Adult stem cell research is a success

Victoria Cobb, President of The Family Foundation of Virginia discusses exciting news about stem cell research.

More breakthroughs with adult stem cells

"Headlines in the Washington Post today hailed yet another new discovery in the use of adult stem cells, again bringing into question the need to destroy human embryos to find cures for disease.

Researchers at Harvard University successfully transformed one type of adult stem cell into another type – inside living mice. The article announces, “The feat, published online today by the journal Nature, raises the tantalizing prospect that patients suffering from not only diabetes but also heart disease, strokes and many other ailments could eventually have some of their cells reprogrammed to cure their afflictions without the need for drugs, transplants or other therapies.”

Since stem cells were first discovered in the late 90s, scientists have speculated that they could be used to produce cures for a multitude of diseases. Unfortunately, some in the scientific community continue to insist on destroying living human beings in embryonic form in this effort. That research, however, has yet to produce a single success. In fact, not only have no cures been found resulting from the destruction of human embryos, there haven’t been any successes in any area of science using those stem cells.

Recently, Stanford researchers published results that verify once again that embryonic stem cells are rapidly rejected by the immune system, a problem that has plagued the use of human embryo research since its inception.

On the other hand, scientists have had spectacular results using adult stem cells – readily available with no destruction of human life. Dozens of treatments for disease are already being used on human patients, and with new discoveries like the one announced yesterday, the promise of adult stem cell research continues to grow.

So, you may ask, why do politicians continue to insist on using taxpayer dollars to fund failed research while other research is finding grand success?

Unfortunately, the political debate over stem cell research is not based on science or fact – it has been hijacked by abortion radicals and liberal politicians to be used as a wedge issue, placing the health and well-being of millions of citizens in jeopardy to win a political debate.

It is simply time to stop funding failed research with taxpayer dollars! We at The Family Foundation will, once again in 2009, come to the General Assembly with budget amendments eliminating the use of your money for failed research. Our hope is that real scientific breakthroughs like the once announced yesterday will actually be heeded by those in office."