Politics
Friday April 22, 2005
Misleading Scare Headline on Adult Stem Cells: "Adult Cells Cancer Threat"
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
MADRID, April 22, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Bias in favour of embryo stem cell research is rife in media that is totally dedicated to the political cause of abortion. Now the BBC has followed suit and run the scare headline, "Adult Cells Cancer Threat."
In research published in the New Scientist, the Spanish scientists have shown that if adult cells are cultivated long past the stage at which they are normally used for research, they can be induced to form tumours. A team at the Autonomous University of Madrid grew the cells for up to eight months and then transplanted into animals where the oldest of the cells formed cancerous growths. The BBC, a long time supporter of both cannibalistic embryo research and abortion, however, declined to mention until the middle of the story that the researchers themselves thought the threat of cancer with adult cells is only 'theoretical.'
The tumours formed only in the oldest of the cells, those that had been divided up to 190 times. At that stage they had begun to produce an enzyme that made them continue replicating after implantation. This enzyme only develops long after the stage at which adult cells are ever used for treatments.
Professor Christopher Higgins, of the Medical Research Council Clinical Science Centre, said, "Stem cell lines maintained and developed in stem cell banks over a long period of time are currently only used for research purposes. They are not transplanted into people.
In the early stage of stem cell research when scientists were using cells taken from aborted fetuses for transplantation, it was found that aggressive cancer cells or tetromas were a high likelihood, and led to death and permanent disability.
While embryonic stem cells have not yielded any successful disease therapy, in the last few years, a stunning array of illnesses and injuries have been routinely treated with adult stem cells and many more are being studied with prospects of success. Some diseases that are frequently cited as justification for embryo research are now being successfully treated with adult cells including Parkinson's disease, cancer and spinal cord injuries. Research is moving forward with diabetes that uses live donors of a type of cell called 'islet' cells that will shortly make embryo stem cell research for diabetes redundant.
Read BBC coverage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4465717.stm
hw
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.