Michael Fumento
2009-11-01
July 15, 2009 — Medical-research insiders know that embryonic-stem-cell technology is proving a dead end – Dr. Bernadine Healy, a former director of the National Institutes of Health and once an ES-cell-research enthusiast, calls it "obsolete." But the Obama administration has opened wide the federal funding floodgates – the triumph of a big special-interest PR and lobbying campaign.
In fact, the research will line the pockets of a relatively few individuals – at considerable cost for the rest of us, since the funding means billions that won't go to more promising areas.
Though ES cells have long been touted as the miracle just down the road, researchers keep driving into big potholes. For starters, there's the rejection problem: Your body naturally attacks foreign cells, even ones that might help you. So cell recipients must permanently use dangerous immunosuppressive drugs.
greatstemcell.html
Sorry if you lost your lunch, but this is a teratoma.
Further, the cells have a nasty tendency to become cancerous or to form teratomas – meaning "monster tumors." While usually benign, these can grow larger than a football and often contain hair and teeth. Yech!
Perhaps that problem can be solved someday, but even University of Wisconsin scientist James Thomson, the creator of the first human ES-cell line, says treatments and cures could be decades away.