  I’m staying away from the news these days, for the usual “no stress” reasons, but I do catch blurbs all day, on the radio, on Web sites, and on TV. Yesterday that blurb was “embryonic stem cell research.” Conservatives are often accused of being “evil.” We don’t care about the poor or the working class. We don’t care about minorities. And now, we don’t care about Alzheimer’s patients. This frustrates me because, if the people who criticize the president over this issue would just sit down and do the research, they would see that he has taken a responsible approach to government’s involvement in stem cell research.
I just think that people don’t know the full story. Research on embryonic stems cells started just six years ago, although Congress moved to ban federal funding of it eight years ago. George W. Bush made that ban permanent, but has allowed federal funding for the 71 lines that were already created, where the life and death decision already has been made. Although thousands of embryos exist in this country, the “extras” created during in vitro fertilization, researchers continue to create and clone embryos solely for research. They continue to create life just to destroy it. And they say WE don’t care about people? By the way, the IVF embryos still have human life potential (check out the Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Program).
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), embryonic stem cell research (which requires the destruction of a week-old human embryo) has not led to any treatments for any diseases, but may “at some point in the future.” In addition, 20% of animals injected with these cells developed untreatable brain tumors. Scientist are finding that embryonic stem cells are hard to control. Adult stem cells from bone marrow, however, have been used to fight fatal and chronic diseases for over 30 years. Within the last few years, scientists have discovered that we also produce stem cells in our brain, blood, blood vessels, skeletal muscle, skin and liver. They have turned adult liver cells into insulin-producing cells. They’ve turned blood stem cells into brain cells and heart muscle, for God’s sake! The NIH says that adult stem cells have a “significant advantage” over embryonic stem cells: We all have them, and if we needed a therapy requiring stem cells, we could use our own, thereby negating the need for immunosuppressant drugs.
Another source of stem cells is the umbilical cord. Scientists have found a way to make these stem cells multiply to the point that they can be used to treat an adult (previously only children could be treated with cord blood stem cells). One woman’s chemotherapy depleted blood was replenished using the cord blood of the baby she just delivered. They think treatments like this could be standard WITHIN A FEW YEARS. The NIH says that adult stem cells have a huge potential to deliver treatments for Parkinson’s, diabetes and damage from heart attacks.
Real-life people are already receiving real-life treatments, unlike the mythical treatments that may someday be developed using embryos.&nbsp; To destroy one life to possibly save another devalues all human life. The routine practice of destroying embryos for research is a dark and dirty road that the U.S. government should not travel.
For the people who want funding for embryonic stem cell research, go organize a fund raiser. There are plenty of firms conducting this research, just make a donation to them if you choose to.&nbsp; The stem-cell research issue is just another bogus attempt by the left to discredit the president and American conservatives. It's another attempt to use emotion and fear to try to sway people to the their side. All I can say is, when the most stirring, raise-the-rafters speech at the Democratic Convention is delivered by the Rev. Al Sharpton, then you know, THEY ARE IN TROUBLE. 
