Its official: STEM CELLS WORK!

[studiodekadent]

SEE: http://www.news.com.au/sundaymail/story/0,...923-952,00.html

By Hannah Davies,

A BRISBANE woman who was paralysed in a car accident is walking again after receiving controversial stem-cell treatment in India.

Australian doctors told mother-of-three Sonya Smith 18 months ago that she would spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

Her spine was broken after she was crushed by her car when the handbrake failed and it rolled down a hill.

But after eight weeks of embryonic stem-cell injections, Mrs Smith, 45, is now able to stand with the aid of calipers and has regained bowel and bladder control.

She says she has recovered "deep sensation" in her thighs and feet and has been able to swing her legs.

"When I first moved my toes, I was blown away," she said. "The doctors in Australia told me I would never walk again, but now I actually think I will be able to – without calipers some day."

Mrs Smith heard about the treatment from her sister, who lives in India, where medical guidelines are less stringent.

Phil Smith, 44, said yesterday that his wife's recovery had been "amazing".

Mr Smith, an editor with Channel 7 in Brisbane, spoke from the family home in Bardon where the couple live with their daughters, Kirsty, 10, Holly, 8, and Carly, 7.

He said his wife would be coming home next month for Holly's birthday.

"I've been speaking to her every day and she gets better all the time," he said.

"It's been hard for her having the treatment in India and we hope one day it is available here.

"Of course there are concerns about stem cells, but Sonya wouldn't have had a chance."

Mrs Smith is one of more than 300 patients who have been treated in New Delhi by controversial stem-cell pioneer Dr Geeta Shroff.

The treatment, forbidden in Australia, involves collecting stem cells from embryos and injecting them into injured or diseased patients.

When taken from embryos, the cells are undeveloped and seem better able to replace damaged tissue.

Critics have described the treatment as irresponsible and unethical. But Dr Shroff shrugged off the scepticism.

"These are people who are desperate and I have given them hope. What is wrong with that?" she said.

Dr Shroff claims to have an "inexhaustible" bank of stem cells from a single embryo, which she uses to treat Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and motor neurone disease.

She has never submitted her work for international scrutiny.

Australian legislation was passed last year allowing scientists to clone human embryos to extract stem cells, but only for research.

This month, state MPs will vote on whether to allow the practice in Queensland.

Mrs Smith, a teacher aide at Petrie Terrace State School, urged governments to do more to make the treatment available in Australia.

MY COMMENTS:

Human ingenuity has conquered paralysis. Now we need to get the antiabortion activists to finally admit they are the real anti-lifers! GO STEM CELLS! GO STEM CELLS!

[Steve Gagne]

If this story is true, then it's about time. Every other experiment using fetal stem cells has been an abysmal failure. Is there a second source on the story? I'm sure AP would have picked up on this as they did, say, with the Raelians, with their "success" in human cloning. Will there be a follow up story when the woman develops rejection of the foreign tissue, or when she develops cancer, due to the uncontrollable reproduction of the introduced fetal stem cells? Did you read the comments following the story? Of a quadriplegic woman who cannot raise her child, and now wants to hope for a miracle cure for herself as well? How cruel!

Trotting out a single event like this smacks of anecdotal miracle stories you hear from religious fanatics. Whereas there have been over 1200 successful stem cell treatments in the last 16 years using adult stem cells, without irritating the witchhunters and witchdoctors, and without getting them involved politically in what should be a medical decision. These treatments have included regrowing bones lost to cancer, kidney repair, liver repair, and spinal reconstruction, to name a few. Right now a cure for type II diabetes is in the works. Why are you not scouring the web for stories related to this?

But people involved in the abortion industry can't make any money off the adult stem cells, so they constantly pander to the former. What a waste. A cruel, cruel waste.

[BaalChatzaf]

MY COMMENTS:

Human ingenuity has conquered paralysis. Now we need to get the antiabortion activists to finally admit they are the real anti-lifers! GO STEM CELLS! GO STEM CELLS!

This is good news indeed, but please be aware that stem cells might not work for every kind of paralysis. Some paralysis is caused by damage so severe that stem cells might not be able to remedy the condition. In medical treatments there are no "magic bullets". I recall the days when penicillin was touted as the end of infectious diseases. We soon found out that disease pathogens mutate rapidly and thwart some of our best anti-biotics. Right now there is epidemic of anti-biotic resistant TB in parts of Asia which may soon visit North America. So let your joy and hope be tempered by realism.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Adrian]

SEE: http://www.news.com.au/sundaymail/story/0,...923-952,00.html

By Hannah Davies,

A BRISBANE woman who was paralysed in a car accident is walking again after receiving controversial stem-cell treatment in India.

Australian doctors told mother-of-three Sonya Smith 18 months ago that she would spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

Her spine was broken after she was crushed by her car when the handbrake failed and it rolled down a hill.

But after eight weeks of embryonic stem-cell injections, Mrs Smith, 45, is now able to stand with the aid of calipers and has regained bowel and bladder control.

She says she has recovered "deep sensation" in her thighs and feet and has been able to swing her legs.

"When I first moved my toes, I was blown away," she said. "The doctors in Australia told me I would never walk again, but now I actually think I will be able to – without calipers some day."

Mrs Smith heard about the treatment from her sister, who lives in India, where medical guidelines are less stringent.

Phil Smith, 44, said yesterday that his wife's recovery had been "amazing".

Mr Smith, an editor with Channel 7 in Brisbane, spoke from the family home in Bardon where the couple live with their daughters, Kirsty, 10, Holly, 8, and Carly, 7.

He said his wife would be coming home next month for Holly's birthday.

"I've been speaking to her every day and she gets better all the time," he said.

"It's been hard for her having the treatment in India and we hope one day it is available here.

"Of course there are concerns about stem cells, but Sonya wouldn't have had a chance."

Mrs Smith is one of more than 300 patients who have been treated in New Delhi by controversial stem-cell pioneer Dr Geeta Shroff.

The treatment, forbidden in Australia, involves collecting stem cells from embryos and injecting them into injured or diseased patients.

When taken from embryos, the cells are undeveloped and seem better able to replace damaged tissue.

Critics have described the treatment as irresponsible and unethical. But Dr Shroff shrugged off the scepticism.

"These are people who are desperate and I have given them hope. What is wrong with that?" she said.

Dr Shroff claims to have an "inexhaustible" bank of stem cells from a single embryo, which she uses to treat Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and motor neurone disease.

She has never submitted her work for international scrutiny.

Australian legislation was passed last year allowing scientists to clone human embryos to extract stem cells, but only for research.

This month, state MPs will vote on whether to allow the practice in Queensland.

Mrs Smith, a teacher aide at Petrie Terrace State School, urged governments to do more to make the treatment available in Australia.

MY COMMENTS:

Human ingenuity has conquered paralysis. Now we need to get the antiabortion activists to finally admit they are the real anti-lifers! GO STEM CELLS! GO STEM CELLS!

Um.

Two propositions:

1) The use of stem cells can help some patients a great deal.

2) The collection of stem cells is an ethically acceptable/desirable process.

I guess that, other things being equal, 1) tends to support 2). I don't think it conclusively proves it though. For example, if I had a vast fortune like that of Bill Gates (sadly I don't), then taking that fortune from me (by force if necessary) and giving it to lots of other people would probably make them happier. I wouldn't have thought an objectivist would see that as a valid argument in itself though. I would expect them to argue for my property rights in my fortune regardless of what benefits it might give to others if redistributed.

So I guess we'd need to get into the issue of who owns the stem cells.

I'm not expressing any particular point of view on that issue - just suggesting that it needs to be properly dealt with.

Best regards

Adrian