Adult Stem Cell Successes Finally in the News
This is how I see it: Generally speaking, people want treatments for terrible diseases and injuries. They also are queasy about embryonic stem cell research and disapprove of cloning for any reason. But the yearning for cures trumps most people's ethical concerns about ESCR, so long as they believe that scientists are using "leftover" IVF embryos that "are going to be destroyed anyway." If they are told clearly that SCNT is cloning, they oppose it even for cures--which is why tens of millions in propaganda dollars is being spent annually to hide the ball that somatic cell nuclear transfer is indeed cloning--as was done with Amendment 2. Still, most folk would prefer that treatments and cures come from adult stem cells, and thus the shamans of scientism also downplay the potential for adult/umbilical cord blood stem cell therapies.
Big Biotech's political strategy requires a compliant media that will willingly parrot the party line. This permits the power of repetition to steadly seep the desired political message into the public's consciousnesses--even for those who don't follow the stem cell debate closely. So far, the American media has gone enthusiastically along.
The key to breaking this political pincer has been for adult/umbilical cord blood stem cells to advance so far that the media news blockade becomes untenable. There are early indications that this may be finally beginning to happen. In recent days, we have seen small stories on how scientists have spurred the growth of adult brain stem cells in mice offering hope for neurological diseases, how a patient's own adult stem cells might treat heart disease, how mouse bone marrow stem cells might help diabetes by morphing into insulin creating cells, and how stem cells found in amniotic fluid might help treat gestating fetuses with developmental defects.
This is just a trickle of what could be reported, and many of these articles are run overseas where ESCR is less controversial--pointing to the political nature of U.S. coverage. But, it's a start. Let's hope these ethical stem cell breakthroughs keep on coming to the point that even the New York Times will start reporting on the successes as a regular part of its news coverage.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 7:21 AM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
>>> Let's hope these ethical stem cell breakthroughs keep on coming to the point that even the New York Times will start reporting on the successes as a regular part of its news coverage. <<<
The longer I live the more I realize that nobody cares about the issues when it comes to the World Out There. If it happens within someone's small circle of immideate importance (one's mother breaks a hip, for example, or one's daughter is raped), then pull out all the stops, there is a crisis on our hands, wrongs must be righted and someone will pay for injustice. That's good, that's the way it should be.
But if something happens Out There, nobody cares. Embryotic stem cell research kills off young children, oops, well, we can't really say that, and it's not our business anyway, and besides which, why should I worry? So-and-so is an authority figure and he says that embriotic stem cells are the way to go. What do I know?
Now, after all the wonderful advances offered by Adult stem cell treatment, we finally get some recognition. But I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that nobody will really care. There's no hype, there's no glitz, and people are still listening to Doctor So-and-so because they're too lazy to think for themselves.
Wesley, you're considerably more optimistic about the direction that the media is going than I could hope to be (and yes, I'm fully aware that you're not exactly Pollyanna). Myself, I see these trickles as slow news days, and even if they show up in the paper, they're not sexy enough to garner attention from the mindless public.
I'm really not this cynical; actually, most of the time I am horrifyingly optimistic. But there are days when I see the snail's-pace progress people are making in ethics and I realize that it would be so so so esasy to be a misanthrope.
We care at some times and at others, we don't. The tsunami is one example of caring, Darfur is one of not.
I know, I know... Like I said, I'm usually insanely optimistic, but at times the "sometimes we care, sometimes we don't" attitude can get to you like having saxaphone reeds jammed under your fingernails.
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