Stem cell research has been highly debated with the national election looming ahead of the nation.

However, many citizens are uninformed about the scientific facts of this issue and are instead basing decisions on emotion. Misleading information and exaggerated claims regarding the success of embryonic stem cell research have clouded the truth. During the second presidential debate, John Kerry told us that “we have the option” of curing Parkinson’s, diabetes, spinal-cord injuries or any other disease using embryonic stem cells.

Though scientists are having increasing success treating disease with stem cells, the sources of these stem cells are not embryos, they are adult stem cells. As of Oct. 6, there have been no successful embryonic stem cell treatments; however, adult stem cells have provided 56 incidences of successful treatments.

The promised success from embryonic stem cells is being delivered instead by adult stem cells. Conversely, embryonic stem cells have been found to cause tumors in animal studies, and the New England Journal of Medicine (March 8, 2004) published data showing that over time, embryonic stem cell lines develop severe chromosomal abnormalities, including a form of cell change found in some types of cancer.

The Kerry/Edwards campaign has attacked the president for “sacrificing science for ideology and playing politics with people who need cures,” insisting that treatments “could be right at our fingertips” if not for “the stem cell ban.” In truth, adult stem cells have yielded more promising effects than embryonic stem cells have suggested.

President Bush values the scientific evidence and, more significantly, the life of the human embryo, who is intentionally killed for the purpose of obtaining its stem cells.

Karin Brandt

Sophomore

Nutritional Science