DISQUS

bellle · 9 months ago

Mr. Feld, respectfully, your entire argument is based totally on speculation.
No cures have been found by using embryonic stem cells. Numerous cures have been obtained with adult stem cells.

I think you know that. So why are you wanting to take us into the dangerous area of killing potential human life???

If you want to spend your own money to do this questionable research, go ahead. But please don't force us to pay taxes to support your ideology.

Anonymous · 9 months ago

Mr. Feld,
Embryonic stem cell research was not banned. Only the federal funding of it was.

It is Obama who's put the ban in place. http://www.politically-speaking.net/2009/03/13/...

farmboy · 9 months ago

Mr. Feld,
Embryonic stem cell research was not banned. Only the federal funding of it was.

It is Obama who's put the ban in place. http://www.politically-speaking.net/2009/03/13/...

Glockensqueal · 9 months ago

Thanks, Mr. Feld. Always nice to see the occasional signs of intelligent life from Greenwood Village.

cheryl · 9 months ago

Steve, I agree. Those opposed to hESC research don't know the field. The FDA approved the first human trial using hESC's to assist people who have spinal cord injuries. Private companies have coaxed the same cells to formulate insulin expressing beta cells for diabetes (Geron Corp and the Univ of Alberta - also, Advanced Cell Techologies). (They have to fine tune the cells to react with blood glucose levels and then tackle the beta cell destruction by T cell issue) . Currently, there has been little financial incentive to take these powerful findings forward to the private market because the lack of funding (why many nonprofits like JDRF are now teaming up with corporations to provide funding to keep research going). hESC research is still in its infancy. Adult stem cells have been around much longer. No single stem cells have been found to solve all medical issues. So, we need research in all stem cell areas. There are not enough adoptive parents to turn all these unused embryos into human life form (maybe octomom can be recruited!) so let the parents of the embryos decide what to do with the unused ones...discard them or donate them to research. Why is discarding embryos ok and using them for research not ok. Why not just ban fertility clinics? That argument would be consistent with those not wanting unused embryos destroyed. There would not be embryos created to be destroyed.

cheryl · 9 months ago

Also, before anyone tries to argue that it is the federal funding aspect of hESC that they don't like and that private funds can still do research, let me also argue that many of us did not support the use of tax dollars overseas where many fully developed humans (civilian men, women and children) were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan - oh, that is just collateral damage - talk about dehumanizing! My tax dollars were used on programs that I am personally opposed to so why should the government do what those opposed to stem cell research want. That group is no more special than us who opposed the war overseas.

Romulus · 9 months ago

How sad that people like Harsanyi lack compassion for the people who are afflicted with terrible diseases and whose suffering might be mitigated through embryonic stem cell research. And all because fundamentalist religious ideology causes them to ignore the obvious distinction between that which is actual and that which is merely potential. Is an acorn the same thing as an oak tree? Obviously not. Then why do some insist that a microscopic clump of cells has the same claim on our compassion as a living and breathing human being?

wsmet · 9 months ago

Steve Feld from Greenwood Village, to the extent he supports embryonic stem cell research which destroys those particular human beings, endeavors with great vigor to destroy lives he deems not worth living. For the sake of doing so, Feld and most of his ilk deceitfully misrepresents his opponents as myopic. As if we disagreed with him, Obama, DeGette and Mengele that experimenting on human beings to the point of annihilation might not yield "groundbreaking health discoveries" to various people other than those destroyed. Feld next, maybe properly, labels his opponents as close-minded. As if being open-minded to the destruction of innocent, defenseless, unwanted human life for any purposes is virtuous. Following this, Feld, apparently because he's gifted to read all human hearts, slanders all his opponents by accusing us of necessarily actually being like Feld and Feld's ilk: ready to "elbow" our chance to benefit from the death of innocent others. While, in reality, it is Feld and Feld's ilk who directly support the "elbowing" to death of human embryos for the sake of human nonembryos. Next, Feld repeats the tired, deceitful canard of accusing his opponents, like Harsanyi, of opposing "stem-cell research." When in truth it is only embryonic stem-cell research that we oppose. And of that: only research which destroys or harms the embryonic human being. Lastly, Feld--if i remember Harsanyi's column correctly--misrepresents Harsanyi. In that i thought Harsanyi (sadly) mentioned that Harsanyi himself might support embryonic stem cell research. If i'm mistaken on that, i apologize. Harsanyi's point as i remember it, which Feld doesn't address, was simply that it's deceitful to claim that support for destruction of human embryos in stem cell research is the desirable view because it is only science.

Note to Feld about telling us to shut up: make us.

Robert · 9 months ago

If we only have a billion dollars to spend in stem-cell research, where should we spend it? In the political field of embryonic stem cell research that has yielded no viable scientific or medical result worldwide over the past 30 years???? Or in the scientific and medical world of adult stem cell research that has already found somewhere close to 100 viable treatments for human diseases and conditions????

The smart man goes with science and medicine: Adult stem cell research.
The politicians goes with the politics of embryonic stem cell research.

Stem cell research is a very valid form of research -- but only form of stem cell research: Adult Stem Cell Research.

Embryonic stem cell research has yielded NOTHING but empty promises and hopes.

Perhaps the reverse of Mr Feld's "theory" should apply to him: He cannot take advantage of ANY stem cell treatment that comes as a result of ADULT stem cell research. He must wait for his chosen field of stem cell research, EMBRYONIC, to yield something more than hopes and promises.

Or he can look at the facts, and come to the same conclusion many scientists have come to: Diana DeGette and Obama are politicians who have stake OUR MONEY on POLITICAL STEM CELL RESEARCH --- instead of funding that research that has yielded RESULTS instead of only dreams.

Adult Stem Cell Research: RESULTS in close to 100 treatments of real human diseases and conditions.
Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Nada, Zilch, worldwide for the past 30 years except "give us more money and we'll continue to try."

OUR TAX PAYER MONEY: Should it go to PROVEN MEDICAL RESEARCH -- or UNPROVEN POLITICAL RESEARCH?????

Alien & Stranger · 9 months ago

The key word "embryonic" has been omitted by Steve Feld, who thinks that using words like "myopic" and "closed minded" makes his viewpoint valid. Maybe he's the one being myopic and closed-minded! There's lots of ethical stem-cell research going on, including using umbilical stem-cells, and there have been major breakthroughs that wouldn't have happened if research hadn't been pushed in this direction. In fact, from what I've read, there have been considerable problems with using embryonic stem-cells. I admit I'm no scientific expert, but I do know the difference between right and wrong. Moral relativism justifies doing wrong things, i.e. the end justifies the means.

Robert Forman · 9 months ago

Very few people are really against stem-cell research; almost no one is against ADULT stem cell research; a lot of people are "uncomfortable" with Embryonic stem cell research.

But scientifically and medically speaking only, what has proven to be the ONLY VIABLE form of stem cell reaserch, ADULT or Embryonic? Some 30 years of research done world-wide by hundreds if not thousands of scientists in BOTH fields has yielded a striking disparity. While ADULT stem cell research has yielded around 100 proven results, Embryonic sten cell research has yielded NOTHING but empty promises of "Give us more money and we'll keep trying."

Thus the issue becomes one of scientific, medical, and FINANCIAL responsibility: Which research should get OUR TAX DOLLARS? The PROVEN ADULT stem cell research --- or the total and complete failure of Embryonic stem cell research?

The ONLY reason Diana DeGette and Obama seek tax-funding of Embryonic stem cell research is because they have completey POLITICIZED the argument. They have IGNORED the gains made by using ADULT stem cells to seek more and more funding for Embryonic stem cells --- when NO SCIENTIST ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD has made any viable progress in Embryonic stem cell research.

Embryonic stem cell research is a black hole, a bridge to nowhere that POLITICIANS advance over PROVEN scientific and medical research using ADULT stem cells because they have DISHONESTLY POLITICIZED the debate.

grandpaw · 9 months ago

Ignore the false claims that this is about embryonic vs. adult. Research should continue on both. I doubt that there are any scientists who consider that embryonic stem cell research should stop because it has no potential, regardless of the ethical argument. The opposition is based on the ethical argument and the false claim of "unnecessary" is a straw man. In my book, since it is considered ethical to kill innocent people because that might possibly preserve, not our lives, but only are way of life, then it is ethical to use embryos that would otherwise be destroyed to see if the lame can be made to walk, the blind to see, etc.