When citizens engage each other in the public square, we generally begin with the assumption that everyone has the intention of being intellectually honest. We might be duped, misguided, or otherwise just plain wrong, but we take for grated that everyone believes the claims they are making. To engage in a debate without beginning with that presumption is uncivil and uncharitable.
Because that standard exists, it becomes exceedingly frustrating when our interlocutors are lying. Unless we have rock solid proof that they are being dishonest—and can prove they are being intentionally deceiving—calling them out on it can backfire. A prime example is the debate over embryonic stem cell research (ESCR).
Several years ago I worked for a Christian bioethics think tank when ESCR was being hotly debated in the media. Although the ethics of the issue were contested, there was not much disagreement about the basic science involved. Yet some scientists were making claims about ESCR that no one with even the most basic knowledge about the subject could honestly believe were true. But they fooled others into believing them.
For example, the Democratic Party was so convinced that it included in its 2004 platform the claim that, “Stem cell therapy offers hope to more than 100 million Americans who have serious illnesses—from Alzheimer’s to heart disease to juvenile diabetes to Parkinson’s.” Even at the time, researchers knew that ESCR could never cure such diseases as Alzheimer’s, and would likely never be useful for treating juvenile diabetes or Parkinson’s either.
While all Christian bioethicists were quick to point out that these claims were inaccurate, few were willing to say that the scientists were lying. However, Art Caplan—the “dean of liberal bioethics”—has no qualms about calling them out on their dishonesty:
. . .Embryonic stem-cell research was completely overhyped, in terms of its promise. And people knew it at the time. I tried to say so myself at different times myself, even though I support embryonic stem-cell research. But this notion that people would be out of their wheelchairs within a year if we could just get embryonic stem-cell research funded was just ludicrous. Just simply silly.
RG: They knew it at the time?
AC: Yes, those saying it had to know it at the time. The scientists had to have known that. Who has ever delivered a cure in a year from something that’s basically a dish? That’s never happened. Gene therapy was promised as a cure for everything, and it is now starting to cure things, 15 years after the initial gene therapy experiments in dishes were being done. I think embryonic stem-cell research—if it works out, if you can control stem cells derived from embryos, if they don’t revert back… but we don’t know what chemicals to put around them, to get them to become what we want. We don’t know where to put them. But the politics of that issue were abortion politics, meaning that one side had as a principle, “Don’t kill.” The other side had as a principle, “You’ve got to cure.” And that escalated the rhetoric. So I think the science got hyped in response to the politics. Norms drove the debate. Embryonic stem-cell research for me is one of what I might list as 20 scientific frontiers that you might want to pursue. It’s not the frontier, but it’s one of a number of them.
RG: But it sounds to me like a niche.
AC: Oh it’s a niche, absolutely. Bio-banking, synthetic biology, bioagriculture, regenerative medicine at the adult stem cell level… There’s a bunch of areas of science with equal promise—
RG: If scientists knew that what they were doing was hyping it, then—even laying aside the ethical question about the status of human embryos—it seems to be deeply dishonest, clearly wrong.
AC: Here’s an assertion that you hear all the time: “Stem-cell research will help Alzheimer’s.” But stem cell research has no possibility of helping Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s is a gunk-up-the-brain disease, where every cell is affected. You can’t fix it by any sort of stem cell research. Model it? Maybe. Cure it? Never.
April 13th, 2011 | 3:51 pm
Caplan’s candor was startling, to say the least. Did you see David Klinghoffer’s piece in NRO today, on the same issue?
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/264551/stem-cell-war-david-klinghoffer
April 13th, 2011 | 6:48 pm
RSCI has been openly stating for three years what we are seeing a hint of today, here and in NRO:
“EVERYTHING, not most things, but EVERYTHING you read in America or see on CBS News about Embryonic Stem Cells (ESC) is (a) a lie, (b) a distortion, or (c) an intentionally misleading statement.”
I’m glad you are jumping in. But no one (still) has a clue as to WHY every crooked medical researcher in North America (and almost ALL are, except for a few scared ASC scientists) pays homage to ESC. It is SO obvious why they do so and yet no one comes close to saying it, not you, not Klinghoffer, not even Wesley.
You worry about embryos being destroyed on moral objections, embryos which are throwaways and never would have been born. I worry about the million North American heart patients being deprived of ASC and killed by thousands of bribed (in many ways) “scientists” plus a corrupt FDA and fully-controlled media since 2003. Then, all the proof in the world existed, proving ASC were 100% harmless and very successful in improving the lives of soon-to-be-dead heart patients.
Yet not one so-called doctor has the chutzpah to stand up and state that obvious fact.
What is the difference between God and a doctor? Just one: God doesn’t think he’s a doctor.
Don Margolis, Chairman
Repair Stem Cell Institute
April 14th, 2011 | 2:21 am
@ Don Margolis –
Has Dr. Grekos or any other health care provider ever paid you or any of your various stem cell related companies or organizations a commission for you or your organizations referral of patients to him for treatment?
What criteria does your organization use to determine where to refer stem cell patients for treatment? What are the qualifications of the people who are involved in such decisions?
Do you currently have any other business relationships (direct or indirect) with Dr. Grekos or any other stem cell companies that are treating patients off-shore?
Can you please cite a reference to the study you claim “proves the efficacy” to the stem cells Dr. Grekos uses for heart treatments? Are these the same “vescell” cells from Theravitae?
Can you show any published evidence to support your claim that 350 or 500 patients treated since 2004 are still leading the “improved lives” you claim? When was the last time all 500 were followed up? Do they all continued to be followed up? If so, by whom?
Did a patient of Dr. Grekos’ get blinded in a procedure similiar to the one in which the Florida woman died? Have other patients died during stem cell treatment or soon thereafter (within 30 days)?
Do you deny that your original stem cell company, Theravitae supplied a private “survey” of the Theravitae lab in Israel and passed that private survey off as though it was an official GMP manufacturing certification from the Israeli government, thus tricking the Thai authorities into believing the stem cells Theravitae used on the patients in Thailand and elsewhere (the Vescell product) were harvested and grown in a GMP certified lab facility?
When the late David Foege testified before Congress as a Theravitae patient “spokesperson” singing the praises of Theravitae’s Vescell stem cell treatment, did he forget to identify was he already a member of Theravitae’s Board of Directors as well as serving as that “unofficial spokesman” for patients? Or was his Board membership only promised to him at that time?
Theravitae patients were told that their own stem cells were multiplied and implanted back into their bodies. Theravitae’s own scientist, Dr. Yael Porat (with others), published a scientific article in which she identified the existence of cells in the post lab treatment cell sample which were not found in the original sample taken from the patient.
Did Theravitae ever do any research (autopsies or histological examinations of myocardial tissue) to determine whether or not these lab introduced or produced cells caused or contributed to the Theravitae stem cell patients’ deaths? (British Journal of Hemotology article found on the Vescell website http://www.vescell.com/pdf/British-Jo…) (remember, Vescell was the name of Margolis’ (Theravitae’s) stem cell “product.”
Do you have any direct or indirect business relationship to regenoCELL? Does Dr. Grekos do buisness with regenoCELL?
Haven’t Theravitae and Dr. Grekos together generated nearly $40 million dollars in revenues over the past 5 years?
Why doesn’t someone investigate this lab in Israel to see if Grekos’ claims are true?
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07…
He (Grekos) said the Israeli laboratories can produce between 40 million and 80 million stem cells from a patient’s blood sample.
“Then they also activate them and educate them to become the end organ to any tissues we are looking to regenerate,” Grekos said.
…
Grekos claims to have treated hundred of patients, mostly heart and yet, why does he only show 8 patient testimonials and only one very brief example of a heart patient’s scan. Why has he not published the follow-up results from these hundreds of patients? It certainly would be in his best interest to carefully follow-up his patients and publish the results, yes?
All of his patients paid VASTLY more money than the treatment actually costs to deliver. (obscene profits)
He claims to have successfully treated the following diseases and yet, for some of them, he does not offer even a single case study as evidence.
Congestive Heart Failure
Coronary Heart Disease
Cardiomyopathy
Angina Pectoris
Peripheral Artery Disease
Macular Degeneration
Stargardts Disease
Poor Circulation
Pulmonary Hypertension
COPD
Pulmonary Fibrosis
Gangrene
Wound Care
There are 13 diseases/disorders on that list and his web site claims that at the lab in Israel – “Here the stem cells will be activated and multiplied by using naturally occurring growth factors. In this process of activation, the stem cells are customized for the purpose for which they will be used in treatment. For example, they can be activated to build muscle tissue for the heart, or to rebuild blood vessels in the extremities or lungs. This process takes approximately five days.”
Let’s see the evidence of the 13 different ways his lab “customizes” these cells for treating all these different things.
Or is the reality that Grekos sends the blood to the now-defunct Theravitae (owned now by RegenoCELL) in Israel where the cells are processed exactly the same as “vescell” which is a brand name that TV used which now belongs to regenocell? Is there any difference at all between the kinds of cells used to treat all these different ailments? If not, isn’t this FRAUD? Shouldn’t the FTC and perhaps the FDA be invovled in flushing out this rat and others who are operating behind the scenes?
April 14th, 2011 | 5:31 am
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