Pirate's Cove

I wonder if the mouse was terrorizing women and children in the dead of night?

(CNSNews.com) – During Wednesday's Senate debate on stem cell therapy, Sen. John Kerry cited research in Massachusetts which he said had used embryonic stem cells to "cure" a mouse — but the mouse wasn't cured, and the research he referred to fell far short of the scores of treatments already being carried out using non-controversial "adult" stem cells.

The Massachusetts Democrat pointed to research by the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass., where he said scientists had "used [embryonic] stem cell therapy to cure a mouse suffering from an immune deficiency disease."

"Today's breakthroughs in mice often become tomorrow's cures for humans," Kerry told the Senate.

Wait, aren't the elements of the hard left against using animals in research projects?

In fact, the Whitehead research, announced in March 2002 and published in the journal Cell, did not "cure" the mouse. It did partially restore the creature's damaged immune function.

"Though the immune system wasn't completely restored, there was enough improvement to predict that a comparable result in humans would translate into a significant clinical benefit," said Whitehead Fellow George Daley, who undertook the work with Whitehead colleague Rudolf Jaenisch.

Apart from the fact that the mouse was not "cured," critics of embryonic stem cell research have, moreover, argued that the Whitehead research actually proved little, because the original mouse in the experiments rejected the cells taken from its cloned embryo, and its genetic defect was only eventually corrected with cells taken from born clones – not cloned embryos – which were therefore adult, not embryonic cells.

The problem with ESC's is that while they have enormous potential, so far, they have been a complete bust. The typical cure comes with massive tumors. Meanwhile, adult stem cells have not only done fantastic in research, but, as the article points out, have led to more then 70 real treatments, sans the terrible side effects.

So why continue with a research avenue which has proven worthless? Why do the liberals push federal spending for research into ESCs, which is morally repugnant to a large segment of the population?