Michael J. Fox Blasted for Misleading Missouri Stem Cell Research Ad

[Sid]

The commercial ran on Sunday evening and features actor Michael J. Fox, who has previously upset pro-life advocates with his embryonic stem cell research advocacy.

The ad features Fox, who is clearly increasingly suffering from the effects of Parkinson's disease, but who makes inaccurate generalizations about stem cell research.

“In Missouri, you can elect Claire McCaskill, who shares my hope for cures,” Fox tells viewers urging them to support the pro-abortion, pro-cloning candidate.

"Unfortunately Senator Jim Talent (http://talent.senate.gov/default.cfm?CFID=19347479&CFTOKEN=61546449) opposes expanding stem cell research," Fox claims. "Senator Talent even wanted to criminalize the science that gives us a chance for hope."


Though the ad makes it appear Talent opposes all kinds of stem cell research, he has voted in favor of spending millions in federal funds for adult stem cell research, the only kind of research that has ever cured a single patient.


What Talent has opposed is forcing taxpayers to pay for studies using embryonic stem cells, which can only be obtained by destroying human life. A new study by Steven Goldman and colleagues at the University of Rochester Medical Center finds embryonic stem cells cause tumors when inserted into rats that have Parkinson's.




Michael J. Fox Blasted for Misleading Missouri Stem Cell Research Ad (http://www.lifenews.com/bio1812.html)

[Chrystalwuzhere]

I just wonder if Michael J. Fox, and others, would be willing to give up their own children and let them be killed so that their stem cells can be extracted and used for research. A bit melodramatic? Really, what's the difference?

[CoreIssue]

Fox is of the camp that believes only embryonic cells work. So he doesn't care what stranger is providing them.

[Ladyberg]

Many supporters of embryonic stem cell research seem to completely ignore the successes that adult stems cells have produced in favor of the so-called potential of embryonic stem cells. They believe that the only way to see the full potential of stem cell research is to only use embryonic stem cells, which is a setback to the old ideas of cells that once a cell develops into a specialized cell, it cannot develop into any other type of cell. Research using adult embryonic stem cells has disproved this notion, and are already helping to relieve some of the symptoms of Coronary Heart Disease, Cardiomyopathy (disease effecting the heart muscles), and end-stage heart failure. Adult stem cells are also being used to help regenerate the blood system that becomes lost due to various blood diseases, and are also used to help cure/fight diseases such as Type I diabetes, leukemia, and lymphoma. In short, there are many uses for adult stem cells, and there is still room for potential left in them. Embryonic stem cells, on the other hand, have not proven to be as successful at this time. There are many hurdles that the researchers have to face when dealing with these cells. One is the fact that there is a greater chance of the host’s immune system to completely reject the cells, since it may not recognize them. On the other hand adult stem cells come from the host, which gives them a greater success rate in transplanting. If the cells do happen to form within the host, there is still no guarantee that the implanted cells will fuse with neighboring host cells, thus practically nullifying the process. Also, just as Sid stated in his post, there is also a good chance that the embryonic stem cells can develop into a tumor. I personally feel that these problems far outweigh any potential that embryonic stem cells may have. Why should any life be destroyed for only a chance at curing a disease, especially when adult stem cells contain essentially the same potential?

[Sid]

The kerfuffle between Michael J. Fox and Rush Limbaugh will not blind the public to the deception built into the fine print of the proposed cloning referendum on the Missouri ballot this year. Mr. Fox is deserving of the utmost sympathy and respect. Yet the truth is, he admits to not having read that fine print, or the full text of, the proposed law.

That Missouri bill is a fraud. It is not, in fact, a stem-cell bill, as it is being called. It is, in the fine print that goes on at such length on the ballot, a cloning bill. his new horror would allow families in Missouri and elsewhere to begin to profit from exploiting poor, young women for their eggs, needed for cloning. These companies might start what in effect are farms for the eggs of young women, in need of a few dollars. This is because embryonic-stem-cell research requires a huge supply of eggs.

The accusations being leveled at Republicans on this issue overlook two truths. First, nearly all pro-life politicians, Democrats as well as Republicans, are in favor of research on stem cells taken from adulttissues. (Adult stem cells have been showing a great many successes in research helpful to the needy; embryonicstem cells do not show good results. So far they are all hype and no substance, all bun and no beef.)

Second, President Bush has raised not a single objection to adult-stem-cell-research, and in fact is the first president ever to make federal funds available for research on embryonic-stem-cell lines.

So there is more research going on today on stem cells, adult and embryonic, than ever before.



November Surprise (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=N2Y4MzY1ZjQyYzNhODUwZTliOTEwNDk1OTM4NzcxZGE=)

[CoreIssue]

Michael Fox has admitted he actually never read the bill. No clue what it says.

Hmmm. Educated backing. :scratch: