Stem Cells—Thompson, Neumann and Fitz Have to Answer in Radicalized GOP

James A. Thompson

Imagine if the lost decade of 2001-2009 saw a Manhattan Project-size effort funding stem cells—treating Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, paralysis, Leukemia, blindness; imagination and political will are the only impediments to what stem cells may do in the future.

U.S. Senate candidate, Tommy Thompson, needs to answer to the Wisconsin people on stem cell research, namely Thompson's flip-flopping.

Pioneering scientists like University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, James Thompson, should be supported in the lab as though our families' health and lives depend on it; and not have to wage a political fight against the Republican Party that is steadfastly hostile to the promise of "human embryonic stem cell research, ... a [GOP] position running counter to both scientific and public opinion."

GOP candidates for Senate, Mark Neumann and Scott Fitzgerald, need to explain their extremism on this public-minded research as well.

• Tommy Thompson for Senate
• Mark Neumann for Senate

• Scott Fitzgerald for Senate

As Alan I. Leshner and Dr. Thomson write in their December 3, 2007 column defending embryonic stem cell research, "Standing in the Way of Stem Cell Research":

Efforts to harness the versatility of embryonic stem cells, and alleviate suffering among people with an array of debilitating disorders, began less than 10 years ago. Since then, scientists have continued to pursue embryonic stem cells because of their ability to transform into blood, bone, skin or any other type of cell. The eventual goal is to replace diseased or dysfunctional cells to help people with spinal cord injuries, neurodegenerative disorders, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other conditions. ...

Federal funding is essential for both adult and embryonic stem cell research, even as promising alternatives are beginning to emerge.

Unfortunately, under the policy President Bush outlined on Aug. 9, 2001, at most 21 stem cell lines derived from embryos before that date are eligible for federal funding. American innovation in the field thus faces inherent limitations. Even more significant, the stigma resulting from the policy surely has discouraged some talented young Americans from pursuing stem cell research.

On this, Wisconsin should listen and be guided by Dr. Thompson, not Tommy Thompson and Republican extremists.

A look at this video [below] of Thompson appears to indicate that Thompson may have lost it.

Stem Cell Advance Shows More Research Needed, Not Less

Update III: A Stem Cell Breakthrough — No Thanks to Mr. Bush

Update II: Leshner and Thomson: Bush Stands in the Way of Stem Cell Research

Update: Prominent Stem Cell Researcher Praised By Bush Rips White House’s Stem Cell Policies

Madison, Wisconsin - James A. Thomson, the UW-Madison scientist who led the team that announced in 1998 the generation of stem cells from human embryonic cells, is an admired figure across the world.

Stem cells can become any of the differentiated cells of the human body and hold the promise to developing treatments and possibly cures for such ailments as diabetes, muscular dystrophy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), and other degenerative conditions.

The possibilities are staggering, and stem cells are hope for the millions of people suffering from cruel and life-destroying illnesses.

Unfortunately, the same small band of rigid, anti-rational dogmatists (which includes President George W. Bush) who rave against federal funding for embryonic stem cell research in favor of Bush's stem cell policy, have now declared the issue moot after the announcement in November of Dr. Thomson’s and a Japanese team’s generation of stem cells from adult, non-embryonic cells.

Representative of this clique is Charles Krauthammer.

Krauthammer quotes Dr. Thomson: “If human embryonic stem cell research does not make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, you have not thought about it enough.”

Krauthammer goes on to praise President Bush and his unyielding opposition to embryonic stem cell research.

The verdict is clear: Rarely has a president -- so vilified for a moral stance -- been so thoroughly vindicated. … Because the moral disquiet that James Thomson always felt -- and that George Bush forced the country to confront -- helped lead him and others to find some ethically neutral way to produce stem cells. Providence then saw to it that the technique be so elegant and beautiful that scientific reasons alone will now incline even the most willful researchers to leave the human embryo alone.

Ridiculous.

Judicious researchers like Dr. Thomson have thought through the moral implications of using days-old, tiny embryonic cells (destined to be destroyed at fertility clinics) to generate stem cells, and have arrived at the opposite conclusion from that which Krauthammer and the religious right disingenuously posit.

Stem cell research is in its infancy and though the research has been set back years by Bush’s stubborn policy, no stem cell researcher is calling for the abandonment of embryonic stem cell research.

The new stem cell techniques are brand-new, retain possible cancer-causing risks, and would be unsuitable at this point for any therapy, much less cures.

The arguments against embryonic stem cell research were irrational when Bush and the religious right made them in 2001, and they remain so today.

The small circle of anti-embryonic stem cell research fanatics should be seen as the cruel Luddites that they are.

No compromise need be made with this tiny minority of the American public.

The promise and hope of scientific inquiry generally and stem cell research specifically should be rekindled by the next American administration.

Embryonic stem cell research and new techniques ought to become the Manhattan Project for the next century.

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