Wednesday, October 31, 2007, 3:17 PM
Wesley J. Smith
The Washington Post prominently reports a syndicated story, byline Steven Reinberg of HealthDay News, that stem cells have restored memory in mice. Those would be embryonic stem cells that the media and “the scientists” continually insist offer the “best hope” for such treatments, right? Uh, that would be a big negative. The stem cells came from the brains of the mice. From the story:
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 31 (HealthDay News) — A new U.S. study involving mice suggests the brain’s own stem cells may have the ability to restore memory after an injury.
These neural stem cells work by protecting existing cells and promoting neuronal connections. In their experiments, a team at the University of California, Irvine, were able to bring the rodents’ memory back to healthy levels up to three months after treatment.
The finding could open new doors for treatment of brain injury, stroke and dementia, experts say. “This is one of the first reports that you can take a stem cell transplantation approach and restore memory,” said lead researcher Mathew Blurton-Jones, a postdoctorate fellow at the university. “There is a lot of awareness that stem cells might be useful in treating diseases that cause loss of motor function, but this study shows that they might benefit memory in stroke or traumatic brain injury, and potentially Alzheimer’s disease.”
And don’t forget that in one human test, Dennis Turner’s own neural stem cells seem to have promoted a pronounced remission in Parkinson’s disease.
This is all still early, and we don’t know whether it will translate into treatments for humans yet. But if I hear one more time that embryonic stem cells and cloning offer the “only hope” or “best hope” for regenerative medical treatments, my brain will explode–and then I will need these treatments.
Also note that mice were required for this experiment–contrary to the ludicrous assertions by animal liberationists that animal research provides no benefit.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007, 1:03 PM
Wesley J. Smith
This editorial in the Charleston Gazette is so despicable it is hard to know where to begin. In applauding the Federal Court’s decision not to extradite George Exoo at the request of Ireland for allegedly assisting the suicide of an Irish woman, the editorial makes the most disgraceful, ignorant, and insensitive statements:
Jack Kevorkian, an eccentric known as “Dr. Death,” spent eight years in a Michigan prison for murder because he helped a Lou Gehrig’s disease victim end his hopeless life.
Yes. And he also assisted the suicides of more than 130 people, most of whom were not terminally ill but disabled. More urgently, imagine how it feels to be a Lou Gehrig’s disease patient or a family member, and read in your local newspaper that it officially considers someone with ALS to have a “hopeless life.”
And then, the editorial brings up Terri Schiavo:
The grotesque Terri Schiavo case, in which Republican congressmen rushed into emergency session to continue life-support machines sustaining a brain-dead woman, spotlighted the thorny topic.
Never mind, as I wrote in this week’s Weekly Standard, that bill was passed with broadly bi-partisan support, including unanimous consent in the U.S. Senate. Terri was not on “life-support machines.” Nor was she “brain dead.” She was profoundly disabled.
The editorial writer is not only crassly insensitive, but incredibly ignorant. Disgraceful, but all too typical of the MSM on these issues.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007, 12:23 PM
Wesley J. Smith
The fix is in for New Jersey voters to go $450 million in debt to fund embryonic stem cell research, now that the courts have permitted a bogus ballot description to go out to voters. Few voters will read the initiative itself, but you can here. (It was very hard to find the actual wording of the initiative. Either I am maladroit in conducting on-line research–a real possibility–or this is yet another game of hide the ball by Big Biotech and its camp followers in the media and in politics.)
In any event, Question 2 purports to prevent the bond funds from being used to conduct research into human cloning:
No funds authorized for, or made available to, an eligible research institution pursuant to this act shall be used for the purpose of human cloning.
Sounds good. But once again, Big Biotech’s minions resort to junk biology to explicitly permit what they purport to outlaw. Here is how “human cloning” is mis-defined in Question 2:
“Human cloning” means human asexual reproduction accomplished by introducing nuclear material from one or more human cells into a fertilized or unfertilized oocyte whose nuclear material has been removed or inactivated so as to produce a human fetus that is substantially genetically identical to a previously born human being.
(My emphasis.)
This wording would not only permit funding research into human cloning–which is accurately defined as the successful completion of human SCNT– but would also explicitly permit the state to use borrowed taxpayers’ money to pay for research on cloned human embryos through the eighth week–since the fetal stage doesn’t commence until week 8.
But the in-the-tank media will never report that–even if they read the actual wording of the initiative rather than merely rely on promoters’ press releases.
Now, couple this junk definition with the radical definition of human cloning in the substantive law of NJ–
As used in this section, “cloning a human being,” means the replication of a human individual by cultivating a cell with genetic material [the SCNT cloning process] through the egg, embryo, fetal and newborn stages into a new human individual.
–which permits cloning, implantation, and gestation through the ninth month, research onto implanted cloned embryos and fetuses would seem to be the ultimate goal.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007, 4:11 PM
Wesley J. Smith
Readers of SHS and my other work know that Zolpidem–which goes by the brand name Ambien–can sometimes awaken people who have been diagnosed as permanently unconscious. Here is the story in the Daily Mail of another such “miracle” in the UK:
A woman who has been in a coma for the past six years is slowly coming back to life after being given sleeping pills. Amy Pickard, from Hastings in East Sussex, was only 17 when she slipped into a coma in 2001.
However now, after being given over-the-counter miracle pill Zolpidem, her devoted mum Thelma says the “old sparkle” has returned to her daughter’s eyes…
Speaking today, Thelma, 54, said: “She is changing and it is amazing.
“When she takes the pill, I see her face relax and the old sparkle return to her eyes. It’s incredible.”
Amy is one of 360 people taking part in a worldwide revolutionary drugs trial which could see coma patients “miraculously” come back to life.
Well, I don’t like the term “come back to life” since they weren’t dead. But never mind. Much is happening in this field and the time has certainly come to stop dehydrating the unconscious. If their inherent value as human beings isn’t enough not to terminate these lives, perhaps the hope for an efficacious treatment to awaken the unconscious are, finally, at hand. According to the story, 60% of the people treated with the drug so far have exhibited benefit. Wow.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007, 1:32 PM
Wesley J. Smith
Disgraceful!Hampshire College in Amherst, MA is permitting animal rights terrorists to hold a planning session on campus. Included on the program will be Jerry Vlasak, who has advocated the murder of animal researchers.
Also note the connection between anarchy (smash the state) and animal liberation (crush the cage), in this press release:
Hampshire College
893 West Street
Amherst, MA 01002
Description: SMASH THE STATE, CRUSH THE CAGE, a strategic conference for the fortification of the Northeastern animal liberation movement, will be held at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts from Friday, November 9th until Sunday, November 11th.
The conference will feature talks by PETER YOUNG and Dr. JERRY VLASAK. Please visit our website, http://halaconference.50megs.com/, for information on other speakers.
Conference organizers Hampshire Animal Liberation Advocacy (HALA!) are still soliciting facilitators for workshops, talks and skill shares. The goal of this conference is to invigorate the struggle against state, corporate and cultural oppression of nonhuman animals. Anyone with skills or information to bring is encouraged to do.
Housing and as much food as we can scrounge will be provided for all attendees. All are welcome save representatives of the military, police and/or federal agencies. A talk on conference security standards will be our opening event.
Hampshire College would never permit a KKK convention on campus. This is no different.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007, 12:52 PM
Wesley J. Smith
These kind of stories are so infuriating. A researcher seeking to ameliorate or cure human diseases has her home flooded by animal rights terrorists because they presume the right to coerce others to accept their ideological perspectives. From the LA Times report:
An FBI spokeswoman said Monday that the agency is investigating the claim that the Animal Liberation Front used a garden hose to flood the house of professor Edythe London on Oct. 20 in an attempt to stop her animal experiments.
The FBI, along with UCLA and Los Angeles police, are treating the vandalism as a case of domestic terrorism and are probing possible ties to a June incident in which an incendiary device was lighted, but did not explode, next to a car at the home of a UCLA eye disease researcher, according to FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller.
In a press release distributed to the media Monday, an underground entity identifying itself as the Animal Liberation Front said it broke a window at London’s house and flooded the residence with a hose. The announcement said the group considered starting a fire there, but did not want to risk igniting brush fires that might have harmed animals “human and non-human.”
UCLA officials said the flooding caused between $20,000 and $40,000 in damage. London could not be reached for comment.
Jerry Vlasak, who has approved murdering animal researchers commented:
The group’s claim was posted by a Woodland Hills-based website called the North American Animal Liberation Press Office. Jerry Vlasak, a trauma surgeon who is an activist in that press office and who protests against animal euthanasia at animal shelters, declined to say how he received the information about the vandalism and said he did not know the responsible parties.
But Vlasak said Monday that he sent the communique to the media so the incident would “not be dismissed as a random act of violence.” He said he condones the flooding at London’s house “if it is helpful to get her to stop torturing innocent animals.”
About a year ago, Santa Monica police and federal agents raided Vlasak’s Agoura Hills house as part of an investigation into the Animal Liberation Front, which law enforcement officials described as a shadowy network that has sabotaged animal research labs, firebombed properties and made numerous death threats.
What if supporters of animal research attacked and flooded Vlasak’s home and threatened to kill him for impeding important research? He would be outraged, and rightly so.
This has to stop. Animal industries have to join together under the banner that an attack on one is an attack on all. Vlasak should be hauled in front of a grand jury and his phone tapped. The full weight of law enforcement should be brought to bear on ending this terrorist before someone is killed. These people are a menace and belong in jail.
Monday, October 29, 2007, 5:20 PM
Wesley J. Smith
In researching for my book on animal rights, I tried to get an interview with PETA’s alpha wolf, Ingrid Newkirk. She declined and through her assistant, suggested I obtain her views from her books and articles. So, I have been doing a little on-line research and came across Newkirk’s MY SPACE.com page.
This illustrates how PETA leaves no rock unturned in its quest for converts to the animal rights cause, in this case, young people. Note the wacky photo, designed to appeal to kids and teenagers. She let’s the kids know she is a Pisces. And true to PETA’s unremitting approach, she never stops pushing the agenda, particularly her books aimed at kids.
Most adults do not respond to the hyper emotionalism and anti-human moral equivalence (“Holocaust on Your Plate,” etc.) that are the hallmarks of PETA’s advocacy. But kids and teenagers are raised in a relative milieu today and are taught to feel more than think. PETA’s taking the time to put up a MY SPACE page, and design it explicitly to appeal to the young, is brilliant–and worrying.
Monday, October 29, 2007, 10:52 AM
Wesley J. Smith
This front page story in the SF Chronicle, byline Bernadette Tansey, needs comment.
A San Carlos startup is offering to create “personalized” stem cells from the spare embryos of fertility clinic clients on the chance that the cells, frozen and stored away, may some day help a family member benefit from medical breakthroughs.
The novel business plan of StemLifeLine Inc.–which started promoting its service to fertility patients earlier this year as “insurance for the future”–set off a flash fire of protest from stem cell research opponents and supporters alike.
The outcry from anti-abortion groups wasn’t surprising…But some of the most fervent denunciations of StemLifeLine came from vigorous supporters of embryonic stem cell research. Two Stanford University critics aired their complaints in newspaper editorial pages. A prominent Stanford ethicist challenged UC San Francisco scientists who are advisers of the company to sever those ties. These critics accuse StemLifeLine of trying to profit from the promise of stem cell research in the present, even though the work may not yield medical treatments for decades, if ever. “These companies are essentially taking advantage of people’s ignorance and fears to make a buck,” said David Magnus, director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics.
Well, waddya know: Accurate reporting and a proper response to this nonsense from the scientists and bioethicists. I would add that embryonic stem cells from a fertilized embryo would never be “personalized” because the genetic makeup of the embryo was unique to the embryo. Parents or siblings using the stem cells might still need immune response suppressing drugs. Also, ES cells cause tumors. Also, where was Magnus, who states in the story that these treatments might not be available for thirty or forty years, during the passage of Proposition 71 and Amendment 2? Somehow that truth never got into the ads or puff piece media stories.
So, let’s be clear here: The reason companies such as this–which is charging $7000 to make the cell line and $350 a year for storage–is able to sucker people into destroying their own offspring for their own hoped-for medical benefit, is that “the scientists” hyped this research to the hilt to pass Proposition 71 and destroy the Bush funding policy. If consumers are confused, they and their media and politician camp followers deserve the blame for the confusion.
But good on Tansey for a well-reported story. True, she mentioned it might provide a cure for Alzheimer’s, which is almost surely wrong. But unlike so many of her colleagues she did a good good job of getting the science and the politics right.
Monday, October 29, 2007, 12:13 AM
Wesley J. Smith
I have a piece in the current Weekly Standard about the “food and fluids” controversy, an issue I have repeatedly considered. I hit several notes in the article. I challenge the falsehood that the federal bill to save Terri Schiavo’s life was purely a Republican enterprise. Not true, it was a bill that was supported broadly by both parties. Indeed, as I report:
This myth has become a staple of the Democratic presidential campaign, despite the fact that the denigrated legislation was enacted in almost record time by one of the most bipartisan congressional margins seen during the Bush presidency. Indeed, passage in the Senate required unanimous consent, which means any senator–including presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden, and Chris Dodd (but not Barack Obama, who was not yet in the Senate)–could have stopped the bill in its tracks by simply saying no. None did so. Just as they voted for the Iraq war and later opposed it when it became unpopular, these Democrats pretend they were not essential players in the federal effort to save Schiavo’s life. (The bill also received support from about 40 percent of House Democrats.)
I also spend some time detailing two recent cases of the unexpected awakenings, e.g., Jesse Ramirez and Haleigh Poutre, that barely prevented their slow deaths by dehydration. And I remind readers of the hopeful experimental treatments that have apparently awakened people who were unconscious. But these developments barely penetrate the public consciousness.
I close with a call to those who know that dehydrating these helpless people is wrong to take heart and recommit themselves to the cause of saving lives:
A serious cultural consequence of the Terri Schiavo drama has been the devaluation of the weakest among us into a disposable and exploitable caste. But it is not too late to reverse the tide. Jesse Ramirez, Haleigh Poutre, and the groundbreaking research into the treatment of serious brain injury are powerful reminders that where there is life, there is hope. Those who understand that all persons, regardless of capacity, deserve to be treated as beloved members of the human family have good reason to shake off the Schiavo rout and return to the fray.
Sunday, October 28, 2007, 10:43 PM
Wesley J. Smith
Remember when the vaccine was developed to protect against the virus that causes cervical cancer? And remember the drive by Merck Pharmaceutical to make inoculations of 12-year-old girls mandatory?–a campaign assisted by by too many politicians and media commentators for what appeared to me to be political reasons involving the culture struggles over sexuality. At the time, I opposed making the cervical cancer shot mandatory for 12-year old girls on the principles that children should not be treated without parental consent and that with there always being a slight chance of side effects with any medical intervention, inoculations should only be mandatory for infectious diseases, e.g., smallpox, measles, etc.
Well, now it turns out that the shots may have caused a few deaths and serious illnesses, and moreover, that the drug may have been tested on adults only for safety–knowledge which which should have made been part of any informed consent of a patient–or the patient’s parents–taking the shots. From the story in the UK’s Telegraph:
Fears have been raised over the safety of a cervical cancer vaccine which health officials plan to give all 12-year-old girls, after it was revealed that the drug has been linked to several deaths.
Three young women are reported to have died days after the drug Gardasil was administered, while the jab is also suspected of triggering “adverse reactions” in 1,700 patients. The figures were uncovered by campaigners who made a freedom of information request in the US, where the vaccine was approved for use a year ago.
The women–aged 12, 19 and 22–suffered heart attacks or blood clots after being injected with Gardasil, which protects against the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus which causes most cases of cervical cancer. [Me: 12-year-olds aren't women, they're girls.] Hundreds of others reported suffering what could be adverse reactions, including paralysis, seizures and miscarriages.
Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, which extracted the data, said: “Reports on the vaccine read like a catalogue of horrors.”
It is, of course, quite possible that the inoculations were coincidental to the deaths and illnesses, and the company strongly denies any connection. But there needs to be some more digging here, and certainly, children should not be required to take the shots. That decision should be up to parents.
It will be interesting to see whether American media pick this story up or whether they are so invested in the politics of the matter that they will erect yet another news blockade.
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The Washington Post prominently reports a syndicated story, byline Steven Reinberg of HealthDay News, that stem cells have restored memory in mice. Those would be embryonic stem cells that the media and “the scientists” continually insist offer the “best hope” for such treatments, right? Uh, that would be a big negative. The stem cells came from the brains of the mice. From the story:
This is all still early, and we don’t know whether it will translate into treatments for humans yet. But if I hear one more time that embryonic stem cells and cloning offer the “only hope” or “best hope” for regenerative medical treatments, my brain will explode–and then I will need these treatments. 
