LifeBeat for May 19, 2007

May 19, 2007 - Clarke Forsythe, President of Americans United for Life, again discusses the recent ruling on partial-birth abortion by the U.S. Supreme Court. This ruling implies that states may have greater room to pass legislation which limits abortion.

Tags: clarke forsythe, partial-birth abortion

LifeFacts - University of Michigan snatches highly sought after biochemistry researcher from the University of Nebraska

The competition is fierce among research universities securing top world renown scientists and the grant dollars that come with them. Anuja Ghorpade, the University of Nebraska Medical Center's top researcher, has gotten offers for more money, more lab space and more prestige for the last 13 years. It wasn't until she was offered a position from the University of Michigan that she could not refuse.

Does this suggest that the laws in Michigan governing biotechnology research are not too restrictive? Could Dr. Ghorpade's decision to move, suggest that Michigan is a prestigious hub of life science's best and the brightest? U of M currently has 349 endowed chairs and is in the process of raising "$425 million to supplement the salaries of top professors and researchers." Dr.Ghorpade's expertise is not in stem cells, but in brain diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and HIV-related dementia. She will truly be an asset to our state's life science corridor. For more information, click here.

Letter to Detroit Free Press on stem cell research

The following letter was submitted to the Detroit Free Press regarding this misleading editorial by Liz Barry in the Free Press.

A recent editorial in the Free Press by Liz Barry insinuated that embryonic stem cell research "could boost Michigan(‘s) economy." Absent from the editorial was any explanation of how allowing the killing of human embryos for research would help Michigan's economy. Other states which are supposedly leading the way in embryonic stem cell research have provided researchers with millions upon millions of state tax dollars (which Michigan doesn't have with its current budget crisis). In other words, embryonic stem cell research doesn't bring money in, it typically asks taxpayers to foot the bill.

The editorial also states researchers have "voluntarily adopted rigorous guidelines" including "only using embryos slated for disposal." Why then are embryonic stem cell researchers like Sean Morrison strongly behind the legislative efforts of Rep. Andy Meisner to legalize the cloning of human embryos so they can be killed for research?

Proponents of embryonic stem cell research have been promising cures for years and they've received more than $100 million dollars from our federal government to conduct their research. Yet no human disease is anywhere near being treated with embryonic stem cells. Now they're promising an economic "boost" without any explanation. Don't buy the hype.

If space permitted the letter would have also discussed the fact that the vast majority of human embryos at fertility clinics aren't available for research. Instead, around 90% of those human embryos are being saved by their parents in the hopes of initiating a pregnancy in the future.

LifeBeat for May 12, 2007

Clarke Forsythe, President of Americans United for Life, discusses the recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on the federal ban on partial-birth abortion. In a 5-4 decision, the court upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003.

LifeBeat for May 5, 2007

Lauren Migliore, President of Students for Life of Michigan, talks about her organization, their goals and what they're working on. Students for Life of Michigan work to make sure the prolife message is heard on college campuses because a large number of abortions are performed on college-aged women.

Letter to the Oakland Press

The following letter was submitted to the Oakland Press in response to this misleading story regarding stem cell research:

An article in the May 10th edition of the Oakland Press focusing on the efforts of the Michigan Citizens for Stem Cell Research and Cures (MCSCRC) got a number of facts wrong.

First, the article claims Michigan is "one of the last states in the nation not allowing" embryonic stem cell research. This is an odd claim considering the University of Michigan has received more than $2 million dollars from the federal government to work with embryonic stem cells. Michigan law doesn't ban embryonic stem cell research. It bans human cloning and the killing of human embryos for research purposes.

Second, blastocysts are not "fertilized eggs." Blastocyst is a scientific term used to describe embryos, in this case human embryos, at a certain stage of development. Embryos don't develop from blastocysts since blastocysts are embryos.

The article also fails to note the legislation (H.B. 4616) sponsored by Andy Meisner would legalize the creation of human embryos by human cloning through a process known as somatic cell nuclear transfer. Proponents of this legislation don't want the public to know they're in favor of human cloning for research because they realize most people in Michigan recognize it is never ethical for a researcher to create human embryos solely for the purpose of killing them for their cells.

For a group which is supposedly dedicated to educating the Michigan public about stem cell research, the Michigan Citizens for Stem Cell Research and Cures sure do spend a lot of time providing reporters with inaccurate information.

Tags: stem cell research, cloning, Meisner, Michigan Citizens for Stem Cell Research and Cures

Life Facts - Embryonic Stem Cell "Whoppers"

No wonder the public is confused about the advancements and failures of stem cell research, embryonic or otherwise, when the following double-speak is published by prominent political figures who have either been mislead or intentionally misrepresent the truth for political purposes. U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said, "I've met with two patients that have been treated with embryonic stem cells." To date, no human trials using embryonic stem cells are even close to being done.

Speaking of 'whoppers', former U.S. Congressman, Joe Schwarz stated, "Hundreds of thousands of unwanted blastocysts are discarded as medical waste each year." What are his sources? Another false claim he made was, "Another thing happening because of restrictions is, (research is) going offshore." Nothing could be further from the truth.

The former Governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack, stated in his 2006 State of the State address that at the time he signed the original ban on cloning, "... we never dreamt that new treatments dependent upon such [nuclear cell] transplants [sic] would be developed so quickly. Well, they have been, and as a result we should revisit our ban on nuclear cell transplants."

Huh? There are no treatments.

Iowa's State Rep. Patrick Murphy wrote that, the legislation to lift the ban on cloning, " ... authorizes the creation of embryonic stem cell lines, which are not even close to actual embryos. There is no sperm involved in somatic cell nuclear transfer, so there can be no embryo." How does one get embryonic stem cell lines without embryos? James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin, the first to isolate embryonic stem cells, explained that, "If you create an embryo by nuclear transfer, and you give it to somebody who didn't know where it came from, there would be no test you could do on that embryo to say where it came from ... you're creating an embryo."

For more information visit here and here.

Tags: stem cell research

Letter Printed in the Detroit News

On May 2, the Detroit News printed a letter from Right to Life of Michigan regarding embryonic stem cell research and legislation introduced in Michigan to legalize human cloning for research.

LifeBeat for April 28, 2007

April 28, 2007 - Richard Doerflinger, Deputy Director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, discusses how inefficient human cloning for research is. He also talks about how states should focus their attention on adult stem cell research.

Tags: richard doerflinger, human cloning, stem cell research

Detroit News gets it wrong on embryonic stem cell research

Below is a letter to the editor which was recently sent to the Detroit News by a Right to Life of Michigan staff person in response to a recent editorial of theirs on embryonic stem cell research:

A recent Detroit News editorial inconceivably states, “Embryonic stem cell research should be allowed in this state” as if it was somehow not allowed. Last November, the Detroit News ran a lengthy article about how the University of Michigan was raising money to do experiments on human embryonic stem cell lines which aren’t funded by the federal government. The U of M was also awarded a multi-million dollar federal grant to work on federally-approved human embryonic stem cells back in 2003.

Michigan law prohibits the killing of human embryos for research purposes and the creation of cloned human embryos, not embryonic stem cell research. Legislation introduced by Representative Andrew Meisner wouldn’t legalize embryonic stem cell research in Michigan since it’s already legal. Meisner’s legislation would allow human embryos created by in vitro fertilization to be killed for research purposes and also explicitly allow the creation of human embryos through cloning and mandate their destruction.

Michigan doesn’t need to clone and kill human embryos to move science forward. That’s one reason why numerous countries like Germany, France, Canada, Japan and many more have banned human cloning for research. They also likely understand there are grave dangers in treating human embryos as if they were nothing more than mere commodities.

Tags: stem cell, cloning, Michigan, legislation, Detroit News, Andrew Meisner

LifeBeat for April 21, 2007

Richard Doerflinger, Deputy Director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, talks about why proponents of embryonic stem cell research promise cures when no one is anywhere being treated with embryonic stem cells. He also discusses human cloning for research.

U.S. Supreme Court upholds ban on partial-birth abortion

On April 18, 2007, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a decision to uphold the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. This federal law banned a procedure in which unborn children are partially-delivered before being killed but was challenged in court by various abortion providers. The ban will now take effect and prevent abortionists from using this brutal procedure to kill children who are more born than unborn.

To read, Right to Life of Michigan's press release, click here.

Life Facts - Type 1 Diabetes patients successfully treated with their own stem cells

According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, a group of patients with Type 1 diabetes, were experimentally treated in Brazil with their own stem cells. Thirteen out of the fifteen young people who received transplants using their own stem cells were able to go without insulin for extended periods, ranging from six months to three years. The patients involved were between the ages of 14 to 31 and newly diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. One of the patients tested, a 30 year old male, has not taken insulin since the transplant which was 3 years ago. Much more extensive testing and development of this treatment method is needed. Yet with as many as 3 million struck with this disease in the United States alone, this medical first, using ethical sources of stem cells, is a huge step towards a cure.

For more information read these articles in the Houston Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times.

Tags: stem cell research, type 1 diabetes

LifeBeat for April 7, 2007

Paul Etterling, author of Genuine Faith and the Test of Love, provides advice for parents who receive an adverse prenatal diagnosis and how the prolife movement can reach out to people who are facing an adverse prenatal diagnosis.

Tags: paul etterling, prenatal diagnosis

Life Beat for March 31, 2007

Paul Etterling, author of Genuine Faith and the Test of Love, discusses the short life of his son David who had anencephaly, a neural tube defect with a 100% fatality rate. Paul and his wife were able to celebrate the life of their son even though he lived for only a short time.

Tags: paul etterling, anencephaly

LifeBeat for March 24, 2007

Dr. Richard Land, President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, talks about when life human life begins. A new, unique human life begins at conception. He also discusses how every human being has a right to life.

Tags: richard land, when does life begin

LifeBeat for March 17, 2007

Dr. Richard Land, President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, talks about embryonic stem cell research. He also discusses how prolifers can reach out to women who have had abortions.

Tags: richard land, stem cell research

Governor Granholm continues to confuse on stem cell research

On April 11, Governor Jennifer Granholm, along with the governors from 9 other states, signed a letter which was sent to the minority and majority leaders in the U.S. Senate urging them and all the members of the U.S. Senate to pass a bill which would increase the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

The letter contained a number of faulty statements which again show that Governor Granholm continues to garble information on this important issue.

The letter claims, "Embryonic stem cell research holds the potential to cure some of the oldest and deadliest diseases - from Parkinson's to Alzheimer's to multiple sclerosis. However, these restrictions have delayed that research for far too long." The letter also states, "For over five years, these families have been forced to wait as the Bush policy has obstructed this vital research."

Besides falsely claiming embryonic stem cell research could cure Alzheimer's (leading embryonic stem cell researcher Ronald McKay called statements like this "a fairy tale"), the letter also acts like the federal government restricts or obstructs embryonic stem cell research. The federal government does nothing to restrict or obstruct embryonic stem cell research. Private companies are allowed to do whatever they would like with embryonic stem cells. The federal government even spent $122 million on human embryonic stem cell research from 2003-2006 and plans on spending an additional $74 million on embryonic stem cell research in the next two years.

Instead of leading with honesty and integrity, Governor Granholm continues to garble the truth when it comes to stem cell research. She has unfortunately chosen to spend her time hyping research which is nowhere near being tested in human beings much less curing a wide variety of diseases as if it were the Holy Grail of medicine. In the meantime, she ignores the medical breakthroughs continually occurring using life-affirming forms of stem cell research which don't necessitate the destruction of human embryos.

For more about Governor Granholm's garbling of information on life issues, please visit Granholm Garble.

Tags: governor granholm, stem cell research

Successfully treating diabetes with adult stem cells

As the U.S. Senate debates whether to expand the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, research with adult stem cells continues to treat a variety of diseases without killing human embryos. The Journal of the American Medical Association has released information about a study conducted in Brazil on patients with juvenile diabetes. The study found that thirteen of the fifteen treated patients are currently living normal lives and aren't taking insulin injections after being treated with their own stem cells. In the study, patients were given transplants of their own adult stem cells after chemotherapy was used to stop the patient's immune system from attacking cells which produce insulin. The adult stem cells then rebuilt their immune systems so the immune systems won't try to kill the body's insulin producing cells. One patient hasn't needed to use insulin for nearly 3 years.

The abstract to the study is available online at the web site of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Life Facts - Heart patient dramatically improves after injections using his own stem cells

Joe Galsser, 74, after suffering from a massive heart attack was left in a weakened state. He had a pacemaker implanted and was told that he would have five years to live. Seventy-five percent of his heart had died and there was nothing more they could do. That is until he participated in a stem cell study at the University of California San Diego, where doctors extracted stem cells from his leg, cultivated them in a lab and injected them into his damaged heart. He had no problems or side affects and said,"I feel excellent and I can do whatever I want to." This procedure is so minimally invasive that patients did not require anesthesia. This could revolutionize health care because the patient can go home within 24 hours of the procedure. Therefore the costs would dramatically decrease from $200,000 for a heart transplant to $20,000 - $25,000 (even as low as $8,000) for a stem cell transplant.

For more information visit these websites:
ABC News
WebMD

Tags: stem cell, heart treatment

Some advances in adult stem cell research this week

German researchers used adult stem cells from the hip bones of liver cancer patients to help grow their livers to a point where they were large enough so doctors could remove the cancerous parts.

Researchers have extracted adult stem cells from the legs of patients suffering from heart failure and then injected them into the patient's heart. The researchers saw improvement in the health of patients who received the adult stem cell treatment while the health of patients who received traditional treatment worsened.

For more advances in adult stem cell research, be sure to visit StemCellResearchCures.com

The Deceptive Definitions of Human Cloning

Wesley Smith recently had an article published in the Weekly Standard where he examines federal legislation recently introduced in Washington. Wesley notes that while S. 812 is entitled the "Human Cloning Ban and Stem Cell Protection Act of 2007," the legislation actually makes human cloning legal by providing a false and misleading definition of human cloning. Instead of defining human cloning as the actual scientific process of cloning, the falsely named "Human Cloning Ban and Stem Cell Protection Act of 2007" defines human cloning as the "implanting or attempting to implant the product of nuclear transplantation" (also known as a cloned human embryo) into a uterus.

At the state level in Michigan, we are faced with similar legislation. In the Michigan Senate, Gretchen Whitmer has introduced a bill, S.B. 52, which attempts to change the definition of "human cloning" in Michigan's current ban on human cloning as well as allow the destruction of human embryos for research purposes.

Michigan's current law defines human cloning by saying, "‘Human cloning' means the use of human somatic cell nuclear transfer technology to produce a human embryo."

Somatic cell nuclear transfer of SCNT is the scientific term for cloning. This is the technique scientists used to create Dolly the sheep and the various other animals which have been cloned.

Now, here's how Whitmer's legislation, if passed, would change this definition:

"‘Human cloning' means creating or attempting to create a human being by using the somatic cell nuclear transfer procedure for the purpose of, or to implant, the resulting product to initiate a pregnancy that could result in the birth of a human being."

That language doesn't actually outlaw human cloning. It just outlaws attempts to place a cloned human embryo into a womb if that pregnancy could result in birth by deceptively changing the definition of "human cloning" from a factual, scientific definition to one used for political posturing. Once a cloned human embryo has been created, the cloning has already occurred. Placing a cloned embryo into the womb isn't cloning.

The language of this legislation also seems to leave open the possibility of implanting cloned human embryos into wombs (real or artificial ) as long as the purpose of the pregnancy isn't birth but rather growing the cloned child to a point where the child could be aborted and fetal stem cells could be removed. This is a process also known as fetal farming.

Those who favor the creation and destruction of cloned human embryos for their stem cells are typically very careful to avoid saying they are in favor of scientists being allowed to try to create cloned human embryos because they know the public is, for the most part, not comfortable with human cloning and also not comfortable with the idea of creating human embryos solely to destroy them.

The prolife people in Michigan need to pull the curtain back and expose the crooked plans of human cloning proponents to their friends and family.

Tags: michigan, cloning, stem cell

LifeFacts: Woman saved from acute leukemia using ethical umbilical cord blood stem cells

A 27 year old woman from Israel contracted acute secondary leukemia that endangered her life. She received umbilical cord blood stem cells from two mothers who had just given birth, which saved her life. The beauty of using cord blood is that it does not necessarily have to be an exact match, unlike bone marrow transplants. Only 25% of patients needing a bone marrow transplant actually match up with someone in their family, otherwise a search for a suitable match is located and asked to donate. This is a cumbersome and time consuming process.

Another major advantage to using umbilical cord blood stem cells is that the graft "took" in two weeks, rather than one month for bone marrow transplants. By cutting hospital stays in half, the potential cost savings for health care will be enormous. Every new mother should consider donating her cord blood to either private or public banks when she delivers her child. By building up cord blood donations in the network, matches can be readily available and by using two doses the life saving benefits are quicker. Last but not least, investing in cord blood banks will save health care untold amounts of money.

For more information, you can read this article.

Correcting the Detroit Free Press's Stem Cell Mistakes

On March 18, 2007, the Detroit Free Press published an editorial on stem cell research which contained a number of claims which weren't true. The editorial claims that the state of Michigan has a "ban on embryonic stem cell research." Michigan doesn't have a ban on embryonic stem cell research. Research with human embryonic stem cell has been occurring at the University of Michigan for a 3 years with the support of federal tax dollars.

The law the Free Press was likely referring to is Michigan's law which prohibits the use of living human embryos, human fetuses, and human neonates in research which isn't therapeutic for them. This law prohibits researchers from killing human embryos for their stem cells but doesn't prohibit researchers from importing embryonic stem cells from other state and experimenting on them in Michigan.

Or the Free Press might have been referring to Michigan's ban on human cloning. Of course, a ban on human cloning is much different than a ban on embryonic stem cell research especially since attempts at human cloning for research have yet to even get embryonic stem cells from a cloned human embryo. If the Free Press editorial board is opposed to Michigan's ban on human cloning then they should provide arguments for why the ban on human cloning should be removed instead of arguing against a ban which doesn't exist.

One might wonder if the Free Press staff is just not very familiar with Michigan's laws on these complex issues except this editorial is one editorial in a long line of editorials and news stories in which the Free Press has inaccurately described Michigan laws relating to bio-ethical issues. Numerous times, Right to Life of Michigan staff have contacted the Free Press and Free Press reporters to correct these errors. Unfortunately, the Free Press has continued to persist in providing its readers with information which is intentionally misleading.

Tags: detroit free press, stem cell, michigan law

LifeFacts: Some cancers happen when stem cells go haywire - U of M researchers make significant find

Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center are the first to identify the stem cells that fuel the growth in pancreatic tumors. This is huge because pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly of cancers with the worst survival rate. By identifying these particular stem cells, drugs can be developed to effectively aim and kill these tumor forming cells. Currently cancer treatments fail because they are designed to shrink the tumor by killing as many cells as possible, but may miss the cancer stem cells responsible. This small sub population of cancer cells can not only copy themselves, but can live longer than ordinary cells. To date, when embryonic stem cells have been transplanted in laboratory animal tests, they also go haywire and cause tumors.

For more information about this research, visit this site.