NYT editorial: Behind the Stem Cell Breakthrough; Any praise lavished on Bush is undeserved

[DeepModem Mom]

Behind the Stem Cell Breakthrough
Published: December 1, 2007

The stunning announcement by Japanese and American research teams that they have obtained highly promising stem cells without having to destroy an embryo could help free scientists from shackles that have long hobbled their efforts. It is especially important for a critical field of research that is far behind where it could have been if the Bush administration and Congressional conservatives had not thrown up so many roadblocks.

Many of those same people are now lavishing praise on President Bush for supposedly spurring this advance through his adamant opposition to destroying embryos. That claim is so far-fetched that it needs closer scrutiny....

(Bush's) policy, portrayed as a statesmanlike compromise, permitted federal support for research using only a small number of stem cell lines that already existed, crimping the field from the start. Worse yet, scientists had to ensure that no federal money ever came near their privately supported embryonic stem cell research. No sharing laboratories or equipment that were bought, even in small part, with federal funds. No collaborating with federally supported scientists. It was a mess that persuaded many scientists to avoid the field altogether....

The researchers still say that it would be premature to abandon embryonic stem cell research, which remains the gold standard for measuring how valuable the new cells will be. The new techniques also use factors that can cause cancer, making them unsuitable in current form for therapy.

Any claim that Mr. Bush’s moral stance drove scientists to this discovery must be greeted with particular skepticism. The primary discoverer of the new techniques is a Japanese scientist who was not subject to the president’s restrictions. The senior scientist on the American team told reporters that the political controversy and Bush restrictions set the research effort back about four to five years.

With so much time to make up, we hope the next president will quickly jettison all restrictions on stem cell research. This is too important for any more delays.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/01/opinion/01sat1.html

[aquart]

1. So America loses both the patents and the jobs.

Not to mention the lives lost and the years of suffering and pain. George, I wish you a lingering, painful disease that needs a stem cell cure.

[mac2]

3. Cure?

You wish George a cure? He didn't have compassion for anyone else.

[aquart]

5. I'm sure I failed to mention "cure."

No, just long years of suffering waiting for a cure because of the delay that has done so much harm already.

[mac2]

2. Where there's sick people there's profit for the few

Americans health care costing billions of dollars can be laid at this administrations feet. The elite few can get all the medical help they need (including transplants) so they don't care how many suffer and die.

It would be cheaper health care if it was National and free. Right now drugs, tests, etc. are for profit. Some drugs increasing 300% cost more than other countries. The most outrageous thing of all...we did and paid for the research.The drug companies profit...some of them not even American. Whose the fool here?

For back surgery fusion operation it is $50,000 dollars. A person with good insurance may still pay out of pocket 20%. What if they weren't on health insurance or unemployed? Lose your house and be in debt...bankruptsy? Health problems can cause loss of job, etc.

Just imagine the profits made from Diabetes Type II, MS, Lupus, Aids, Cancer, etc.? The administration wants us sick apparently. So do the religious extremists who see their coffers increase. Should we drag our sick and disabled to the Vatican and Evangelical RW churches for them to care for them? I bet their Faith Based Charity funds went for new religious buildings, land, etc. (tax free) and political payoff.

[AX10]

4. Tell that to CONVICT Chuck Colson and the rest...

of the religo-fascists.

Hitchens is right, religion ruins everything. :puke:
Not only did we lose a chance to save and enhance many lives, but we also lost the patent on this one, meaning that America won't get many jobs from this breakthrough.

[aquart]

6. Chuck found God in the slammer. So many do.

But religion does not "ruin everything." It provides vast sustaining comfort to its followers. You may notice that, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the churches opened up damn fast and people flocked to them. IT's very easy to criticize the harm done in the name of religion. Anyone can.

Sometime you might want to attend a funeral, though. And pay attention.

[Joe Bacon]

9. Ask 4,000+ families how religion ruined their lives

Ask the family of any servicemen how Christian fanatics destroyed their lives!

Especially the assholes in the Assemblies of God and the Southern Baptists who lust for Armageddon!

[Joe Bacon]

7. His Ass-Holeyness wouldn't last a day with diabetes.

If I could make a wish come true, I would wish for George W Bush to spend one day as an insulin-dependent diabetic as I am.

I want him to go through the insulin roller coaster that I do everyday. Let him stick himself every 12 hours with an insulin needle. Let him grab his meter when the blood sugar gets too high or too low. Let him have all the aches and problems that go with diabetes. Let him know that no matter how you try and control diabetes, it always gets worse till you die.

Just for one day, let that asshole suffer from diabetes.

He wouldn't last 5 minutes.

[DeepModem Mom]

8. That's really rough, Joe. Thanks for sharing your personal experience...

as an example of human suffering that might be alleviated if stem cell research had been supported and encouraged instead of shut down.