” is, as usual, money. Grants and donations and taxes, etc. are solicited with the promise of cures for many terrible disorders and diseases never mind that there is no evidence that they will do any of the things promised. Indeed, such stem cells have been shown to be so unformed that they are too unstable to be used. There are better stem cells that can be used, such as adult or cord blood that are much more promising and have shown some results already. But, if people can get money for embryonic stem cells, they will keep up the mantra that cures are “just around the corner” in order to keep the money flowing in.