Stem cell research

Using embryonic stem cells is unnecessary and immoral, so why do they insist?

Evidence against embryonic stem cells     Evidence for adult stem cells

Morality & ethics     Other resources

On March 9, 2009, as one of his first official acts as president, Barack Obama signed an executive order ending restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. The fact that any federal funds granted for such purposes would necessarily be subtracted from funds available for research into adult stem cells, which actually work and provide therapeutic treatments, was irrelevant to Obama and the leering, grinning, morally-vacuous imbeciles (all Democrats) standing behind him trembling with excitement at the thought of harvesting human embryos with taxpayer money.

Embryonic stem cells

Embryonic stem cell companies faltering - October 2012

"You can’t reinflate a leaky balloon. The science of regenerative medicine is moving on. And that, fundamentally, is why the embryonic stem cell industry is faltering financially."

Report: Research debate over, embryonic side lost - July 12, 2012

"A new report released today by the Charlotte Lozier Institute takes a comprehensive look at the stem cell research debate and comes to the conclusion that proponents of embryonic stem cell research have lost. The new report analyzes the history and trajectory of funding for stem cell research by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and it reveals the scientific community now views morally unproblematic alternatives to embryonic stem cells as the best hope for progress toward effective treatments and therapies."

Embryonic stem cell company using adult stem cells - July 2012

"...desperate to show some progress for all the money CIRM has sucked up on Californians’ credit card — it changed its tune and began funding research into adult stem cells — you know, the very ones that we had been told really didn’t hold all that much promise? Sure, you remember. Well, the first drug developed in part with direct CIRM grants has just received FDA approval for a clinical trial, and waddya know, they were derived from cardiac adult stem cells. What a hoot."

Embryonic stem cell bank goes belly up - June 28, 2012

"The stem cell bank that was a marquee piece of Governor Deval Patrick’s effort to bolster the life sciences industry will run out of funding at the end of the year and close, state and University of Massachusetts Medical School officials said Wednesday. The state invested $8.6 million in public funds to establish the bank at the medical school’s Shrewsbury campus."

Michael Fox drops hope for embryonic stem cell cure - May 18, 2012

"Michael J. Fox was one of the leading campaigners for embryonic stem cell research. He aggressively pushed to force taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research, opposed pro-life limits on it, and even attended a State of the Union address by President George W. Bush in order to flaunt his position. Now, with embryonic stem cells nowhere closer to yielding any beneficial results for patients, Fox is admitting embryonic stem cell research isn’t all he claimed it was cracked up to be."

Study: Embryonic stem cells act like cancer cells - May 2, 2012

"Here we show that human ES cells and their malignant counterpart, embryonic carcinoma (EC) cells, both fail to activate critical S-phase checkpoints when exposed to DNA replication inhibitors and commit to apoptosis instead." [More here.]

Study finds iPS cells match or beat embryonic cells - December 12, 2011

"One hope for iPS cells is to be able to differentiate them in a dish into tissues of interest — say, nerve cells of a patient with Parkinson’s or autism — and study these resulting cells’ characteristics with an eye to understanding the disease in a patient-specific way. This would be impossible to do with embryonic stem cells..."

Dems' embronic stem cell strategy hits wall - December 4, 2011

"The Democrats’ decade-long strategy of hyping embryo stem cell research crashed into a hard fact on Nov.15. That’s when Geron Corp., the world’s leading embryo research company, announced it was closing down its much-touted stem cell program, despite the guarantee of more government aid from Democratic-affiliated sources." [More here.] [And here.]

Feds OK 2nd human study - November 22, 2010

"For only the second time, the U.S. government has approved a test in people of a treatment using embryonic stem cells - this time for a rare disease that causes serious vision loss."

Stem cells injected into brain of stroke patient - November 16, 2010

"One concern over stem cell therapies has been whether they might cause cancer, but Sinden said the cells used in the latest trial appear not to form tumours. They are derived from brain cells taken from a 12-week-old fetus in the US. At this stage of their development, the cells are committed to becoming brain cells."

FDA OKs first embryonic stem cell trial - July 30, 2010

"The Obama administration has approved the bid by cloning company Geron to undertake the first trial involving the use of embryonic stem cells in humans. They have never been used before in people because the cells cause tumors and have been plagued by immune system rejection issues when tried in animals."

After $3 billion, Calif. shifts to adult cells - January 29, 2010

"...after years of fruitless work, the Institute has now quietly diverted funds from embryonic stem cell research (ESCr) to adult stem cell research - which has already produced dozens of treatments and all-out cures for maladies ranging from spinal cord injury, to Alzheimer’s, to type I diabetes."

The great embyonic stem-cell scam - July 15, 2009

"Medical-research insiders know that embryonic-stem-cell technology is proving a dead end - Dr. Bernadine Healy, a former director of the National Institutes of Health and once an ES-cell-research enthusiast, calls it "obsolete." But the Obama administration has opened wide the federal funding floodgates - the triumph of a big special-interest PR and lobbying campaign."

100% failure rate - March 21, 2009

"President Barack Obama's recent decision to allow the funding of embryonic stem cell research with millions of taxpayer dollars is deadly for human embryos and completely unnecessary. Embryonic stem cell research has a 100 percent failure rate."

Why embryonic stem cells are obsolete - March 4, 2009

"In fact, during the first six weeks of Obama's term, several events reinforced the notion that embryonic stem cells, once thought to hold the cure for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and diabetes, are obsolete."

Fetal stem cells cause tumor in teenage boy - February 19, 2009

"...he was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2005. That tumor, it turns out, grew out of the stem cells, obtained from at least two aborted fetuses, used in his brain. The tumor was benign, doctors safely removed it, and it has gradually been growing back since the surgery. But this is the first-known case of a brain tumor caused by a brain stem cell therapy, according to the report — a phenomenon scientists have predicted in the pages of Scientific American and elsewhere."

Embryonic stem cells rack up another failure - August 28, 2008

"Stanford researchers have verified that embryonic stem cells transplanted into mice are resoundingly rejected by the immune system and destroyed. That stands in contrast to a new success with adult stem cells that have no moral or efficacy issues."

What we know about embryonic stem cells - January 2007

"While there have been hundreds of papers published over the past five years that stridently claim “cell type X produced from embryonic stem cells,” under closer inspection these successes have all been less miraculous than they appeared."

Embryonic stem cells cause tumors in rats - October 22, 2006

"Injecting human embryonic stem cells into the brains of Parkinson's disease patients may cause tumors to form, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday. Steven Goldman and colleagues at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York said human stem cells injected into rat brains turned into cells that looked like early tumors."

Embryonic stem cells acquire mutations - September 5, 2005

"Human embryonic stem cells, treasured by researchers because of their potential to help rejuvenate ailing organs, do not remain as ageless and perpetually unblemished as scientists once thought, according to a new research report. Like ordinary cells, stem cells accumulate significant numbers of mutations over time, including several that could cause them to become tumors."

Adult (& other) stem cell success stories

Scientists win Nobel for adult stem cell discovery - October 8, 2012

"Scientists from Britain and Japan shared a Nobel Prize on Monday for the discovery that adult cells can be transformed back into embryo-like stem cells that may one day regrow tissue in damaged brains, hearts or other organs."

Tailor-made organs - September 16, 2012

"So far, only a few organs have been made and transplanted, and they are relatively simple, hollow ones — like bladders and Mr. Beyene’s windpipe, which was implanted in June 2011. But scientists around the world are using similar techniques with the goal of building more complex organs. At Wake Forest University in North Carolina, for example, where the bladders were developed, researchers are working on kidneys, livers and more. Labs in China and the Netherlands are among many working on blood vessels."

FDA approves trial for treatment of autism - August 21, 2012

"A clinical trial being conducted by the Sutter Neuroscience Institute in Sacramento, California... began recruiting participants today for a highly experimental stem cell therapy for autism."

Second bone marrow patient saved with placenta cells - August 6, 2012

"Pluristem Therapeutics said another patient suffering from bone marrow failure was saved using its placenta-based stem cell treatment. This is the second time in three months that a patient suffering from bone marrow failure was successfully treated with its PLX cells, the Israeli company said on Monday."

Clinical trial for spinal cord injuries - August 2012

"Human trials are ongoing for chronic spinal cord injury using adult stem cells. Now, the FDA is approving a human safety trial using patients’ own spinal cells for acute spinal cord injury — the kind of injury sought to be improved by the now defunct Geron embryonic stem cell human trial."

Eye stem cell breakthrough - May 21, 2012

"A grandmother who suffers from corneal blindness has undergone pioneering stem cell replacement treatment which could restore her sight."

Heart repair with adult stem cells - November 15, 2011

"Researchers found that on-going weakness caused by a heart attack could be improved with an injection of one million stem cells. The cells were taken from healthy areas of the patients' own hearts, the first time this has been done. The researchers from Harvard Medical School and University of Louisville said it could represent 'the biggest revolution in cardiovascular medicine in my lifetime'."

45-year-old man cured of AIDS - May 16, 2011

"Timothy Ray Brown tested positive for HIV back in 1995, but has now entered scientific journals as the first man in world history to have that HIV virus completely eliminated from his body in what doctors call a “functional cure.” Brown was living in Berlin, Germany back in 2007, dealing with HIV and leukemia, when scientists there gave him a bone marrow stem cell transplant that had astounding results."

Banking Japan's nuclear workers' stem cells - April 15, 2011

"Health officials should collect blood from workers at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in case they are accidentally exposed to high levels of radiation and need a stem cell transplant, Japanese researchers said on Thursday."

Motor Neurone Disease breakthrough - March 30, 2011

"An international team led by the UK's University of Edinburgh and King's College London, and Columbia University in New York, has for the first time made living human motor neurones that feature key properties of MND/ALS. They made the diseased nerve cells using stem cells derived from adult skin."

Former military dog to receive stem cells - February 10, 2011

"The technology uses the animal's own stem cells, which are drawn from fatty areas of the body, to regenerate the damaged tissue."

Doctors claim HIV-positive man cured - December 14, 2010

"Timothy Ray Brown, an HIV-positive American living in Germany, had leukemia and was undergoing chemotherapy, when he received a transplant of stem cells from a donor carrying a rare, inherited gene mutation that seems to make carriers virtually immune to HIV infection. The transplant appeared to wipe out both diseases, giving hope to doctors..."

Scientists trick cells into new identities - November 29, 2010

"Suppose you could repair tissue damaged by a heart attack by magically turning other cells into heart muscle, so the organ could pump effectively again. Scientists aren't quite ready to do that. But they are reporting early success at transforming one kind of specialized cell directly into another kind, a feat of biological alchemy that doctors may one day perform inside a patient's body."

Scientists turn skin into blood - November 7, 2010

"Stem cell researchers have found a way to turn a person's skin into blood, a process that could be used to treat cancer and other ailments, according to a Canadian study published Sunday. The method uses cells from a patch of a person's skin and transforms it into blood that is a genetic match, without using human embryonic stem cells..."

Stem cells used to save woman's leg - September 30, 2010

"During her operation, at the private Spire Alexandra Hospital in Chatham, Kent, stem cells from her bone marrow were taken and mixed with a gel called Surgifill, which trapped the cells against the fracture. Within days they started to form healthy new bone, healing the break."

'Major' stem cell development - September 30, 2010

"A major breakthrough in stem cell development could help resolve the ongoing debate over the use of embryonic stem cells in medical research. A team of scientists led by Derrick J. Rossi of the Immune Disease Institute at Children's Hospital Boston published a paper Thursday showing that they can quickly and efficiently transform skin cells into cells with all the properties of embryonic stem cells."

Adult stem cell research far ahead of embryonic - August 4, 2010

"For all the emotional debate that began about a decade ago on allowing the use of embryonic stem cells, it's adult stem cells that are in human testing today. An extensive review of stem cell projects and interviews with two dozen experts reveal a wide range of potential treatments."

Girl saved by windpipe made from stem cells - August 4, 2010

"Doctors have carried out pioneering lifesaving surgery to give a new windpipe to a British teenager suffering from cancer. The 19-year-old was able to speak within a few days of the operation carried out in Italy using her own stem cells."

Adult stem cells leaving embryos behind - August 2, 2010

"For all the emotional debate that began about a decade ago on allowing the use of embryonic stem cells, it's adult stem cells that are in human testing today. An extensive review of stem cell projects and interviews with two dozen experts reveal a wide range of potential treatments."

Stem cell breakthrough gets closer to the clinic - May 28, 2009

"The quest for versatile, grow-in-a-dish transplant tissue took a step towards clinical use Thursday when researchers announced they have found a safe way to transform skin cells into stem cells. Researchers say the method is so promising they hope to apply for approval to begin clinic trials by the middle of next year."

Adult stem cells from bone marrow kill cancer cells - May 22, 2009

"Researchers in London have demonstrated the ability of adult stem cells from bone marrow (mesenchymal stem cells, or MSCs) to deliver a cancer-killing protein to tumors. The genetically engineered stem cells are able to home to the cancer cells, both in culture and in mouse models, and deliver TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), destroying the tumor cells while sparing normal cells."

Experts making stem cells without embryos - March 1, 2009

"Scientists have found a way to make an almost limitless supply of stem cells that could safely be used in patients while avoiding the ethical dilemma of destroying embryos. In a breakthrough that could have huge implications, British and Canadian scientists have found a way of reprogramming skin cells taken from adults, effectively winding the clock back on the cells until they were in an embryonic form."

Stem cells cut AIDS virus in patient - February 11, 2009

"A German AIDS patient was able to stop drugs he had been taking for 10 years after getting a transplant of stem cells from a donor with a rare gene variant known to resist the deadly disease. The transplant also cured his leukemia, researchers reported."

Pancreatic beta cells grown from cord stem cells - January 11, 2009

"A team of South Korean researchers, headed by Prof. Kang Kyung-sun of Seoul National University, has successfully grown pancreatic beta cells from umbilical cord blood stem cells of newborn babies. The stem cells are able to secrete insulin, the hormone necessary for treatment of diabetes."

New breasts grown from stem cells harvested from fat - February 12, 2007

"Women have grown their own breast implants through pioneering stem cell treatment, it emerged yesterday. Scientists harvested the stem cells from the women's own fat and encouraged them to form breast tissue."

Promising transplant therapy using adult stem cells - January 17, 2007

"University of Minnesota stem cell researchers, together with collaborators at Stanford University, have successfully used adult stem cells to replace the immune system and bone marrow of mice, offering the promise of new therapies for people in the future."

Stem cells found in amniotic fluid - January 7, 2007

"Stem-cell research is divided into two major camps: one focused on cells from adults, the other on the controversial technique that destroys embryos. But important research published Sunday supports the idea of a third way, a new category of stem cells that are readily available, perhaps ethically trouble-free and possibly as powerful and flexible in function as their embryonic counterparts: "amniotic-fluid stem cells," found in both the placenta and the liquid that surrounds growing fetuses."

Stem cell technique helps kids avoid root canal - December 21, 2006

"The promise of stem cells may someday help kids say goodbye to the dreaded root canal, scientists report. A new, less-invasive treatment leaves the soft inner pulp intact, allowing the young tooth's stem cells to continue tooth formation."

Adult stem cells offer hope for back pain - November 30, 2006

"The new therapy, developed by Dr Stephen Richardson, uses mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from adult bone marrow to regenerate spinal discs."

Heart valves grown from womb fluid stem cells - November 15, 2006

"Scientists for the first time have grown human heart valves using stem cells from the fluid that cushions babies in the womb..."

Scientists spur growth of adult brain stem cells - November 14, 2006

"Researchers have found a way to spur the growth of neural stem cells in the brains of adult mice with an eye toward harnessing the brain’s innate capacity for repair to help people with diseases such as Alzheimer’s."

New treament for glaucoma - November 7, 2006

"The world's leading experts on glaucoma have unveiled their vision for treatments that might actually restore sight to the blind. Like so many other procedures these days, it involves stem cells. But these would be adult stem cells supplied by the patients themselves."

Morality & ethics

California stem cell cash mostly aids directors - September 23, 2012

"With its latest round of awards earlier this month, California's stem cell agency has now handed out $1.5 billion to enterprises linked to its directors. The figure amounts to 92 percent of the $1.7 billion awarded by the agency."

Researchers clone human embryos for harvesting - October 6, 2011

"Researchers said Wednesday they used a cloning technique to create human embryos that were close genetic copies of the people from which they were derived—a potentially significant breakthrough in the quest to develop patient-specific stem cells to treat serious diseases."

Journey to Destruction - October 14, 2010

"If you are an evolutionist who does not believe in a Creator who endowed us with the right to life, you might be more liberal in your approach to manipulating human tissue for the "benefit" of others. But that still doesn't justify using embryonic stem cells when artificial ones appear to function just as well."

Inconvenient Facts About Stem-Cell Research - August 26, 2010

"A restriction approved by Congress in 1996, and repeatedly renewed, says federal money may not be used for "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed." But the point of Obama's new policy was to pay for experiments using stem cells harvested from embryos that are killed in the process."

Court rules against Obama stem cell policy - August 23, 2010

"A U.S. district court issued a preliminary injunction on Monday stopping federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research, in a slap to the Obama administration's new guidelines on the sensitive issue."

Embryonic stem cells are not all that - May 13, 2004

"As Colorado stem-cell activist Jim Kelly — a paraplegic who believes his best hope of walking again after an auto accident lies in adult-stem-cell treatments — told me, "We have to use our limited resources efficiently. Money spent on embryonic-stem-cell research and human cloning is money that cannot be spent on [investigating] adult stem cells." If Kelly is right, increasing funding for embryonic-stem-cell research, especially if it comes at the expense of adult experiments, could actually delay the cures that so many suffering patients hope desperately to receive from developing cellular therapies."

Other resources

The Repair Stem Cell Institute

"RSCI offers professional case management services to individuals needing access to expert and reliable stem cell treatments for chronic and disabling disease at no cost to the patient. RSCI does not treat patients. RSCI can help you take the next step toward a better quality of life."

The Stem Cell Blog

Includes a full spectrum of adult stem cell treatments, newsletters, education materials, you name it. Website owned and produced by David Granovsky, a professional with a history in stem cell research.