SAN FRANCISCO — Scientists at Stanford University have used human fetal stem cells in experiments with rats. Dr. Gary Steinberg, a Stanford neurosurgeon, has shown that rats who have the same kind of strokes as human beings benefited after human stem cells were injected into their brains. The cells migrated to the damaged areas and scientists hope that the cells would begin to rebuild the damage in human stroke victims. Steinberg said that he was “optimistic” about the results for human stroke victims, but gave the usual caveat that actual stem cell treatment was “years away” and much more research needed to be done.
Such experiments however, have already been tried on human sufferers of Parkinson's disease and ended in disaster. In 2001, LifeSiteNews.com reported on a series of experiments involving the injection of fetal cells into the brains of patients. The patients developed irreversible symptoms that the researchers themselves described as “catastrophic.” Dr. Paul Greene, a neurologist at the Columbia University College of Physicians called the experiment “disastrous” and “a real nightmare.” He said, “No more fetal transplants. We are absolutely and adamantly convinced that this should be considered for research only. And whether it should be researched in people is an open question.”
The Stanford research findings are published on the website of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The injected cells were derived from aborted fetal human beings which had been cultivated for years. Stem Cells Inc., a California company makes various kinds of stem cells available to researchers.
It is common practice for abortion mills to sell the parts of their victims for medical research and the market for stem cells is brisk since President Bush curtailed public funding for them. In 1997 the organization Life Dynamics started an investigation that revealed a brisk trade in baby body parts, not all of which are “harvested” from the dead.
In 2000, the television news program, 20/20 interviewed a young technician, a former employee of one such business, who converted to the pro-life cause when she was given a living set of twins to dissect.
See also:
Study Demonstrates “Catastrophic” Side Effect Of Fetal Tissue Transplants
Update on the Marketing of Baby Body Parts
Also, UK Boy Treated for Blood Disorder with Genetically Matched Sibling's Stem Cells
LONDON — A five-year-old British boy, Charlie Whitaker, has received stem cell treatment for a rare blood disorder; the cells came from his genetically matched IVF baby brother.
Last month the UK Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) decided to relax its rules to allow the creation of children specifically genetically selected in IVF labs to serve as tissue donors for sick siblings and other family members. Charlie's parents, Michelle and Jayson, went to the United States for the IVF procedures.
The controversy surrounded Charlie's parents' request to have the IVF procedure. They said the only hope for their child, who suffered from Diamond Blackfan Anaemia, was to have a matched tissue donor embryo created in a lab, implanted and brought to birth. Six months ago, Charlie's brother Jamie, a genetic match, was born. His umbilical cord blood was used to obtain stem cells for Charlie's treatment. Doctors do not know yet whether the stem cell treatment on Charlie has been successful.
Until July 21, the UK did not allow the manufacture of human beings to be used as living tissue banks. Suzi Leather, head of the HFEA, said: “We have decided to relax the rules on embryo selection to enable all couples who want to be able to select an embryo who might be a tissue match for an existing seriously ill sibling to be able to do that.” The HFEA already allowed the eugenic “selection” of the “unfit” — those embryos that showed signs of genetic abnormalities. There is no public record of how many other siblings of Charlie's were created and discarded when they failed the genetic selection process.
British pro-life advocates decried the decision saying it reduced a human being to a consumer product, and smacked of Nazi eugenics. Professor Jack Scarisbrick, national chairman of the charity Life, said, “We have gone yet further down the slippery slope in creating human beings to provide 'spare parts' for another.”
See also:
“Designer Baby” Rules Are Relaxed
(This update courtesy of LifeSiteNews.com.)
