Christian M.D. Spurns Latest Embryonic Stem Cell 'Breakthrough' Hype
by Mary Rettig
June 27, 2006
(AgapePress) - - David Stevens, executive director of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), says a recent breakthrough in embryonic stem-cell research really is not all that impressive.The Johns Hopkins research, funded partially by the National Institutes of Health, shows that injured mice injected with cultured mouse embryonic stem cells regained some muscle movement in their legs. But according to Dr. Stevens, this "breakthrough" had really already happened some time ago, when an experiment similar in nature to this one was disclosed.
"This data that was reported by Johns Hopkins is almost a duplicate of a study that was done three years ago," the Christian physician explains, "except for one extra thing that they did. They injected some medication directly into the muscle which attracted the nerve endings into that muscle and helped cause some movement."
Stevens says it is also important to note what was not reported anywhere on the same day the Johns Hopkins report was released last week. "There was a 19-year-old patient with paralysis testifying before Congress after her adult stem-cell injection," he notes. "And now she's learning to walk again and getting out of her wheelchair."
Proponents of embryonic stem-cell research (ESCR) tout the Johns Hopkins study and other so-called "breakthroughs" as justifications of continued expansion and funding of research using embryonic stem cells, despite the ethical and medical concerns these lines of inquiry raise. Meanwhile, the CMDA spokesman asserts, a more important story and its implications are being overlooked.
Where mice may be limping around with embryonic stem cells in a lab, real people are learning to walk again with adult stem cells, Stevens contends. But despite this fact and the mountain of evidence to support the efficacy of adult stem-cell research, he says the mainstream media continue to pick up any scrap of news about less-proven and less-promising embryonic stem-cell research and to run with those stories.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
