For years, pro-life advocates have pointed out that research using embryonic stem cells (which requires the death of a human embryo) hasn’t helped a single patient, while adult stem cells have already shown great success, treating dozens of diseases in humans.   Nevertheless, the media and embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) proponents have continued to push the research, while largely ignoring the successes of research involving adult stem cells (which does not require the destruction of human life).

A leading scientist recently acknowledged what pro-lifers have been saying for years.   Lord Patel of Dunkeld, the chairman of the UK National Stem Cell Network and a chancellor at Dundee University, says, “In terms of embryonic stem cell therapy, there is currently no such therapy that is available in a large number of patients.”   He admitted that scientists have been unable to overcome hurdles, such as tumor development or immune syndrome rejection issues, that plague ESCR.  

Patel warned, “We have to be cautious.   It (ESCR) may not deliver therapy for anything.   We may find that stem [cell] therapy is quite risky business.   We had a lot of hype about gene therapy, and while we still use it in some cases, it did not deliver the great promise we thought it would because of side effects.”

Meanwhile, successes involving the use of non-embryonic stem cells continue to abound – and no human life is destroyed to obtain the cells.   Following are some examples:

A nine-year-old Arkansas girl, who was blind, has experienced noticeable improvement in her vision since receiving umbilical cord stem cell treatment in China.   Kacie Sallee was born with septo-optic dysplasia, an underdevelopment of the optic nerve and pituitary gland.   The four-week trip to China was paid for with $60,000 in local donations.   Prior to treatment, Kacie could see only light and dark out of her left eye.   Now, her vision is improving, and she is beginning to see bright colors with her left eye and can now count fingers held in front of her face.

American soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan are being treated with their own stem cells to help heal wounds involving bones.   The Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, with $85 million of funding from the Bush Administration, is pursuing research and treatments on U.S. troops.

UCLA researchers have advanced the use of IPS (induced pluripotent stem) cells to grow functioning heart and blood cells.   IPS cells are embryonic-like stem cells which don’t require the destruction of human life to obtain.   “IPSCs will apparently do everything scientists said they wanted from therapeutic cloning – and at far less expense, at no risk to women for their eggs, and without moral contentiousness,” explained bioethicist Wesley Smith.   The UCLA study was published in the May 2008 edition of the medical journal Stem Cells.

A study by Dr. Neil Cashman, professor of neurology at the University of British Columbia, has established a safe pathway for using bone-marrow stem cells to slow down and potentially treat Lou Gehrig’s disease, a fatal neurodegenerative disease.   Results in the medical journal, Muscle & Nerve, demonstrated the successful use of a growth factor stimulant in patients to activate bone marrow stem cells so they may potentially travel to the site of injury and begin repair, slowing down the progression of the disease.

A two-year-old Minnesota boy has apparently been cured from recessive epidermolysis bullosa, a fatal genetic disease where the patient lacks a critical protein called collagen type VII.   Minnesota researchers used stem cells from umbilical cord blood and bone marrow.   Lab tests show that Nate Liao’s body is now making collagen type VII. Nate is now wearing normal clothes (rather than having his extraordinarily fragile skin wrapped in bandages), eating food that has not been puréed, and is playing with his siblings.

Researchers from Griffith University in Australia published a recent study in the medical journal Stem Cells showing promise in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.   The study found that adult stem cells harvested from the noses of Parkinson’s patients gave rise to dopamine-producing brain cells when transplanted into the brain of a rat.   That’s important, because symptoms of Parkinson’s, such as loss of muscle control, are caused by degeneration of cells that produce the essential chemical dopamine in the brain.   Scientists simulated Parkinson’s symptoms in rats by creating lesions on one side of the rat’s brain to imitate the damage Parkinson’s has on the human brain.   The lesions caused the rats to run in circles.   But, when stem cells from the noses of Parkinson’s patients were injected into the affected area of the brain, the rats regained the ability to run in a straight line.