Feds approve 11 new embryonic stem lines for taxpayer-backed research
“The Obama administration on Wednesday approved the first human embryonic stem cells for experiments by federally funded scientists under a new policy designed to dramatically expand government support for one of the most promising but also most contentious fields of biomedical research.
The National Institutes of Health authorized 11 lines of cells produced by scientists at the Children’s Hospital in Boston and two lines created by researchers at the Rockefeller University in New York. All were obtained from embryos left over by couples seeking treatment for infertility.
“This is a real change in the landscape,” NIH Director Francis Collins said. “This is the first down payment on what is going to be a much longer list . . . that will empower the scientific community to explore the potential of embryonic stem cell research.”
The decision reverses the Bush administration policy restricting federal-funded research to previously created embryonic stem lines. Federal policy continues to deny funding for research that actually creates new embryos; stem lines can be created only from excess embryos created in fertility clinics that have been donated by a couple for research.
In a somewhat related sidenote, given the inevitable nature of the debate, Collins is a famed geneticist, an evangelical Christian and author of “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief,” a personal account of his conversion from atheism to Christianity and the mutual reinforcement he finds in science and faith.
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179 comments Add your comment
Normal
December 2nd, 2009
2:27 pm
Maybe now we will have some real succuss in the battle of cancer and other major deseases. Here’s hoping.
RW-(the original)
December 2nd, 2009
2:29 pm
I guess once you’ve reached the point that even a trillion dollars seems insignificant you may as well federally fund everything.
Bill Orvis White
December 2nd, 2009
2:30 pm
Whatever happened to the culture of life? We are ever more lurching to a secular society that could care less about the sanctity of human beings. The concept of Evilution is designed to those who subscribe to a Survival of the Fittest mentality. That is a slippery slope towards Nazism, cloning, death panels, Godlesness and Abortion doctors. It will be the end of the world when seculars play God. There is only one Lord Almighty, King of the Universe who teaches us between right and wrong.
Doggone/GA
December 2nd, 2009
2:31 pm
“Whatever happened to the culture of life?”
What is there about trying to find cures that will SAVE LIVES that is NOT a “culture of life”?
Normal
December 2nd, 2009
2:31 pm
Bill Orvis White…Bless your heart.
Brent Thorkelson
December 2nd, 2009
2:40 pm
Bill Orvis White really has every single last stereotypical christianidiot box ticked in his post. A veritable Sarah Palin speech on amphetamines. I smell the pungent stench a troll… If this is not a parody then its definately a perfect case study of Poe’s law…
Dave R.
December 2nd, 2009
2:40 pm
Don’t even remotely care about the embryos.
Why do taxpayers have to fund research? Years ago, scientific breakthroughs were made without any taxpayer dollars.
Of course, with all the success of taxpayer funding to hide the results that the earth isn’t warming, maybe we should stop all taxpayer funding of scientific research, anyway.
Doggone/GA
December 2nd, 2009
2:43 pm
“Years ago, scientific breakthroughs were made without any taxpayer dollars”
Sure…and years ago new discoveries were jealously guarded and could only be obtained by dealing with a virtual monopoly of whoever made the discovery. Government funded discoveries are for EVERYONE, not just the privileged few.
GreenJeans
December 2nd, 2009
2:43 pm
Lordy, that unabomber-esque screed ^^^ requires some mental ipecac.
I am glad to see the approval and have high hopes for scientific discovery.
@@
December 2nd, 2009
2:44 pm
I’d like to see more effort go into umbilical cord storage. Course, we all know the babies would have to be born for that to happen. The other side’s not much into that now, are they?
TGT
December 2nd, 2009
2:45 pm
Privately funded organizations have poured billions into this type of research with few, if any, positive results.
A New England Journal of Medicine report published in March of 2004 states that embryonic stem cells often cause tumors in animal studies, and therefore using them in humans is highly problematic. Dr. Carlo Croce, MD, Director of the Kimmel Cancer Institute and Kimmel Cancer Center at the Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, found that animal experiments show that serious cancer frequently develops when the animals received manipulated embryonic stem cells. Dr. John Gearhart of Johns Hopkins University has recently stated that embryonic stem cells are “surprisingly genetically unstable in mice and perhaps in humans as well.” Maureen L. Condic, an Assistant Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah, states that “there are profound immunological issues associated with putting cells derived from one human being into the body of another. The same compromises and complications associated with organ transplant hold true for embryonic stem cells.”
Hardly a serious biologists in the world, evangelical or not, would argue that life—whether human, dog, cat, or pig—does not begin at conception. Every living human being begins the same way: a sperm fertilizes an egg. The moment after conception, this one-celled, forty-six-chromosomed human being possesses everything it needs to grow into an adult human. A report from Senate Judiciary Committee S-158, 1981 reads: “Physicians, biologists and other scientists agree that conception marks the beginning of the life of a human being–a being is alive and is a member of the human species. There is overwhelming agreement on this point in countless medical, biological, and scientific writings.”
Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)
December 2nd, 2009
2:46 pm
Well, I might of knowed that sooner or later we’d turn into Sodom and Gonorrhea. This stem cell stuff is just killing a baby in waiting. It’s a kind of Death Panel without the Obamacare.
Here’s a little tyke that looks like a little blob but just needs some woman to agree to have him. Then we could watch as her belly grows and we could talk about the Sanctity of Life.
After he’s born we don’t want nothing to do with him if he don’t have a home. We like to throw the Daddy in jail for not paying child support, but we don’t want to pay taxes because some woman made Bad Choices. Anyhow, it ain’t our fault she’s a lazy, no-good tramp that won’t follow the teaching of the Bible. Let her and her kid starve, is what I say.
Anyway, this librul Obama administration is about to ruin all that for us. Why do the Heathen rage? Why don’t they listen to us?
I don’t care how many life-saving things they learn from this stem cell research. I know there’s nary a Conservative on this blog that would use something these scientists learned from the research just to live a little longer. They’ll all turn it down because they got Morals, even if it meant they’d die sooner.
That’s my opinion and it’s very true. Have a good p.m. everybody.
AF
December 2nd, 2009
2:47 pm
Well, this is a step forward and there is an evangelical Christian taking that step.
Maybe we can stop arguing over stem cell research as if it is the devils work. The earth is round, the earth orbits the sun, there were dinosaurs millions of years ago, and stem cell research may lead to cures for deadly diseases.
God is bigger than we ever dreamed.
TW
December 2nd, 2009
2:48 pm
Great day in history
Bosch
December 2nd, 2009
2:50 pm
“Federal policy continues to deny funding for research that actually creates new embryos; stem lines can be created only from excess embryos created in fertility clinics that have been donated by a couple for research.”
Good, that’s all they need to get the ball rolling! Good news for all.
Doggone/GA
December 2nd, 2009
2:50 pm
“Hardly a serious biologists in the world, evangelical or not, would argue that life—whether human, dog, cat, or pig—does not begin at conception”
Life also dies at conception. Both egg and sperm are living cells and both cease to exist as discrete living cells at the moment of conception.
jconservative
December 2nd, 2009
2:53 pm
Bill Orvis White
Since you oppose the use of stem cells for medical research would you like to be the person the pour those embryos in the toilet & flush?
Having said that, I do question the government getting involved in what should be a private enterprise effort.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
December 2nd, 2009
2:54 pm
Turn everyone into a girlie like our “president.”
Taxpayer
December 2nd, 2009
2:55 pm
Has anyone broke the news to Sadie Hawkins, I mean, Fields, yet?
Doggone/GA
December 2nd, 2009
2:56 pm
jconservative…the problem with leaving it only to private enterprise is that private enterprise goes for the biggest bang for their buck…which means that serious diseases, etc. that only affect a few people go crying in the wilderness for funding. Private enterprise won’t made much money off a disease that only affects 100 or so people.
getalife
December 2nd, 2009
2:58 pm
Another promise kept.
Good for him.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
December 2nd, 2009
3:01 pm
TGT- Liberals want to create a minority group of little freak people that they can lavish government benefits on and count on them to knee jerk vote for the people they most closely resemble……democrats.
Taxpayer
December 2nd, 2009
3:02 pm
Having said that, I do question the government getting involved in what should be a private enterprise effort.
Private “enterprize” does not usually like to sweep in and pick up on R&D work until it has been clearly shown to be worth their while, as in huge ROI in a very short timeframe. They’re more into funding the Chinese/Indian manufacturing facilities than the R&D end of the cycle.
Paul
December 2nd, 2009
3:03 pm
Dang, I love reading Redneck Convert.
Jay
Nice last paragraph. Seems it’s a book that should be read by people here in many camps: the atheists who mock those of faith; the people for whom everything is black and white; those who assert no real Christian could ever support stem cell research. But I’ve a feeling most will blow on past anything that would cause them to critically reconsider an opinion.
For those who don’t like Federal funding of health research: it’s been going on for decades. National Institute of Heath does bunches. Plus, all those big-name private and state universities get gazillions of dollars for research.
off topic
Bosch
The transcript of the President’s speech last night is here:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/full-transcript-president-obamas-speech-afghanistan-delivered-west/story?id=9220661&page=1
Boogers for the Children Fund
December 2nd, 2009
3:03 pm
Wonderful…the kenyan just lost a few more independents and a few Dems!
YIPPEEEEE!! Keep diggin your latrine, Obobo!
Boogers for the Children Fund
December 2nd, 2009
3:03 pm
Wonderful…the kenyan just lost a few more independents and a few Dems!
YIPPEEEEE!! Keep diggin your latrine, Obobo!
Bruno
December 2nd, 2009
3:06 pm
“The decision reverses the Bush administration policy restricting federal-funded research to previously created embryonic stem lines.”
If you do a google search of “Bush stem cell research”, the vast majority of the sites that pop up refer to a Bush “ban” on research. Jay is a little more “accurate” in saying that Bush merely restricted said research. Either way, Bush is characterized as being an obstacle to stem cell research, the implication being that thousands, if not millions of lives would already have been saved if it weren’t for Bush.
The fact is that Bush was the first US President to designate funding for embryonic stem cell research at all (Clinton laid the groundwork). And nothing in his policy ever forbade private research using embryonic stem cells. As such, any talk of bans and restrictions is disingenuous IMO. Bush’s proposal did limit federal funding to certain established “lines” due to moral/ethical concerns. And though many liberals don’t think moral/ethical concerns have a legitimate place in policy-making, here’s one anti-Busher who disagrees:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/obamastemcells2/
Peadawg
December 2nd, 2009
3:06 pm
As long as we don’t start cloning people, I’m ok with using stem cell research for medical cures.
Bosch
December 2nd, 2009
3:06 pm
Paul,
Thanks. I’ll read it when I get off work later – I don’t have time right now to read through all of it – when was the part we were talking earlier?
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
December 2nd, 2009
3:06 pm
Well, this is a step forward and there is an evangelical Christian taking that step.
Great day in history
Good, that’s all they need to get the ball rolling! Good news for all.
Nimnals-
President Bush announced, on August 9, 2001 that federal funds, for the first time, would be made available for hESC research on currently existing embryonic stem cell lines.
Paul
December 2nd, 2009
3:08 pm
Hello DoggoneGA 2:50
And I’ll also add: those embryos were created by couples who want kids but have to go the in vitro route. Embryos are implanted – the rest are off in cold storage. The parents decide they don’t want more kids, it’s off to the trash for the embryos.
And a lot of very religious couples go through that.
Sometimes life is full of unknowables and contradictions that we just have to live with.
Taxpayer
December 2nd, 2009
3:08 pm
Liberals want to create a minority group of little freak people
Test tube liberals! Interesting phobia.
md
December 2nd, 2009
3:12 pm
“Life also dies at conception. Both egg and sperm are living cells and both cease to exist as discrete living cells at the moment of conception.”
And the difference being that neither the egg nor the sperm will ever become a human by itself.
Paul
December 2nd, 2009
3:14 pm
Bosch
Page one, last paragraph.
Tom
December 2nd, 2009
3:15 pm
For those who fight against stem cell research, may you be afflicted with and suffer from the most dreadful diseases known to Man. And any and all benefits now and in the future from such research shall be withheld from your treatment. And this policy shall apply to your children – and their children.
Doggone/GA
December 2nd, 2009
3:15 pm
“Sometimes life is full of unknowables and contradictions that we just have to live with”
Yes we do, and one of the great unknowables is how many fertlized eggs are naturally aborted and never develop into a foetus. I suspect that a LOT of women get pregnant, and lose the pregnancy, and never even know it.
TGT
December 2nd, 2009
3:16 pm
IRYW: Speaking of “freak people”: At the beginning of the movie “Van Helsing” Dracula exclaims to Dr. Frankenstein that his monster, just brought to life, is a “victory of science over God.”
I suppose Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein are liberals. (At least they would support embryonic stem cell research!)
AF
December 2nd, 2009
3:17 pm
jconservtive: I do question the government getting involved in what should be a private enterprise effort.
____
Government intervention built railroads, the highway system, dams, invested in the technology that gave us computers, sent man to the moon and later gave us huge advances in technology that improved our economy a thousand times over. Government progams sent soldiers to college that gave us the best educated labor force (at that time) that powered the incredible growth in the US economy after WW2.
All these big projects were objected to by many Americans when proposed but produced a richer, stronger, better country.
We need government investment in basic research – payoffs are too uncertain and costs too large for business to do it alone.
Bruno
December 2nd, 2009
3:17 pm
“Privately funded organizations have poured billions into this type of research with few, if any, positive results.”
The bottom line, TGT, is that embryonic stem cell research has far more usefulness as a political hammer for liberals to bash conservatives with than it ever will as a legitimate scientific endeavor. Though it’s been rehashed many times, here’s a link which discusses how other forms of stem cell research using adult tissues is superior:
http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/articles/winter01/stem_cell.html
Doggone/GA
December 2nd, 2009
3:17 pm
“And the difference being that neither the egg nor the sperm will ever become a human by itself.”
And not all fertilzed eggs do either.
Bosch
December 2nd, 2009
3:18 pm
Paul,
Interesting. Wonder where they are being held?
Paul
December 2nd, 2009
3:19 pm
DoggoneGA 3:17
Bosch
December 2nd, 2009
3:20 pm
Doggone,
And I’ll second Paul’s
for your 3:17.
Bosch
December 2nd, 2009
3:21 pm
Doggone,
I’ll even raise Paul’s
to an “oh snap!”
Boogers for the Children Fund
December 2nd, 2009
3:21 pm
On SouthPark last evening they had guest star Christopher Reeve. He would actually feed on the dead fetus to obtain his needed stem cells and after awhile he gained so much strength he began tossing automobiles at his detractors.
Sounds as if these stem cells are a dicey business.
Doggone/GA
December 2nd, 2009
3:22 pm
“I suppose Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein are liberals”
And “24 hours” is a mirror of real life…not
Bruno
December 2nd, 2009
3:23 pm
Doggone–Do you think moral/ethical considerations should apply to medical research? Can you respect the fact that many people consider embryos to be fully “human” and believe that medical experimentation on them crosses a line that shouldn’t be crossed?
Paul
December 2nd, 2009
3:24 pm
Bosch 3:18
I think that falls into the category of one of the great mysteries of life.
But yeah, it’s confirmation that attitudes change once one goes from candidate to president.
md
December 2nd, 2009
3:25 pm
For Tom – how about they just use your child for the research since you don’t seem to mind.
Doggone/GA
December 2nd, 2009
3:25 pm
“Do you think moral/ethical considerations should apply to medical research?”
Too vague. WHOSE morals and ethics?
” Can you respect the fact that many people consider embryos to be fully “human” and believe that medical experimentation on them crosses a line that shouldn’t be crossed?”
Certainly I can respect it. That doesn’t mean I have to agree with it. Can many people respect that I considered Bush’s Iraq “war” to be immoral and that I object STRENUOUSLY to having to help pay for it with my taxes?