Breaking Through The Stem Cell News Blockade
I got up early this morning, checked the New York Times, LA Times, USA Today, and other papers to see whether they had reported the big news that scientists had created a primordial artificial liver using umbilical cord blood stem cells. As expected, nothing: The news blockade was in place. After all, if it isn't an embryonic stem cell research, it isn't worth reporting since that is where the "best hope" is to be found. I mean, Michael J. Fox tells us so, right?
So, I wrote this piece and the good people over at the Daily Standard were kind enough to post it immediately. Check it out and break through the stem cell news blockade!
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 9:50 AM
8 Comments
8 Comments:
Just thought I'd let you know that I linked to both Secondhand Smoke and the Standard column on my blog today.
It's a shame that the embryonic stem cell debate has been distorted, and the opponents are painted as a bunch of religious nuts who are obsessed with embryos, when in fact this isn't the case at all.
I personally don't object to ESCR, but it would be beneficial if the media actually presented the complete picture of the controversy.
That is my point. People can support or oppose (I oppose, obviosly, particularly to cloning). But the issue is crucial and people desrve the full story. And that is precisely what they are being denied by Big Biotech propagandists and their handmaidens in the media. Thanks, Susan, for your input.
Kelly, indeed. See my recent entry on the difficulty one bone marrow donor recruiter is having precisely because of the point you raise. Thanks for contributing to Secondhand Smoke.
My question is simple...do we really need such things?
From Ituloy AngSulong.
myx2x: I think that if we can use umbilical cord blood stem cells to create new livers for patients, it would be an outstanding achievement.
This story isn't getting play in the media because it provides an ethical way toward that end. For cultural reasons, most media writers WANT the breakthroughs to be embryonic. WHY that is could be the subject of a book.
I've been thinking about writing a book specifically about this whole issue. Something that will counteract that whole STEM CELL WARS debacle.
It's a lot bigger than anything created with ES cells. And it undermines much of the argument that only ES cells can really be morphed into various tissues.
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