Comments on: Op-ed: GOP wants to close doors on stem cell research http://www.patriciaebauer.com/2008/09/15/op-ed-gop-stem-cell-3208/ Disability News | PatriciaEBauer.com Wed, 24 Nov 2010 22:50:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Kathy Ratkiewicz http://www.patriciaebauer.com/2008/09/15/op-ed-gop-stem-cell-3208/comment-page-1/#comment-2657 Kathy Ratkiewicz Tue, 16 Sep 2008 05:07:57 +0000 http://www.patriciaebauer.com/?p=3208#comment-2657 I don't understand the fascination with embryonic stem cells when it has been proven time and again that adult stem cells (from umbilical cord blood or from a person's own body)are just as...if not more...effective without the ethical baggage of embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells also have the added problem of tumor formation in many cases. The authors of the above article need to do some more research, because much of what they are saying is just not true. The new lines of research into Down syndrome were obtained from skin and bone marrow of people with Ds (not from embryos). <em>Editor's note: See articles here -- <a href="http://www.livescience.com/health/080808-ap-stem-cells.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.livescience.com/health/080808-ap-stem-cells.html</a></em> and here <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/27/AR2008082701829.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/27/AR2008082701829.html</a> The authors further state: "With those mechanisms now visible for the first time, scientists said, they can start to envision treatments that could at least reduce some of those deficits in newborns or young children with the syndrome -- treatments that even the most accepting and loving mother of a baby with Down syndrome would probably accept with gratitude if available" Well no, not all of us would. I don’t understand the fascination with embryonic stem cells when it has been proven time and again that adult stem cells (from umbilical cord blood or from a person’s own body)are just as…if not more…effective without the ethical baggage of embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells also have the added problem of tumor formation in many cases. The authors of the above article need to do some more research, because much of what they are saying is just not true. The new lines of research into Down syndrome were obtained from skin and bone marrow of people with Ds (not from embryos).

Editor’s note: See articles here — http://www.livescience.com/health/080808-ap-stem-cells.html and here http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/27/AR2008082701829.html

The authors further state:
“With those mechanisms now visible for the first time, scientists said, they can start to envision treatments that could at least reduce some of those deficits in newborns or young children with the syndrome — treatments that even the most accepting and loving mother of a baby with Down syndrome would probably accept with gratitude if available”

Well no, not all of us would.

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