{"id":5942,"date":"2011-04-16T12:26:21","date_gmt":"2011-04-16T19:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/?p=5942"},"modified":"2011-04-18T12:28:38","modified_gmt":"2011-04-18T19:28:38","slug":"false-hope-the-truth-about-embryonic-stem-cells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/false-hope-the-truth-about-embryonic-stem-cells\/","title":{"rendered":"False Hope – The Truth About Embryonic Stem Cells"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chuck<\/a>
Chuck Colson<\/figcaption><\/figure> by Chuck Colson –<\/p>\n

Embryonic stem cell research destroys human lives. And it\u2019s also destroying the credibility of scientific researchers, as well.<\/p>\n

Many of us remember sadly when Ron Reagan, the son of President Ronald Reagan, spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. Reagan said he was there to talk about research into \u201cwhat may be the greatest medical breakthrough in our or in any lifetime: the use of embryonic stem cells…to cure a wide range of fatal and debilitating illnesses: Parkinson\u2019s disease, multiple sclerosis, diabetes\u201d and more.<\/p>\n

Reagan then invited listeners to imagine being diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s disease, and undergoing a procedure that involves the use of embryonic stem cells. These cells would — if injected in the brain — replace the \u201cfaulty cells whose failure to produce adequate dopamine led to the Parkinson\u2019s disease in the first place.\u201d Reagan explained. \u201cIn other words, you\u2019re cured,\u201d he announced. <\/p>\n

\u201cSound like magic?\u201d he asked \u201cWelcome to the future of medicine.\u201d The problem is, the promise of medicine\u2019s magical future was a lie — and the scientists who were pushing embryonic stem cell research — and getting people like Reagan to push it — knew it at the time. The glowing promises were nothing more than hype to persuade the public of the rightness of their cause, and get behind public funding for research that destroyed human embryos.<\/p>\n

Last December, my friend, Professor Robert George of Princeton University, and Arthur Caplan, one of America\u2019s most prominent liberal bioethicists, took part in an interview at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, Caplan\u2019s institution. It\u2019s published in Public Discourse, an online publication of the Witherspoon Fellowship.<\/p>\n

George and Caplan were discussing how we decide what research to support. Both agreed that we need some sort of moral norms to govern scientific inquiry.<\/p>\n

During the conversation, George noted that Ron Reagan, to his mind, \u201cwildly hyped the potential therapeutic promise of embryonic stem cell research…But it wasn\u2019t true,\u201d George declared.<\/p>\n

Caplan — who supports embryonic stem cell research — then made an amazing admission: George was right. Caplan said, \u201cEmbryonic stem-cell research was completely overhyped, in terms of its promise. And people knew it at the time. The scientists had to have known that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caplan added that the notion that people \u201cwould be out of their wheelchairs within a year if we could just get embryonic stem-cell research funded was just ludicrous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caplan also shot down Reagan\u2019s assertion that embryonic stem cell research would lead to a cure for Alzheimer\u2019s. \u201cStem cell research has no possibility of helping Alzheimer\u2019s,\u201d he declared. An astonishing admission!<\/p>\n

Caplan deserves credit for speaking the truth even if it makes his side look bad. But it\u2019s grossly immoral that scientists and researchers would peddle false hope just so they could reap billions of dollars in research funding. Clearly, we can\u2019t always rely on scientists to tell the truth when money — or a political agenda — is at stake.<\/p>\n

Protecting the sanctity of human life is just one of many reasons why Christians must effectively engage the culture — and why I\u2019ve launched The Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Please, consider becoming a charter member of the Colson Center. To learn more, go to JoinColson.com.<\/p>\n

HT: Break Point<\/a> (read full article)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Chuck Colson – Embryonic stem cell research destroys human lives. And it\u2019s also destroying the credibility of scientific researchers, as well. Many of us remember sadly when Ron Reagan, the son of President Ronald Reagan, spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. Reagan said he was there to talk about research into \u201cwhat … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[84,15,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-of-innocence","category-moral-issues","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}