Wisconsin Family Connection
Week of August 30, 2010 – #850 
A Victory for Life

Laura Dominguez became a quadriplegic at age 16 as a result of a terrible car accident. Doctors told her that she would never be able to walk again; but fortunately, thanks to the use of her own nasal adult stem cells, she has regained both movement and sensation in her lower body and is determined that she will one-day walk again. Laura’s story is only one of tens of thousands of such stories—stories of people who have been successfully treated and even cured of debilitating, life-threatening illnesses and injuries by adult stem-cell treatments.

But while thousands have been helped by adult stem cell research and resultant cures and therapies, no one, not one person has received help from human embryonic stem-cell treatment.  Nevertheless, the push for using taxpayer money for this life-destroying, non-productive research continues.  However, last week, a federal judge finally realized that using federal taxpayer money for such research violates federal law.

U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth filed an injunction that blocks guidelines the Obama administration set in order to fund and expand human embryonic stem cell research. According the judge’s ruling, federal funding for embryonic stem cell research violates a current law that has been in place since the Clinton Administration, a law that prohibits government funding for research that involves the destruction of human embryos.

This ruling put a stop to about $70 million per year for embryonic stem cell projects both in the renewal and approval process, including a number here in Wisconsin. The Obama Administration is already working to reverse the ruling.

Millions of our federal, state, public, and private funds are being used to conduct embryonic stem cell research, a procedure that right now requires the destruction of human life in order to harvest the stem cells. Proponents of embryonic stem cell research claim that it will eventually cure diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and diabetes. But to date, not one successful treatment or cure is on the record—and we are now over 10 years into this venture.

On the other hand, adult stem cell research has treated around 50,000 patients worldwide annually, using stem cells from their own blood or some other part of an adult patient. Success stories include liver repair, windpipe reconstruction, and even heart valve reconstruction and heart damage repair.

Currently, we are known, sadly, as the leader in human embryonic stem cell research. In 1998, UW-Madison Professor Jamie Tompson became the first scientist to derive embryonic stem cells from a human embryo.

But what’s really driving all this right here in Wisconsin?  Money—taxpayer money.  Scientists working on human embryonic stem cell research in the Badger State are concerned because dozens of their projects and millions of dollars in federal money are at stake.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation is fearful that they may lose hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties that they were hoping to get from three patents related to human embryonic stem cell research.   The University of Wisconsin Madison currently has 21 projects and around $5 million a year that depend upon embryonic stem cells. And all of this money is on the backs of unborn human life—utilizing our tax dollars.

The stem cell issue is also political, showing up in Wisconsin’s current governor’s race. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett running on the Democratic ticket, has pledged that if elected, he will “make sure scientists and researchers—not politicians—drive our research and technology agenda.” Both Scott Walker and Mark Neumann, who are running on the Republican ticket, have given their word to support research with adult stem cells but not with human embryonic stem cells.

We are grateful for a judicial ruling that at least temporarily stops public funding for the life-destroying and completely unnecessary human embryonic stem cell research.  Instead of looking for ways to beat back this judge’s decision, the Obama administration and other elected officials should be channeling more of their time and our money into the wildly successful, life-saving adult stem-cell research.  

For Wisconsin Family Council, this is Julaine Appling, reminding you the Prophet Hosea said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”