LifeBeat for September 1, 2007

Photojournalist Michael Clancy again discusses the photograph he took of Samuel Armas, a 21-week unborn child, holding the hand of the surgeon who was operating on him while in the womb. He also discusses where this photograph has been featured.

LifeBeat for August 25, 2007

Photojournalist Michael Clancy discusses the famous picture he took of baby Samuel Armas (an unborn child at 21 weeks) holding the hand of the surgeon who was operating on him in the womb. He also talks about how taking this picture and viewing this in-utero surgery changed how he thought about abortion.

Michael Clancy will be speaking at Right to Life of Michigan Annual Conference on September 22, 2007.

Letter to the Cadillac News

The following letter to the editor was submitted to the Cadillac News after they ran this article regarding stem cell research in Michigan and an event put on by the Michigan Citizens for Stem Cell Research and Cures:

A recent article in the Cadillac News provided an inaccurate explanation of Michigan's law on killing and cloning human embryos and the current efforts to overturn those laws. Legislation (H.B. 4616) introduced by Representative Andrew Meisner and supported by the Michigan Citizens for Stem Cell Research and Cures isn't designed to "strengthen the state's ban on human cloning." It's designed to legalize the creation and destruction of cloned human embryos. The current law, which was passed with a large bi-partisan majority, bans human cloning and provides penalties of up to 10 years and/or $10 million dollars. Rep. Meisner's bill would change this law by legalizing the same cloning technique (somatic cell nuclear transfer) which created Dolly the sheep as long as those cloned human embryos are killed for their stem cells. You can't strengthen a ban on human cloning by legalizing human cloning. Hopefully, The Cadillac News and its readers will be wary of claims made by the Michigan Citizens for Stem Cell Research and Cures.

LifeBeat for August 18, 2007

Brittany Millan, Right to Life of Michigan's Oratory Contest winner, talks about her experience in the oratory contest, her speech and importance of young people speaking up for life.

Stem cell letters published

The Detroit News has published a variety of letters responding to Alfred Taubman's editorial on embryonic stem cell research. They also published my longer letter.

LifeBeat for August 11, 2007

Pamela Sherstad, Director of Public Information for Right to Life of Michigan, talks about some of the reasons why women have abortion. She also talks about what Right to Life of Michigan is doing to reach out to women considering abortion.

Stem cell memo

Right to Life of Michigan's Legislative Staff sent the following memo to Governor Jennifer Granholm and Michigan lawmakers regarding a recent editorial on stem cell research in the Detroit News by A. Alfred Taubman:


Attached please find an editorial from today's Detroit News by Alfred Taubman claiming that Michigan's law prohibiting destructive research on human embryos is holding back advances on stem cell research and Michigan's biotechnology sector. Here are several important points – and omissions – to note:

• The caption written by the News under the researcher's photograph claims U-M "can use adult and umbilical chord [sic] stem cells in research in Michigan, but not ones from embryos." This is false. Research on stem cells taken from embryos is legal and is being done in Michigan with federal tax dollars.
  

• Taubman is either confused or making an important omission when he refers to "critical work" being done in California that in Michigan would net scientists a 10 year prison sentence or $10 million dollar fine. Destroying "leftover" human embryos for research purposes does not carry that penalty. Cloning human embryos does carry the 10/10 penalty. Are U-M researchers directing cloning in California?
  

• Taubman and embryonic stem cell advocates never mention that to create genetically matched embryonic stem cell treatments for millions of patients, millions of cloned embryos will have to be created and destroyed.
  

• The real reason researchers want to be able to destroy embryos themselves to create stem cell lines is to preserve lucrative patent rights. They won't say it, but it comes down to money.
  

• Mr. Taubman urges the entire state to "have the discussion" about stem cell research. Agreed! Let's have the WHOLE discussion, starting with who wants to clone and kill human embryos and who says cures can and are being found without such unethical research.
  

LifeBeat for August 4, 2007

Pamela Sherstad, Director of Public Information for Right to Life of Michigan, discusses the recently released Michigan abortion statistics for 2006. She also talks about the importance of reaching out and providing help and encouragement to women who are pregnant.

Stem cell letter to the Detroit News

The following letter to the editor was sent to the Detroit News in response to this editorial on embryonic stem cell research by A. Alfred Taubman. The Taubman editorial is one of a series of editorials which falsely claim embryonic stem cell research is banned in Michigan.

A. Alfred Taubman's editorial on August 1, contained a number of inaccurate claims. Taubman falsely claimed that "embryonic stem cell research is essentially illegal in Michigan." It's amazing how the University of Michigan received more than $2 million in federal tax dollars to do something which is "essentially illegal." In Michigan, it's illegal to kill human embryos for research. Human cloning is also illegal and punishable by up to 10 years in prison. These laws don't prevent researchers from importing and experimenting on embryonic stem cells. A case in point is the University of Michigan.

Taubman also bemoans how supposedly hard it is for Michigan universities to recruit researchers because of Michigan's laws against killing embryos. That's an odd claim considering the director of the Life Sciences Institute at the University of Michigan was quoted in the Ann Arbor News on September 26, 2006, as describing their five new faculty researchers as "really first-rate" and "the top recruits in the country." In addition, this fall biochemistry experts Stephen Ragsdale and Ruma Banerjee plan to make their move to the University of Michigan. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln said it was losing two of its most prized researchers.

It should also be noted that the answer to the question of when the life of a human being begins isn't a "very personal matter." It's a scientific fact proponents of killing human embryos would prefer to ignore.

Tags: michigan, stem cell, taubman, detroit news

Life Facts - Kaitlyne's Bladder

Regenerative medicine has gone the extra mile by producing a fully functional custom made bladder for Kaitlyne McNamara, who was born with spina bifida and a diseased bladder. Sixteen year old Kaitlyne is one of the first people to receive a complex human organ grown from her own stem cells. Once incontinent, she hasn't had any embarrassing accidents and is enjoying her new social life.

Researchers at Children's Hospital in Boston extracted a small section of the diseased bladder, then Kaitlyne's healthy adult stem cells were isolated and placed on a "scaffold" made of collagen, layer by layer. By seven weeks the cells developed into a functioning organ and then sewn to what was left of the patient's partially working bladder. Since the bladder was created using Kaitlyne's own stem cells, her body did not reject it.

"This suggests that tissue engineering may one day be a solution to the shortage of donor organs in this country for those needing transplants," said Dr. Anthony Atala, the lead researcher, who also published breakthrough research using amniotic stem cells in early 2007.

For more information, click here and here.

LifeBeat for July 28, 2007

Musician and songwriter Larry Hover discusses his song "Celebrate that Baby." The song is designed to celebrate human life, born and unborn. The proceeds from the sale of this prolife song will be donated to Right to Life of Michigan. To learn more about this song, you can visit Larry's website, www.larryhover.com.

Life Facts - Singapore facility halting research using embryonic stem cells for lack of success

ES Cell International (ESI) opened in Singapore seven years ago to draw scientists in hopes of establishing itself as a biomedical hub. Alan Colman, a stem cell pioneer who helped clone 'Dolly the sheep', and former chief executive of ESI halted research on human embryonic stem cell therapies because of lack of interest on the part of investors. "The likelihood of having products in the clinic in the short term was vanishingly small," said Alan Colman. Robert Lanza, vice president for R&D at Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Massachusetts said, "What the field badly needs is one or two success stories."

While investors are pulling out of hESC research, successful therapies are happening as we speak using adult stem cells. Policy makers who spend taxpayers' money should expect a return on their investment. Time is money and it is better spent on substantiated, undisputed ethical lines of research - namely, non-embryonic stem cells.

For more information:
Science, July 2007: Vol. 317. no. 5836, p. 305

LifeBeat for July 21, 2007

Amanda Peterman, Life Media Project Coordinator for Right to Life of Michigan, discusses Right to Life of Michigan's online efforts to educate the public about prolife issues and reach out to women in unplanned pregnancies.

Undercover news team exposes a Michigan abortionist breaking the law

Last week, WDIV, a television station in Detroit, aired a three part story on an abortionist in Detroit who is performing abortions for a low price ($150) six days a week in a messy rundown building.

The first part of the story features an interview with a woman whose cousin recently had an abortion at this abortionist's clinic and experienced complications. The second part takes a hidden camera into the squalid office and reveals the abortionist is breaking some of Michigan's prolife laws including Michigan's informed consent and parental consent laws. The third part delves into the doctor's past and reviews the information in the previous two parts of the story.

Tags: abortion, detroit

LifeBeat for July 14, 2007

Amanda Peterman, Life Media Project Coordinator for Right to Life of Michigan, discusses Right to Life of Michigan's prolife educational work through media. Broadcast television, radio, print and internet advertisements have been used to spread the prolife message throughout Michigan.

LifeBeat for July 7, 2007

Ed Rivet, Legislative Director for Right to Life of Michigan, discusses the Legal Birth Definition Act and provides an update on what is happening with this legislation. This legislation would prohibit partial-birth abortion in Michigan but was unfortunately recently ruled unconstitutional by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

LifeBeat for June 30, 2007

Scott Klusendorf, President of the Life Training Institute, again talks about making a persuasive case for the prolife position. It is often important when discussing abortion to ask people who are pro-choice to back up the criteria they use to discriminate against the unborn with reasons why their criteria are valid.

Tags: scott klusendorf, abortion, prolife, pro-choice

Andy Meisner's False Stem Cell Claims

During his appearance on Off the Record (a public television program focusing on Michigan politics) on June 22, 2007, Representative Andy Meisner made a number of false claims regarding the issue of stem cell research and his legislation to legalize the killing of human embryos for research and the creation and destruction of cloned human embryos. You can view this program online here.

Meisner claimed there is a ban on embryonic stem cell research in Michigan despite the fact there is currently research involving embryonic stem cells occurring at the University of Michigan and the University of Michigan received a large 3-year federal grant to perform research on embryonic stem cells in 2003. Embryonic stem cell research is not banned in Michigan. Killing or experimenting on human embryos for research is banned in Michigan. This doesn't prevent researchers from experimenting on embryonic stem cells.

Meisner claimed legislation passed in 1998 was the "second ban on stem cell." Meisner is referring to Michigan's ban on human cloning which was a package of bills passed in 1998 with unanimous votes in the Michigan Senate and with 85+ votes (out of 110) in the Michigan House. Meisner and other proponents of human cloning for research typically avoid telling people they are in favor of human cloning for research or if they do they'll frequently use terms like "nuclear transfer" or "somatic cell nuclear transfer" because they know the majority of people are very uncomfortable with human cloning and creating human embryos solely for research. They also know that many people aren't familiar with the terms nuclear transfer and somatic cell nuclear transfer.

Meisner also claimed his legislation was about doing embryonic stem cell research restricted to stem cells taken from embryos leftover from in vitro fertilization. Yet Meisner's legislation would legalize the killing of cloned human embryos (which aren't "leftover from in vitro fertilization). His legislation would allow researchers to kill human embryos created by human cloning. Meisner's legislation (H.B. 4616) says, "A person may use a live human embryo to derive stem cells for nontherapeutic research if those embryos were from either of the following sources:" and then lists the following as a source,

"Notwithstanding section 16274, the utilization of a somatic cell nuclear transplantation procedure which was for the sole purpose of creating nuclear transfer blastocysts for the extraction of embryonic stem cells. As used in this subdivision, "blastocyst" means an embryo..."

In other words, his legislation legalizes the killing of a live human embryos (blastocysts) created by human cloning (somatic cell nuclear transplantation procedure) as long as they were created for the sole purpose of being killed for their stem cells.

Meisner is on the advisory board of the Michigan Citizens for Stem Cell Research and Cures. Their web site describes human cloning for research (which they call nuclear transfer) by saying, "Nuclear transfer is a laboratory procedure that creates embryos for use in stem cell research; sometimes referred to as ‘therapeutic cloning.'" On another page they describe Meisner's legislation by saying, "Proposals being considered by some policymakers would lessen state restrictions on stem cell research by removing restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, allowing for the creation of stem cells through nuclear transfer."

Unfortunately, Andy Meisner has not been honest with the Michigan people about Michigan's current law and what his legislation would do. If the people of Michigan are so in favor of human cloning and killing human embryos for their stem cells then why does Andy Meisner need to lie about his legislation?

Tags: andy meisner, stem cell research, human cloning, michigan, legislation, off the record, michigan citizens for stem cell research and cures

LifeBeat for June 23, 2007

Scott Klusendorf, President of the Life Training Institute, talks about making a persuasive case for the prolife position. Though the unborn are smaller, less developed, in a different environment, and have a different degree of dependency than most born people, none of those differences make the unborn less valuable than born human beings.

Life Facts - Human heart valves grown from ethical adult stem cells

For the first time, British researchers have grown part of a human heart from stem cells extracted from bone marrow in the lab. Dr. Adrian Chester, was able to grow small discs of heart valve tissue with the help of scaffolding made of collagen. Later this year, this tissue will be implanted into animals to monitor its effectiveness.

Many people who suffer from heart valve disease have artificial replacements, which have limitations. Sir Magdi Yacoub, Professor of Cardiac Surgery at Imperial College in London, said, "The way a living valve functions, it anticipates haemodynamic events and responds and changes its shape and size. It's completely different from an artificial valve which will just open and shut." If the trials prove to be successful, Professor Yacoub predicts the heart valves will be implanted in patients within three to five years.

Fifteen million people died of cardiovascular disease in 2005. Replacement valves grown from ethical sources of stem cells could save many lives in the very near future.

For more information, click here.

President Bush Vetoes Legislation to Use Tax Dollars for Embryonic-Killing Stem Cell Research

On June 20, President George W. Bush vetoed legislation to expand the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. The bill, S. 5, would have broadened which embryonic stem cell lines researchers could use in federal funded experiments.

Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing said, "President Bush has again boldly prevented American taxpayers from being compelled to fund the killing of human embryos. Advances in life-affirming forms of stem cell research continue to prove we do not need to kill the smallest, most vulnerable human beings in order to successfully treat those who are suffering."

According to the National Institutes of Health, the federal government has spent $122 million on research using human embryonic stem cells in the last four years and plans to spend an additional $74 million in the next two years. The University of Michigan received a federally funded grant to experiment on human embryonic stem cells in 2003. This research has not treated a single human patient.

"Right to Life of Michigan will continue to educate the public on the advances in adult stem cell research and research using stem cells found in umbilical cord blood and amniotic fluid through our StemCellResearchCures.com web site. Unfortunately, many people have been deceived into believing that embryonic stem cells offer their only hope of being cured," said Listing.

LifeBeat for June 9, 2007

Ed Rivet, legislative director for Right to Life of Michigan, discusses anti-life legislation introduced in Lansing to legalize the creation and destruction of cloned human embryos. Ed also discusses how information about where women can obtain free ultrasounds is now on the state of Michigan's web site.

LifeBeat for June 2, 2007

Ed Rivet, legislative director for Right to Life of Michigan, talks about prolife legislation which has been introduced in the Michigan legislature, including the Citizen Accountability Act.

LifeFacts - Follow the $$$

James Thomson is known as the first scientist to successfully isolate human embryonic stem cells (hESC) at the University of Wisconsin back in 1998. Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) holds the patent to this landmark invention along with two others, boasting they own the rights to all hESCs in the U.S. However, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a preliminary decision stating that they may throw out the patents, since the science is not new and was based on previous work. WARF, who charged hundreds of thousands of dollars for the use of the patented stem cells, challenged the decision.

Jeanne Loring, director of hESC research at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in California said, "The patents are impeding our research. They're more important than what's going on in the [U.S.] Senate right now." She said, "It is making scientists go overseas to do this sort of research. It isn't the funding that's sending us overseas. It's the patent issues."

Michigan, a hub of biotech research, continues to discover new breakthrough therapies, using ethical forms of stem cells, while operating within the law.

For more information, click here.

June/July/August 2007 issue of the RLM News

The June/July/August issue of the Right to Life of Michigan News has been posted online. The issue focuses on stem cell research and also has articles on the release of Jack Kevorkian, an update on partial-birth abortion and how information about free ultrasound is now posted at the state of Michigan's web site.