[Pflienews] PharmFacts E-News Update: Herod Flashback: Kill them! Kill them all!

[PFLI PharmAid Center]

*PharmFacts E-News Update -- 25 Jan 2009 AD
*
 


http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=86957

Saturday, January 24, 2009

*MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH
WorldNetDaily*
Now that Obama's in,
stem-cell trials begin
But FDA claims timing
of approval coincidence
Posted: January 24, 2009
12:30 am Eastern

WorldNetDaily


In a move the Food and Drug Administration denies has anything to do 
with the new presidency, the federal agency granted permission this week 
to begin the country's first embryonic stem cell treatments on human 
subjects.

The FDA approved an application from Geron Corporation, based in Menlo 
Park, Calif., to inject stem cells derived from human embryos into 10 
people paralyzed from the chest down by spinal cord injuries.

"This marks the beginning of what is potentially a new chapter in 
medical therapeutics," said the company's president, Tom Okarma, in a 
statement, "one that reaches beyond pills to a new level of healing: the 
restoration of organ and tissue function achieved by the injection of 
healthy replacement cells."

Stem cells can replicate and develop into other body cells and are 
therefore capable, many scientists hope, of treating disease and injury 
by replacing damaged tissue. Research on stem cells derived from human 
embryos, however, has remained controversial because extracting the stem 
cells requires destruction of the embryos.

Former President George W. Bush, for example, signed an executive order 
in 2001 restricting federally-funded research to adult stem cells, 
animal stem cells and only those embryonic stem cells that originate 
from already derived cell lines and do not require the deaths of 
additional embryos.

Barack Obama's presidential campaign, on the other hand, promised the 
group Science Debate 2008 last summer that he would overturn Bush's policy.

"I strongly support expanding research on stem cells," reads an Obama 
statement reported by ABC News. "As president, I will lift the current 
administration's ban on federal funding of research on embryonic stem 
cell lines."

And even though the FDA's first approval for embryonic stem cell 
research in human trials reportedly came by telephone the day after 
Obama's inauguration, the organization told WND it's merely a coincidence.

/(Story continues below)/

Karen Riley, a spokeswoman at the FDA, told WND that approval does not 
reflect any Obama administration reversal of President Bush's executive 
order, since the Geron application uses stem cells from lines already 
established before Bush's moratorium on creating new lines.

"Politics did not enter into the decision," Riley insisted. "The timing 
of the decision was driven by the date Geron submitted a response to the 
prior FDA request for additional information regarding the proposed 
trial and on statutory time frames for the review of that request."

The difference between the two presidents' opinions is reflected in a 
society divided over weighing the potential benefits of the experiments 
against the ethics of human life.

In recent interviews, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., expressed 
enthusiasm over the potential for discovery should Obama lift the Bush 
administration-imposed restrictions.

/Find out just what America now uses as its guideline for ethical 
decisions, in "The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and 
Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom" 
<http://shop.wnd.com/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=1679>/

"Science is a gift from God to all of us," Pelosi recently told the 
Stanford University News Service 
<http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2009/january14/med-obama-011409.html>. 
"Scientists have been given an almost biblical power to cure advances in 
embryonic stem cell research."

"A repeal of the ban is critical so that we may take advantage of the 
opportunity to save lives, find cures and give hope to those who are 
suffering," Pelosi said. "It is an opportunity that we cannot miss."

Steven Ertelt of LifeNews.com, however, reports in a recent article 
<http://www.lifenews.com/bio2710.html> that the /potential/ for cures 
may not justify the means of finding them.

"Embryonic stem cell research has never cured or helped any patients to 
this point," writes Ertelt. "Only the use of adult stem cells and 
treatments derived from them have cured or reduced the effects of any 
diseases or conditions afflicting patients."

Ertelt notes that many in the pro-life movement oppose experimentation 
with human embryonic stem cells, labeling the practice "destruction of 
more human lives to advance science."

According to New Scientist, the FDA has withheld permission for 
experimentation on humans for years over concerns that the stem cell 
injections could trigger immunity rejection, cause nerve damage or form 
cancerous tumors, but that Geron's 20,000-page application was able to 
finally break through and alleviate those worries.

The Geron trial will involve injections in the spine at the point of 
injury and a low dose of anti-rejection drugs for about two months. 
After that, Okarma told the AP, the medications shouldn't be needed.

Scientists will then observe the patients for 15 years. The goal will be 
do demonstrate that the treatments do not trigger prolonged rejection or 
cancerous growth, though researchers hope to also see the cells help 
repair a sheath around the nerves called myelin, restoring the injured 
spine's ability to carry nerve signals.

The goal is "not to make somebody ... get up and dance the next day," 
Okarma said, but to observe some recovery of function and movement in 
the lower body.

Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass., which 
plans to seek FDA approval for experiments using embryonic stem cells to 
treat blindness, told the Washington Post that a great deal is riding on 
Geron's study.

"The field desperately needs a big clinical success," Lanza said. "It's 
very important to show the naysayers that this is very real and 
hopefully it will start helping people."

On the flip side, Lanza expressed nervousness over the stakes of the study.

"When you're the first, the whole world's eyes are on you," he said. "We 
all have our fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly and nothing 
happens."

John Sinden, chief scientist at the British company ReNeuron, which this 
week received clearance to begin human trials injecting embryonic stem 
cells into the brains of stroke patients, sees the almost simultaneous 
approval on both sides of the Atlantic as fortuitous.

"It's great news all round," he told New Scientist. "It's like London 
buses, with two arriving together."

Sinden also doubts on any role Obama's election may have played in the 
sudden loosening of government restrictions on research, but did suggest 
that the new president may influence the FDA in the coming months.

"The FDA will change," Sinden said, "and the new management will be very 
much aligned with Obama's views on stem cells."

Obama's plans for embryonic stem cell research aren't yet certain. 
Though the president is in favor of freeing government funding, he told 
CNN last week he'd rather invite Congress to act than issue an executive 
order.

"I like the idea of the American people's representatives expressing 
their views on an issue like this," Obama said.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
PFLI PharmAid Center

pfli at pfli.org <mailto:pfli at pfli.org>
PO Box 1281
Powell, OH 43065-1281 USA
800-227-8359
www.pfli.org


PFLI supports pharmacist rights of conscience NOT to be forced to 
dispense or counsel for chemicals which violate their sincerely held 
religious, moral or ethical beliefs.  For more info see:
http://www.pfli.org/main.php?pfli=conscienceclausefaq

*** PFLI is the only pharmacy association which is exclusively pro-life.
It represents thousands of pharmacists and many lay supporters
in the USA, Canada and all around the globe. For membership info, key
PFLI texts, PFLI archives, late-breaking news, abridged newsletter excerpts
or general information, visit the PFLI web site at http://www.pfli.org.
Or e-mail us at mailto:pfli at pfli.org.

*** We do NOT send out SPAM. To subscribe to PharmFacts E-News, just 
send an e-mail with the word
"subscribe" in the subject area or better yet, just enroll right from 
our main news page at
http://www.pfli.org;  to cease your subscription [although we can't
imagine anyone would!] self-manage your account at: 
http://pfli.org/mailman/listinfo/pflienews_pfli.org

*** You may contact PFLI at any/all of the following: Pharmacists For 
Life International,
PO Box 1281, Powell, OH 43065-1281 USA,  1-800-227-8359 [US & Canada only],
 +1-740-881-5520 [voice] or +1-707-667-2447 [fax]; e-mail us at 
mailto:pfli at pfli.org.

*** You can order our publications as well as begin/renew your 
membership or donate right on our
secure website at http://www.pfli.org/shop <http://www.pfli.org>. Click 
on the "PFLI Store" link on the toolbar and
follow the prompts! There you can also donate to PFLI as well as 
purchase a wide range of publications. 

* *
-- 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://pfli.org/pipermail/pflienews_pfli.org/attachments/20090125/a4dba34c/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 78028 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://pfli.org/pipermail/pflienews_pfli.org/attachments/20090125/a4dba34c/attachment-0001.jpe>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: moz-screenshot-14.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 21476 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://pfli.org/pipermail/pflienews_pfli.org/attachments/20090125/a4dba34c/attachment-0001.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 2923 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://pfli.org/pipermail/pflienews_pfli.org/attachments/20090125/a4dba34c/attachment-0002.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: christmastree_shimmer.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 9677 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://pfli.org/pipermail/pflienews_pfli.org/attachments/20090125/a4dba34c/attachment-0003.gif>