Next week they face the referendum ballot (see our October 26 post). The image at right is from the St. Louis Rosary Crusade waged just one year ago – there is still time to invoke the prayers of Our Lady for a good outcome in New Jersey. Here is John Paul II’s prayer to Our Lady for Life- it takes less than a minute to pray. We have time for this, friends.
Amy Silverstein, author of new and controversial, Sick Girl was recently interviewed on CNN. Her post-heart-transplant-malaise has not been well-recieved by other organ transplant recipients. She is happy to be alive, but qualifies the transplant that bought her over 20 years of life as, “a miracle, but not a cure.” Living life fighting organ rejection is by no means easy.
Is there another way? One day, perhaps.
We are nowhere near the generation of organs complex as human hearts – and we may never be. But autologous tissue engineering has, thus far, generated tissue for most of a new bladder for a handful of patients with spina bifida, and last year British scientists announced they had grown a mini-liver from umbilical cord cells. Because these organs are produced from autologous tissue – made from the patient’s own cells, the typical risks associated with organ transplantation can be avoided. Regenerative medicine using ethical sources of stem cells could deliver, in short, both a miracle and a cure.
Beginning in November, we will feature a stem cell Q&A with Dr. Dan Pepin here on Adult Stem Cell Awareness blog. Dr. Pepin is professor of Anatomy and Physiology at Edison College in Naples, FL and instructor of Human Biology at North Central Michigan College in Petoskey, MI. In addition, he is the Consultant on Bioethics for the Diocese of Venice, FL and the Diocese of Gaylord, MI. On invitation, he travels throughout the U.S. and Canada to speak about the critical bioethics issues we must confront. Can you believe he has agreed to take the time to answer our stem cell questions? Thanks, Dr. Dan!
So, send in your question via comment and perhaps it will be chosen for our upcoming Q&A. Stay tuned!
We need Catholic bloggers to join this initiative to make the issues we care about more accessible, better known, and more widely disseminated. All over the U.S. are state and local ballots with lethal implications - not only for the embryos who will be used, abused, and disposed of, but consider all the people who will not benefit from life-saving adult stem cell therapies that were underfunded and undeveloped because state funds were slated for embryonic stem cell research. Research, friends, that many no longer even pretend is meant to yield cures.
Meanwhile, although cures and life-saving turnarounds from adult stem cell therapies have been saving people for decades, some of the sickest patients in the United States have to travel to faraway countries to receive adult stem cell therapies. Dr. Dario Fauza believes he can save babies prenatally diagnosed with a number of conditions from tissue generated from cells taken from babies’ amniotic fluid. But years after these initial great results, he recently informed me, he has not been given permission to begin clinical trials. Why is that?
What can we do about it? What must we do about it? First, if you are a Catholic/pro-life blogger – will you help? Let’s get the word out there to our people. Have your own blog? You can commit to blogging periodically about adult stem cell successes. If you’d like to blog it here on Adult Stem Cell Awareness, we’d like to have you join the team! Send in a comment and we’ll be in touch with you.
Second, let’s advocate! There is a bill in committee right now that needs our support. The Patient First Act of 2007 is sitting in committee and it needs some action. This Act can help cut through frustrating inactivity and counter the state-level shenanigans that fill the coffers of dead-end and destructive embryonic stem cell research labs. Let’s get the word out to make sure the House Energy and Commerce Committee knows what we want them to do.
We can make a difference – and it doesn’t even require all that much of us. This is a cause that we can all feel good about it: cures without controversy!
Detective Steve McDonald, paralyzed in the line of duty as a New York City policeman, is a compelling spokesman for New Jersey’s fight against a referendum for state-funding of destructive research, an issue up for vote on their November 6th ballot.
With $450 million slated for stem cell research that includes a dangerous provision for human cloning and the destruction of donated embryos, Marie Tasy of NJ RTL has quite a battle on her hands. She’s up to the challenge – and so are NJ citizens. Read here about the bond referendum they are fighting.
Just days after his column, It’s Time to Get Real About Stem Cell Research, Westchester Institute Director and founder, Fr. Thomas Berg announced his appointment to the Empire State Stem Cell Board. Fr. Berg is a very strong proponent of alternative sources of pluripotent stem cells, specifically ANT/OAR. We cannot ignore or avoid, he believes, the allure of pluripotency and, therefore, the necessity of proposing non-embryonic sources of pluripotent stem cells.
The timing of his appointment could not be better – perhaps by design? Over the summer, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer allotted a healthy $600 million dollars for stem cell research, to be distributed beginning in April, 2008, over the next 10 years. In addition to that, the federal government will begin to fund research using pluripotent stem cell sources via Executive Order 13435: Expanding Approved Stem Cell Lines in Ethically Responsible Ways. One would have to conclude the NIH will look favorably upon subsidizing New York-based projects endorsed by Fr. Berg.
Overall this is good news, but it leaves us with a few concerns – and probably, Fr. Berg will alleviate these at some point down the line. First, given his recent very strong characterization of some adult stem cell proponents as . . . frankly, niave, will Fr. Berg continue to advocate for adult stem cell research in his new and influential appointment? Second – though similiar, will Fr. Berg take a single-minded approach to alternative pluripotency and advocate for ANT/OAR projects primarily, or will he also be open to advocating for the very promising research with fetal cells found in amniotic fluid? These cells have been known to behave with pluripotent characteristics.
Only time will tell. We have a lot of confidence in Fr. Berg and expect great things from him as he makes his stand for human dignity where, many would argue, there is little patience for such inconvenient ideals. We wish him the best of luck.
Born blind, Rylea Barlett received umbilical cord stem cell transplants and was able to say for the first time, “Mommy, you are beautiful.” HT to Missouri Cures W/O Cloning, a new initiative for ethical research. Read more about Rylea
Commenting on her research using olfactory cells for spinal cord injuries, Professor Jean Peduzzi-Nelson believes that adult stem cells are both the safest and most effective for clinical treatments. Peduzzi-Nelson also appears in the Michigan Catholic Conference video, featured at left in our bookmarks. Read more.
None of this is “incredible” anymore – if it is, you’ve not been paying attention.
The researchers say this route for creating new nerves could be part of medical practice by the year 2011.
And if clinical trials on humans can proceed, probably sooner.
Stem Cells From Patient’s Fat Used To Grow New Nerves
Stem cells from a patient’s fat may be used to create new nerves that can repair severed peripheral nerves (nerves outside the spinal cord), say scientists from Manchester University, England. The researchers say this route for creating new nerves could be part of medical practice by the year 2011.
The scientists said their aim is to put the new nerve tissue inside a biodegradable plastic tube, insert in at the broken ends of the severed nerve, and rejoin them in a human. This procedure could help a considerable number of people. They say they have had promising results with rats.
You can read about this study in Experimental Neurology.
Current medicine offers very limited procedures to help restore peripheral nerves. Nerves from elsewhere can sometimes be used- however, the risk of additional damage is significant, and even when there are results they hardly ever restore perfect function, say the authors. continue
Operation In God We Trust - a mission completed: an awe-inspiring 13 day awareness campaign sponsored by American Veterans Christian Alliance under the “command” of Adrian Rosales, a Technical Sargeant and Flight Crew Instructor, and survivor of Multiple Sclerosis. We’re not going to re-tell this story as Sheila Liaugminas blogged it over the summer and there are some nicely-written articles out there already. We’ll just point them out to salute Mr. Rosales and his remarkable tour of duty.
