Let the church answer this question: “Why is it moral to protect nearly invisible clusters of cells, and not immoral to condemn millions of actual living/breathing/viable people to dysfunction and an early death?”. Is this not the height of hypocrisy?

Let the church answer this question: “Why is it moral for the church to deny benefits that would accrue to me within my moral framework, by forcing down upon me its moral framework, a framework I don’t support and don’t feel the need to be constrained by?”. Is this not the height of totalitarianism?

Let the church answer this question: “Why don’t church leaders renounce, for all their current and future generation, the benefits of stem cell research in keeping with their moral code, but allow those benefits to others?”. Would not renunciation of the benefits conserve the moral high ground for the church, and leave the low ground to we sinners, the low ground which they don’t, in any case, care to occupy?

Your comparison is inaccurate. A more accurate comparison would be to importing steel. For years, Michigan automakers have been importing steel to make cars. Michigan doesn't need to make steel to make cars. In the same way, Michigan researchers can import embryonic stem cells. Having to import embryonic stem cells hasn't prevented researchers from doing research.

How many people work for Mr. Knoll? I believe I was told it was something like 2 or 3 individuals. Will his research involve killing human embryos for research? If not, then he has no logical reason to move.

Actually, the firm in California you're referring to (Geron) will in all likelihood not start clinical trials involving embryonic stem cells next year. This is something they've been promising to do since 2004.

http://geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=3539

Were you aware of this fact or not, Mr. Waymire? You might also want to tell Marcia Baum to stop spreading this inaccurate information. At the recent MCSCRC "educational" meeting in Grand Rapids she made a number of false and rather ridiculous claims - including that one.

Odd that you bring up tumors and all the problems they've caused in animal experiments involving embryonic stem cells. The mention of tumors is nowhere to be found on MCSCRC's web site last I checked and it wasn't mentioned at all at the Grand Rapids event.

If you were actually concerned about human embryos being destroyed, you might decide to favor legislation which prevents human embryos from being killed instead of working to have researchers being the ones doing the killing.

Why are we letting politicians set the parameters for research in Michigan? Scientists want to be able to research both ADULT and EMBRYONIC stem cells in our state, because both hold great promise. We've looked at adult stem cells for 50 years and have about 9 cures from them. We've looked at embryonic for 10 years, and clinical trials are slated to start next year (by a firm in California, of course, not Michigan.)The tumor issue is already being overcome, as the scaremongers in the sites above already are well aware of (oooohh...tumors...clones...be afraid, be very afraid...this is why it's called RESEARCH.)

Our state has already condoned the destruction of left over embryoes from in vitro clinics. They are destroyed every day. Why not allow families to make an informed decision to let them be used for reserach, instead of discarded as medical waste. Our state doesn't protect embryos -- it just prevents research. How smart is that for a state that wants to attract the best and brightest scientists from around the nation????

Phil stated that in 1978, Michigan passed a law banning all forms of research on human embryos. This statement has been addressed by other who have posted their response here.

Phil stated that the Bush administration cut off funding for embryonic stem cell research. A fact that Phil neglected to mention is that President Bush is the only president in history to federally fund stem cell research. Bush announced on Aug. 9, 2001, that his administration would make the funds available for lines of cells that already were in existence. What Bush banned is the specific creation of embryos for the purpose of stem cell research.

Phil also stated that scientists could possibly find a cure for Parkinson’s, macular degeneration, and Huntington ’s cholera. Research has shown that embryonic stem cells have a tendency to produce tumors. However, British scientists have grown a liver from umbilical cord cells. Scientists at Wake Forest and Harvard universities have used amniotic fluid stem cells have been used to create brain, liver, and bone cells. A Swiss researcher has managed to turn amniotic fluid stem cells into heart cells that could be grown into replacement valves. This year, a team of Brazilian and American scientists led by Julio Voltarelli of the University of Sao Paulo report that young patients with Type 1 diabetes used stem cells drawn from their own blood to stop taking insulin injections after their body resumed producing the hormone naturally. Two months ago, a British research team led by Sir Magdi Yacoub has managed in the laboratory to grow tissue that functions in the same way as human heart valves, using stem cells drawn from the patient's own bone marrow.

The final point Phil made that I would like to respond to is that he mentioned opponents make the claim that adult stem cell research is just as promising as embryonic stem cell research, but that adult stem cells are limited in their ability to grow into the kinds of cells that would support wide-ranging research. My comments earlier mention umbilical cord stem cells, amniotic stem cells, and most recently adult stem cells for insulin and heart valve treatments. I would like to summarize with several one-line comments, as I’m sure I’m not the only reader to quickly skim articles and opinions.

Bush is the only president to federally fund embryonic stem cell research.

There are over 1,000 adult stem cell therapies in clinical trials as of November 2006.

As of last year, there are no embryonic stem cell therapies in stage one of clinical trials.

There is no private sector ban on embryonic stem cell research.

Embryonic stem cells have produced tumors in experimental treatments.

Scientists grew a liver from umbilical cord cells in November 2006.

British scientists reported in November 2006 that stem cells extracted from a patient's own bone marrow could repair organ damage in heart attack victims.

California voters approved embryonic stem cell research in 2004. Scientists admit cures are more than 10 years away using embryonic trials. Claims of cures for autism, AIDS, Lou Gehrig's disease, lupus and multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries and Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases were abandoned at that time.

As of December 2006, there were 72 treatments have emerged from adult and umbilical cord stem cell research. (Not to be confused with the 1,000 therapies mentioned in November 2006.)

Scientists at Wake Forest and Harvard universities were able to extract stem cells from amniotic fluid and turn them into several different tissue cell types, including brain, liver and bone.

American and British studies have been published that show umbilical cord blood, and the stem cells it includes, could save the lives of many adults with leukemia who can't find bone marrow donors.

In January, Congress pushed to expand federal funding for stem cell research. The White House spokesman mentioned in June that the president supports and encourages stem cell research, including using embryonic lines, as long as it does not involve creating, harming or destroying embryos.

Dr. Catherine Verfaille, director of Minnesota 's Stem Cell Institute, has successfully used adult stem cells from bone marrow to replace the radiation-ravaged immune systems and bone marrow of mice, giving them a healthy new blood supply.

Brazilian and American scientists led by Julio Voltarelli of the University of Sao Paulo report that young patients with Type 1 diabetes used stem cells drawn from their own blood to stop taking insulin injections after their body resumed producing the hormone naturally. This is an actual treatment using actual stem cells that has already produced results with individuals having a range of auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease and Lupus.

In August 2007, a British research team led by Sir Magdi Yacoub has managed in the laboratory to grow tissue that functions in the same way as human heart valves, using stem cells drawn from the patient's own bone marrow.

That claim is completely false. Researchers at the University of Michigan are working on human embryonic stem cells right now and have been doing so for a number of years. They even received a 3-year federal grant for more than $2 million dollars (around $750,000 a year for 3
years) for this research in 2003.

http://stemcells.nih.gov/news/NIGMSgrants.asp

The University of Michigan has a policy statement on which human embryonic stem cells they use.

http://www.research.umich.edu/policies/um/HESCpolicy.html

The University also has a question and answer on embryonic stem cell research which notes:

"What kinds of human embryonic stem cells can be used in U-M research?

U-M research studies funded by the National Institutes of Health or other federal funding agencies are restricted to existing stem cell lines, created before August 9, 2001, and listed on the NIH Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry. Privately funded U-M research studies can be conducted with new cell lines not listed in the NIH registry, as long as they meet the conditions outlined in the university's official policy statement..."

http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2005/stemcellqa.htm

The penalty of jail time of up to 10 years and fines of up to $10 million dollars is for research attempting to create cloned human embryos. Below is a link to the law. Nowhere are the words "stem cell"
mentioned.

http://legislature.mi.gov/(S(jtpqrc55buimec451onn5sii))/mileg.aspx?page=
getObject&objectName=mcl-Act-111-of-1998

Clearly, whoever supplied you with the information that any research working on human embryonic stem cells was subject to that penalty was
1.) either lying to you or 2.) quite ignorant about what legal and illegal in Michigan. My guess is they were lying. That's what the Michigan Citizens for Stem Cell Research and Cures did after I found their web site was almost completely filled with information plagiarized from other web sites in the fall of 2006. They took their web site down for a couple of weeks to fix the "technical problem" the day after we sent out a press release. For some reason, not a single Detroit media outlet contacted me about the press release even though I had (and still
have) evidence of the obvious copy-and-paste plagiarism.

Also of note, the Analysis Group's predictions of $6 to $12 billion in state revenues, etc. have been labeled "hopelessly optimistic" by a
writer for the liberal online magazine Slate. You should also know
that the California Citizens for Stem Cell Research and Cures (a pro-embryonic stem cell research group) paid $200,000 to the Analysis Group for those predictions.

http://www.slate.com/id/2159153/

I hope you visit the links above and see how badly you've been misled.
If I were you, I would feel insulted to be misled in such a way that I would write an editorial which includes blatantly and obviously false information.