Deniers and Liars on the Left

Dr. Catherine Verfaillie, professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota cited in this update on stem cell research by Michael Fumento, The American Spectator:

Verfaillie's team was the first to report on non-embryonic (also called "adult stem cells" or ASCs) from marrow that apparently could become all three "germ layers," or subtypes of the approximately 220 different human cells. That would make them as pliable as embryonic stem cells, thereby removing the only real advantage ESCs ever had over ASCs.

Meanwhile, ASCs retain the advantage of already being used in over 70 cures or treatments (pdf) and about 1,300 human clinical trials, while ESCs haven't even made it past animal testing.

Further research since her 2002 study bears her out:

That's because since 2002 a large number of research teams publishing in an array of major peer-reviewed journals have found other ASC types convertible into cells of either two or all three germ layers. The ones that led to mature cells in all three layers include those from bone marrow, lung tissue, sperm, the pancreas, the umbilical cord, and the inner ear.

Most recently, Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, reported in January's Nature Biotechnology that stem cells in the amniotic fluid that fills the sac surrounding the fetus form all three germ layers. They have numerous advantages over ESCs but none of the disadvantages, such as tending to cause cancers called teratomas or "monster tumors."

Unlike embryonic stem cells, placental stem cells have already provided actual treatment to patients since 1996. Amniotic stem cells are identical to placental stem cells.

But feminists and their liberal allies in the press and legislatures continue to push for research on embyronic cells because they want to continue to deny that an embryo is a human life.

They go further---they want to deliberately create life only to destroy it, just to push their agenda. And they continue to ignore real medical advances achieved in the use of other kinds of stem cells, while downplaying the risk of cancerous tumors that accompany the use of embryonic stem cells. They deny life, and they lie and lie.

Related posts: Sanctimonious Schoenberg, Equality of Life, Do No Harm