“Latest Stem Cells News”

Responsible in the past for ‘unprecedented violence’, eugenics is a major worry of Pope Benedict XVI, who yesterday spoke about how these ‘deplorable’ practices present themselves today ‘differently’ with the selection of embryos and the discrimination of the sick and disabled, resulting in a rejection of life in the name of an abstract ideal of health.

Receiving the participants of the conference called ‘The new frontiers of genetics’, which is taking place in the upcoming days at the Vatican, Ratzinger immediately clarified that ‘all discrimination’ based on differences that are “ascribed to real or assumed genetic factors is an attack against humanity”.

While acknowledging that “eugenic and racial ideologies, which in the past have humiliated human beings and provoked inhumane suffering, are not being proposed”, the Pope denounced the fact that in our times “a new mentality that tends to justify the different consideration of life and personal dignity has become present”. Eugenics, warned Pope Benedict XVI, is being presented again today and is “discriminating against those who are disabled” or even worse “arriving at the selection and rejection of life”.

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Adult Stem Cells Improve Young Boy with Cerebral Palsy

Corey de Gregorio, a 3 year old boy from Gordonvale, Australia has improved tremendously after going to a Stem Cell research company which implanted Adult Stem Cells from cord blood into him.

Corey’s parents, Mark and Roseanne had doubts before going to China for the stem cell treatment, but they  wanted Corey to have every chance to live a better life and therefore, they made the journey to China for the stem cell therapy which used only Adult Stem Cells.

The miracle treatment consisted of six “therapies” of cord blood stem cells.

Before the Adult Stem Cells for Cerebral Palsy

• Had very little use of his left arm/hand
• Little movement in his torso

After the Stem Cell Treatment

• Can now use his left hand, can use it to drink a cup by himself
• Increased flexibility in torso

Former Vice President Al Gore Endorses Trans-Pacific Collaboration to Promote Use of Patient Cells for Drug Discovery and Development and Cell-Based Therapies iZumi Bio, Inc., and Kyoto University‘s Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), today announced a collaboration to promote the basic research, development and application of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell technology – a form of cellular reprogramming which originated in Japan – with the goal of advancing drug discovery and enabling cell-based therapies.

“Stem cell research holds great promise for the creation of new therapies that could revolutionize the treatment of disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and muscular dystrophy. The discovery that iPScell technology brings, that “stem cell-like” cells can be generated from a small amount of human skin rather than from embryos, opens a new door for stem cell research and its application to therapeutic discovery,” said Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States and a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. Noting that Science Magazine named cellular reprogramming the “breakthrough of the year” in 2008, Gore concluded, “The partnership between these two leading organizations is a critical step in furthering this research and turning stem cell research into therapeutic realities sooner.”

Researchers using stem cells must work to make their treatments safer after a 17 year-old boy with a rare genetic disease in 2001 was cured with an embryonic stem cell transplant in Moscow, but then developed benign brain and spinal tumors four years later. According to ‘Plos Medicine’ magazine, Israeli doctors removed cancer from the boy, the tumors developed due to a stem cell treatment that he received.

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BEIJING – China is tightening regulations on the clinical use of high-risk or ethically controversial diagnostic and therapeutic technologies.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) issued a government order on Monday requiring hospitals to get approval before doing things such as artificial heart implants and homogeneous organ transplants.

The regulation goes in to effect May 1. Hospitals already using the technologies are required to report to the Ministry for verification of qualifications within six months after that date.
The MOH said its aim is to prevent abuses of those medical technologies. Previously, only some needed government approval, it said, without giving further details.

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American Doctors and Patients Challenge the FDA to Save Lives Rather Than Allow Patients to Needlessly Die

A couple of weeks ago, the American Stem Cell Therapy Association (ASCTA) was formed by a group of doctors, not to debate the pros and cons of embryonic stem cell research and adult stem cell research, but to contest the FDA’s position that a person’s own Adult Stem Cells are to be classified as drugs and subject to the same regulations as Vioxx, Ritalin and thousands of other chemical deadly concoctions.

The FDA’s stance is that a person’s own stem cells must be tested as a new drug- ie. subject to 7-10 years of clinical trials and testing for each disease/condition it is used for.

As I have argued many times before, this stance is ridiculous and is costing millions of lives while sick Americans wait for the use of their own stem cells which would improve their quality of life.

Well, now a group of patients are now targeting the FDA as well.

And they have issued a press release:

A critical initiative for the ASCTA and the Safe Stem Cells NOW! movement is to bring public awareness to the FDA’s position so consumers, and those who stand to benefit from safe stem cell therapies, have the opportunity to be heard. “We get letters and calls every day from people suffering from a variety of conditions and diseases that have no known cure who are eager to access stem cell therapies.”, Hanson adds. “Many of them are forced to look outside the U.S. for treatment, which involves prohibitive travel and procedure costs.”

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