Dr. Hans Keirstead is working on stem cell research that could save people’s lives and possibly aid those with massive damage to their systems. It is a blight on our society that his type of research is being stymied. 60 Minutes did a story on the issue Sunday, and here Dr. Keirstead takes head-on the conservative perversion of ethics that is hurting people:
And here is one of the best graphical depictions of what stem cells could hold for mankind:
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But you see, OW, the right-wing ’sanctity of life’ has nothing to do with protecting and nurturing actual life. It is all about allowing the reactionary segments of our nation to control who gets to live and die, and how.
And if they try to snow you with the religious angle, throw it back in their faces. Jesus healed the sick (raised the frickin’ dead, too!) without question, and without asking for payment. That not only proves that universal health care– for all citizens, no exceptions– is a Christian value, it also proves that those who oppose it can’t rightly call themselves Christian.
‘Sanctity of life’ my ass.
This is another one of those issues that the right is hopelessly out of the touch with the mainstream on.
They’ll tell you that they don’t oppose stem-cell research, but rather, the federal funding of it. What’s so unreasonable about that, they say?
Well, the problem is that almost half of the nation’s biomedical R&D is government funded. Government agencies like the National Institues of Health, and the National Science Foundation funnel billions of $$ into our nation’s universities and hospitals to do much of the basic research needed so that the private sector (drug companies, and corporations) can then run with the ball and take it to the next level to develop new drugs, therapies, cures, etc. No, it does not work that way in every single instance, but that is largely how our research enterprise has worked for decades. There is no equal on the planet–although I’d venture to say that the U.K. may soon be leap-frogging ahead of us (if they have not already) on stem-cell if we continue to let politics get in the way of progress.
It’s very risky to develop and patent a new drug. It costs millions, can take over a decade, and it’s not really a surprise that many drug companies aren’t willing to risk millions on early stages of development when the outcome is at best, uncertain.
Conservatives, in ther zeal to protect the sanctity of life, are squelching the very public/private partnership that they have no doubt benefited from themselves at some point in their lives.
JK