msmything wrote:I'll say again, embryonic stem cell research has never been banned, ever.
People are speaking in CNN sound bites here..
The 'restriction' on embryonic stem cell research simply was that every Ton Dick and harry, has to prove where the cells came from as there was a carefully monitored and identifyable number of embryo genotypes available. IN THE UNITED STATES
Don't you think that if someone in the world came up with a stem cell transplnt that was sure to work, that thousands of US citizens would be racing off to that country???
The use of the stem cells, no matter where they came from, has all along been a life threatenting procedure, and will continue to be so.
As dysfunctional our immune systems are we still need them, and they are destroyed by chemotherapy in the process. It takes months for them to begin to work again, then you wait to see if the stem cells worked.
There are people doing the procedure right here in Chicagoland, I work with someone that had it done.
She was an ideal candidate (I don't know the criteria) her son was not..he' died shortly after receiving the transplant.
AS an aside the Dr. who is doing these here is not a neurologist, or even and MD, he's a biologist.
Granted the man's a genius, BUT, big BUT he works at Northwestern University Hospital. A huge prestigiious place.If they had a "cure" for MS don't you think we might have heard about it????
I'm sorry, but you're seriously misinformed. Fox news will do that to you...
Bush banned all federal funding for stem cell research that didn't involve the use of already existing stem cell lines. Unfortunately, most of those lines had been compromised or contaminated by the time Bush issued his edict.
The ban stated that no facility that had any federally funded equipment could participate in embryonic stem cell research. This meant that a facility that had a microscope, centrifuge, stethoscope, or even test tube, that had been purchased with federal grant money at any time in the past could start an ESC research project, even if privately that project were funded. It basically mandated that a facility be built from the ground up with private money in order to undertake such research, which would have been obscenely expensive, and thus Bush's ban on federal funding effectively ended all embryonic stem cell research in the United States of America.
As for your take on what stem cell therapy involves, again, you're a bit confused. The treatment that requires the ablation of a patient's immune system is known as ASCT (autologous stem cell treatment) and has been used in trials for almost a decade now. It's also been used to treat leukemia patients for well over a decade. In this process, a patient's own stem cells, derived from their own bone marrow, is used to reboot the patient's immune system after it has been eradicated through the administration of powerful chemotherapy agents.
Therapies involving embryonic stem cells, or umbilical cord stem cells, or many types of adult stem cells, take an entirely different approach. In theory (a theory which has been tested successfully in animal trials), these cells would actually repair damaged nervous system tissue, and not address the immune system whatsoever. This is the holy grail of stem cell research, and cell repair and regeneration. In this kind of therapy, a patient's immune system would be left entirely intact.
There already human applications in which stem cells are being used to this effect, most notably in treating cardiac patients whose hearts are actually repaired through the use of stem cells.
The only commonality between the procedure you refer to, and the stem cell therapies being researched using a whole array of different types of stem cells, are that stem cells are part of the process. The type of therapy being done in Chicago attempts to reboot a faulty immune system. The regenerative stem cell research under way worldwide attempts to fix damaged body systems through the use of stem cells. They are two entirely different approaches, seeking to address disease in completely different ways...