WILLisms.com: Stem Cell Sleight-Of-Hand

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Stem Cell Sleight-Of-Hand

Here is a very encouraging article on the success of stem cells at literally curing diabetes, which is of course awesomely great news.

But read the article, and a few little odd things jump out: the article does not mention that the successful treatment was accomplished with adult stem cells - and yet the article gratuitously goes out of its way to note that President Bush is a critic of embryonic stem cell research (at least when funded by the federal government) which had nothing to do with this incredible breakthrough.

I guess there is always room in a news story to take a swipe at the President, no matter what the story! And the way this story is written borders on dishonesty in my humble opinion.

I am not one of those folks that gets hung up on embryonic stem cell research - but I am one of those folks that gets hung up on 'journalists' trying to score political points.

Posted by Ken McCracken · 11 April 2007 03:28 PM

Comments

It's good to note that most of the commenters I read (the top dozen or so) call the author out on his swipe at the President.

Posted by: Hoodlumman at April 11, 2007 04:25 PM

I can understand your confusion as you don't fully understand the issue.

While therapies using adult stem cells have shown promise in some cases, in all too many cases--adult stem cells may actually be worse than the underlying disease or illness. F'rinstance. between 2000 and 2004, some 25000 adults received adult stem cell therapies. Of these 25000, nearly 4000 died--not because of the underlying illness--but as a result of the adult stem cells.

Young Master Bush deserves the criticism.

Posted by: Jadegold at April 12, 2007 09:26 AM

I have read quite a bit about adult stem cell research. There is absolutely nothing that would allow me to think adult stem cells cannot do as well, if not better than embryonic stem cells...

Posted by: zsa zsa at April 12, 2007 10:58 AM

zz: Apparently, you haven't read NBER's research on adult stem cell therapies. I don't think you've read the National Cancer Institute's research on the use of adult stem cells in bone marrow grafts.

Posted by: Jadegold at April 12, 2007 11:46 AM

JadeGold, once again you cannot even comprehend a simple blog post, or you disingenuously interpret it to make some tangential political point.

I didn't say that Bush does not deserve criticism for his embryonic stem cell stance (nor did I say he does deserve it).

What I said was that, because this therapy did not use embryonic stem cells, there was no reason whatsoever to mention them or criticize Bush in this news article.

What you failed to grasp here is that the blog post was a criticism of agenda-driven journalists, not a commentary about stem-cell research.

Posted by: Ken McCracken at April 12, 2007 11:51 AM

I am not a fan of the national cancer institute. Personally I don't trust much of what they have to say about anything.

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