The Mendacity of Missouri Coalition for Life Saving Cures
Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures lauds the stem cell advances occurring around the world as tremendous steps in medical science's ongoing battle to cure disease, and we eagerly await further discoveries as scientists continue the ethical exploration of this new medical frontier An excellent example is last month's widely covered advances in Wisconsin and Japan where scientists were able to reprogram an ordinary skin cell to assume much of the versatility of embryonic stem cells. And, even more recently, this month scientists in London used embryonic stem cells to develop a stem cell "patch" to repair scar tissue from heart attacks and American scientists used embryonic stem cells as a novel way to test the safety of drugs...
"What's that smell in this room? Didn't you notice it, Brick? Didn't you notice the powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?" From Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
The line quoted above, uttered by Big Daddy to Brick, is one of my favorite lines in any play. It came to mind this morning when I read the latest mendacity emanating from the propaganda smokestack of Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures.
It isn't that its leaders support human cloning research that gets my goat. I understand why people would believe that this research is the best way to go. But the human cloning issue is one of those rare controversies that are truly epochal. And in deciding how to proceed, basic respect for democratic processes requires accuracy in definitions and a clear respect for distinctions so that people will know what it is that is being discussed--and what is not being discussed--so that they can make ethical and political judgments based on facts--not lies.
But MCLC won't have that! It might lose. So, its advocates engage in the worst kinds of public deception--which shows utter disdain for those on behalf of whom they claim to be serving. The latest example is this op/ed piece by Donn Rubin, the chairman of MCLC. He writes:
If stem cell research opponents had their way, none of this outstanding science would have been possible. Ironically, they would have blocked the very groundwork that led to the technique they now seem to embrace--the reprogramming of ordinary skin cells into embryonic-like stem cells.
But more to the point of this post, if the opponents of Amendment 2 in MO had gotten 100% of their way, it would not have stopped the development of the new reprogrammed cells, the ESCR theoretical "heart patch," or the drug testing. None of that work directly or indirectly involved stem cells derived from human cloning (somatic cell nuclear transfer), which has not yet been done in humans. ESCR per se is not the subject of a proposed initiative to outlaw all human cloning in MO and hence all of the research successes Rubin mentions would have been unaffected. Those are scientific facts, not opinion.
Rubin's mendacity continues:
Those whose aim it is to ban all embryonic stem cell research in Missouri cannot have it both ways. They cannot continue to oppose the very research that is required to achieve the lifesaving goals that they now claim to embrace. Those who threaten to repeal Missourians' access to stem cell research should step back and allow scientists to conduct the work necessary to achieve the goals that I hope we all share--to cure disease and improve the lives of patients and families.I repeat, there are no proposals to "ban all embryonic stem cell research" in MO. There is a plan to ban all human cloning in MO. That is not the same thing and Rubin knows it or he has no business being chairman of MCLC.
And the powerful and obnoxious smell of mendacity continues to fill the room...
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 9:10 AM
7 Comments
7 Comments:
I repeat, there are no proposals to "ban all embryonic stem cell research" in MO. There is a plan to ban all human cloning in MO. That is not the same thing and Rubin knows it
Haha.. yeah and Hitler wasn't interested in invading anything more than eastern Europe either.
If your premise is that anti-SCNTers are not interested in
ending all forms of ESCr than you are the one who "has no business being" in some position of moral conscience, as you refuse to acknowledge the truth of your basis, that this is merely a battle in a larger war of different ideologies.
Wesley, a few days ago I implied that SCNT was essential for scientists a tool to study ESCr, to which you said:
As for SCNT being THE fundamental method of ESCR (meaning, one makes an embryo through cloning and then, destroys the embryo for ESCR), it HASN'T EVEN BEEN DONE YET IN HUMANS. That kind of makes your statement ludicrous, doesn't it?
Learn your biology.
OK Wesley - You basically just said that SCNT doesn't exist, then why rail against it and spend everyones time bringing it up?
Are we going to play that dumb to the readership? and say that SCNT is not the primary model for ESCr in mice?
Do you not understand the corollary between mice and human research?
Do you have basic knowledge about how research is done on mice before therapies become clinical? It is very basic Biology, well...maybe you should study up because
Its amazing that you continue to deny that SCNT is the primary tool scientists want to use in researching ESCr. That you claim banning SCNT will not effect ESCr research is completely unfounded, as you ignore all evidence contrary to your statements.
What people might be interested in isn't what has been proposed. The article is false. Factually false. Period.
ESCr - Embryonic stem cell research.
Adult skin cells have been altered to pretty much become identical to the stem cells found in an embryo.
Thus, you can do a modified sort of ESCr without SCNT because you can get stem cells without cloning.
Or you can use stem cells from one of the Bush-approved stem cell lines, and that doesn't require cloning.
'OK Wesley - You basically just said that SCNT doesn't exist, then why rail against it and spend everyones time bringing it up?'
People want to clone human babies to break up the embryos to get at their stem cells. Other people (like me and Wesley) don't want embryos to be cloned or to be broken up for their cells. The guy (or chick) writing the article says that the only way we'll ever get any work done with stem cells is if we allow cloning embryos. That's pretty much his thinking in a nutshell. Wesley said (to paraphrase), "Dude, we haven't even done it successfully in humans yet, so how do you know that it's all that plus a bag of chips?" He didn't deny its existance, he denied that we've got enough information for the writer to make the claims he (or she) does.
'Do you have basic knowledge about how research is done on mice before therapies become clinical? It is very basic Biology, well...maybe you should study up because '
...you kinda left us hanging there. Please reprint?
What people might be interested in isn't what has been proposed. The article is false. Factually false. Period.
Hmm well Wesley if your going to make a blanket statement like this you should provide some factual evidence instead of ranting about opinion.
Ruben mentions the gains from using ESCr for repairing hearts. That is a fact. The idea that he does not qualify it to human research (which should be possible) does not make his statements any less true. I challenge you to tell me how this is false.
You then claim there are not people who would like to see all Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research stopped. That’s Baloney! Just because the proposal now is to overturn Amendment 2s cloning issue does not mean that it will just stop there, as MRL and the Catholic church will continue working to erode all forms of HESCr. Do deny this is Ludicrous!
I would bet you that the majority of people who want SCNT stopped also want research on human embryos stopped as well. Lets be HONEST with ourselves shall we?
To keep implying that the majority of people who are interested in ending SCNT are not interested in ending all human embryonic experiments is false. Period.
DS: I highlighted the parts that were factually false, which I guess you agree. Some people who want to ban all human cloning would also ban ESCR. But not nearly all. But that was never proposed in MO as far as I know. Moreover, the iPSC breakthrough had nothing to do with human cloning, which is the subject of the actual controversy in MO.
The point is: MLSC's is constantly shoveling the baloney. They mislead, prevaricate, and use junk biology to win a political debate. That corrupts science.
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