Jivin J’s Life Links 7-14-11
by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat
- The Boston Herald has a balanced piece from the Oakland Tribune on pro-life billboards in Oakland, CA. Apparently, the billboards were removed on Monday after pro-aborts started a campaign to take them down.
- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed legislation which included rules on abortion advertising:
According to Russian lawmakers, advertisements mislead the public by creating an impression that an abortion is a simple surgery that poses no health risks.
The new amendments require that warnings about the dangers should occupy no less than 10% of each advertisement.
- An Australian couple is rightly angry at a hospital which threw their miscarried child in the trash:
On April 27, Lisa and husband [Charlie] were told by a nurse at Swan District Hospital that “it’s not a baby, it’s just a foetus” and that it had “probably been thrown out with the medical waste.”
The couple had wanted to take their baby’s body home to bury.
Lawyer John Hammond, who has taken on the couple’s case, said there was an obligation for the hospital to report the death of a foetus to the Registry of Births and Deaths after 20 weeks.
Although Lisa was only 17 weeks into her pregnancy, Mr. Hammond said she was entitled to take the foetus home to bury.
Health Minister Kim Hames today apologised to the couple and said he would investigate the incident.
- 2 blind patients have received cells created from human embryonic stem cells in a Phase I clinical trial by Advanced Cell Technology:
A team led by Steven Schwartz at UCLA administered about 50,000 cells Tuesday into one eye of a volunteer suffering from Stargardt Macular Dystrophy, a progressive form of blindness that usually begins in childhood, and another with Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the developed world….
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
It’s good to see more clinical trials of ESC-based treatments taking place. I think we’re going to see great things come from this technology, hopefully in the near future.
Has anyone been able to use embryonic stem cells in lab animals without a high rate of tumors/cancer?
http://www.allaboutpopularissues.org/pros-and-cons-of-stem-cell-research.htm
“Mice treated for Parkinson’s with embryonic stem cells have died from brain tumors in as much as 20% of cases.1 Embryonic stem cells stored over time have been shown to create the type of chromosomal anomalies that create cancer cells.
Whereas we ARE seeing great things from adult stem cells. Treatments and cures for over 70 illnesses, including 26 kinds of cancer.
http://www.stemcellresearch.org/facts/treatments.htm
Let’s assume that that statistic would in fact hold for humans and there could be a 20% chance of developing a brain tumor following ESC treatment. I think most sufferers of Parkinson’s would be willing to take that 1-in-5 chance if it meant the possibility of being cured of one of the most horrible, debilitating illnesses around.
joan,
Perhaps they would take that chance, if the safer and more effective adult stem cells were not available.
If you follow my second link, Parkinson’s is number 49 on the list.
Thank you.
The story out of Australia is mortifying. Why would any hospital throw out a miscarried child and then say that to a grieving mother?
Kel,
Who knows! Did they even test the body to see why the mother miscarried? Honestly I hope they have the person who threw the child out searching through the medical waste! With all due caution and sanitation, of course.
What is the logic for using dangerous ESC cells over safer, more effective, and proven therapies using adult cells?
I mean, do we want to help patients or not?
They seem to be making progress with the adult cells, so it seems that is the way to go.
They aren’t coming up with anything from the ESC cells, so why so much interest in going that route?
I mean, Edison was pushing direct current, but Tesla and Westinghouse came up with alternating current that worked better. So, everyone just went with what worked. No offense to Edison, of course. It is just logical to go with what works.
“It’s good to see more clinical trials of ESC-based treatments taking place. I think we’re going to see great things come from this technology, hopefully in the near future.”
We will indeed see at least one good thing come from ESC-based technology: the end of ESC-based technology. With it’s track record and complications as compared to those of ASC-based technology, all that’s needed is for the resolute determination to continue destroying children to be thrown from its high horse and trampled in the mud where it belongs.
The continued interest in ESC cells is only because they are hoping against hope that there is SOME good in abortion. If they do, they can claim; See abortion does serve a good purpose!!!
I am too angry to comment on the story of the couple who miscarried.
That very thing also happened to a friend of mine who lives in Canada. She kept waiting for the test results on her (miscarried) baby and when the hospital finally DID call, they told her they “lost” the baby and if they DID happen to find the baby, he/she would be too decomposed to be tested for anything.
Not only were she and her husband angry, but WE (her on-line support group) were angry FOR them!
I don’t care if ESC would eventually cure everything from hiccups to cancer. It’s one thing to step carefully, respectfully over a dead body for tissue transplants. It’s quite another to trample on live bodies to get you where you want to go.
One path is ethical scientific progress. The other is the path of Mengele. I’m not pro-choice on this issue either.
first – ESCR – not needed. A man a few years ago underwent an adult stem cell transplant – and his Parkinson’s symptoms were reversed for 5 years. he went from being disabled by his disease to back being the active-nature guy he was before his disease took hold. No teratomas (tumors). No rejection (the stems cells were from his own body. No need for immuno-suppression drugs, since the cells were from himself. I think his name was Dan Turner – but I could be remembering wrong.
second – the proper burial of pre-term children – here at the Catholic hospital couples can ask that their children be properly buried – and they partner with a local funeral home to have a communal burial for all those children. We even helped a couple have their miscarried child be buried properly, all at no cost to them.
They had their D & C at the other hospital in town. Her doctor threatened this poor woman and did not want to cooperate, even when we had the needed parties in place. That doctor wanted not to be bothered with saving the baby from being medical waste. But our woman wanted so much to have her baby buried properly, and we advocated mightily for her. In the end – she prevailed and her baby has a final resting place the family can come to visit (and they have).
Chantel – have you ever seen the movie soylent green? see that, and tell me if you still think the after-use of humans is a wise or honorable thing to do.
Abortion kills pre-born children. using their dead bodies for any purpose after that denigrates them further. Humans are not playthings or made for usury, of any kind.
“What is the logic for using dangerous ESC cells over safer, more effective, and proven therapies using adult cells?”
Why don’t you ask the team of UCLA researchers? They obviously see some promise in embryonic stem cells. And if they’re wrong and ESC treatment turns out to be a bust, no big deal. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
1 + 1 = 2.
“Why don’t you ask the team of UCLA researchers? They obviously see some promise in embryonic stem cells.” It’s called “an agenda”, joan, and a lot of researchers have them. People with agendas often do the same things over, and over, and over again that seemingly make zero sense because they are trying so desperately to find what they want to find, they won’t stop until they find it. Too bad for you and them though, nothing can legitimize abortion.
Abortion kills pre-born children. using their dead bodies for any purpose after that denigrates them further.
As an organ donor myself, I emphatically disagree with this statement. What do you think holds more dignity: being disposed of as a biohzard/so much medical waste, or giving others a chance at life/improved life through your passing? I think that as long as abortion remains legal, ESC research is the most respectful thing we’re going to see happen to these children. Don’t get me wrong: I pray for the day that abortion is illegal and along with that ESC as a consequence, but until that day, I can’t help but feel this is at least making the most of tragedy.
You at least have a choice to be an organ donor.
Do you believe it is a good thing that the parts of aborted babies are bought and sold? That cells from aborted babies are used in labs to enhance the taste of Pepsi?
So far the results of ESC are dismal compared to Adult Stem Cells.
I will have to disagree with what you wrote. I guess there is a first time for everything. :)
ESCR is the purposeful taking of stem cells from an early human, killing the early human. Aborted babies have nothing to do with embryonic stem cell research. But they do have something to do with vaccines/research into other things,
xalisae – organ donation, done properly, does not kill the patient. ESCR does. so if you are against abortion, then rightly you should also be against ESCR.
And when you are an organ donor – YOU choose if your body is used for science/research. The discarded bodies of the aborted babies are not used with the permission of the donor – the baby. And I doubt that the mothers, even when they bring their live babies to the altar of abortion, would be horrified to know that the abortion-providers may indeed profit again at their woe by using their dead baby cells/parts for other uses.
I think this is the first time I have disagreed also with you – but honestly, I think the poor reporting of embryonic stem cell research has led people to a misunderstanding of the terms and information.
“That cells from aborted babies are used in labs to enhance the taste of Pepsi?”
Hey now. Pepsi needs all the help it can get.
joan says:
And if they’re wrong and ESC treatment turns out to be a bust, no big deal.
This statement is heinous. Not only are humans sacrificed to procure the embryonic stem cells, but if the “treatment turns out to be a bust” it most likely means that some number of desperate humans that consented to be trial subjects have suffered devastating side effects.
We’re talking clinical trials here! Every failure represents very real harm to a human being! You don’t even have to care about embryos to be concerned about this.