Stem cell research gains ground in Catholic church

As is often the case the headline means absolutely nothing and is in no way indicative of the actual story. The article covers New Jersey’s adult stem-cell research, something that the Catholic Church has never been against. The whole idea of gaining ground when absolutely nothing has changed is just another case of MSM perversion of truth relating to the Church.

Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine signed a bill last December providing $270 million in state aid to build five research centers, including a $50 million center at the New Jersey Institute of Technology that will be devoted to adult stem cell research. Such work is morally acceptable, according to the Catholic viewpoint, because no living thing is destroyed in the process of extracting the "adult" cells. They are found in placentas, umbilical cords, bone marrow, fat cells and nasal membranes.

I found this paragraph to have a couple of odd things. For one why is adult surrounded by scare quotes? The other is "no living thing is destroyed." It is just so hard for them to say human in connection to stem-cell research. That they have to replace human with thing just shows how deep the bias is on this issue. Congratulations your pregnant with a thing. Though pregnant moms who are fans of the Fantastic Four might pass out to find there pregnant with a Thing (it would be Grimm news).

"As we go along," he said, "we’re learning more and more." Breakthroughs in both embryonic and adult stem cells seem to be coming constantly, he added.

Hold the presses there has been a breakthrough in embryonic stem-cell research. Funny I must have missed it and strangely this breakthrough has received no coverage. I guess the number of cures due to ESCR have increased from zero to nothing.

One problem is the whole terminology of adult stem-cells, this is rather confusing considering that these stem-cells are being recovered via umbilical cord blood and other methods. Though at this stage of the game it is a term that just is not going to go away.

[Via Jill Stanek]

Interestingly the same reporter Kitta MacPherson wrote another column on the subject today Promising results in stem cell research that really spins ESCR.

"Everybody is always saying to us, ‘Well, you guys studying the human embryonic stem cells, you haven’t benefited anyone yet,’" said Evan Snyder, a neuroscientist who has published breakthrough papers on both embryonic and adult stem cells. "Well, this is it."

The international team, headed by Snyder, a physician-scientist at the Burnham Institute in California, also compared the effectiveness of embryonic stem cells versus the "adult" variety and found them to be equally effective.

The data is so strong, Snyder said, he plans to call upon the federal Food and Drug Administration to allow him to launch clinical trials immediately to test the effectiveness of the treatment against Tay-Sachs disease, a genetic disorder affecting Ashkenazi Jews.

Wesley J. Smith notes:

But note this part of the story. The scientists used both adult and embryonic stem cells in their experiments, with interesting results: The international team, headed by Snyder, a physician-scientist at the Burnham Institute in California, also compared the effectiveness of embryonic stem cells versus the "adult" variety and found them to be equally effective. In other words, in mice adult stem cells were just as therapeutic as embryonic! That should have been the headline and the story’s emphasis. Moreover, if this is so, why use ESCs in human trials, as these scientists want to do, given their propensity to cause tumors and their ethical contentiousness?

Yes the breakthrough in ESCR is that for this test it has the exact same effectiveness of adult stem-cells. If anything this only shows the effectiveness of adult stem-cell treatment and the need for problematic sources as unnecessary.