In Support of Embryonic Stem Cell Research

You're welcome and I look forward to the debate. I would begin by stressing caution on embryonic stem cell research given that there is a significant moral and ethical dilemmas that bear consideration, there are further problematic implications in suggesting the taxpayer must subsidize this research, and despite extravagant claims of miracles cures, it has yet to yield any cures while obscuring more promising and proven results from adult stem cells or many other various types of research. 1 - Adult (Somatic) Stem Cell Cures & Treatments Patients need actual cures as opposed to false hope. Adult stem cells are used in treatment and clinical trials with respect to: brain cancer, ovarian cancer, skin cancer, testicular cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, acute myelogenous leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, breast cancer, and many other cancers. They are used to treat type 1 Juvenile diabetes, myasthenia, Crohn's disease, and several other auto-immune disorders.Other treatments and trials exist for chronic coronary artery disease, Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury, liver cirrhosis, and other diseases. It shows much more promise. 2 - Problems with Embryonic Stem Cell Research There are no cures and perhaps one clinical trial with respect to embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells have been demonstrated in multiple experiments that they are too carcinogenic for therapy or they form teratomas (monster tumors). The next problem involves the body's immune system attacking the foreign cells requiring potential patients of any such therapy derived from it to take dangerous immune suppressing drugs and the recent "fix" was researches genetically engineered the cells to produce immune suppressing molecules, but this makes them invisible to the immune system rendering the body unable to reject cancerous cells and the problem of infection. The ethical problems arise from the misconception that cells are derived from a "fertilized egg," which is only one cell and this requires a human embryo and it's destruction to derive the necessary cells. Also, the data shows no stable, functioning islet cells from embryonic stems cells in animals. 3 - Ethical Alternatives Adult stem cells have the ability to differentiate into cell types from different germ layers and this is called stem cell plasiticty providing the ability to take on new functions, which demonstrates their potential to be pluripotent. Scientists are also working on Altered Nuclear Transfer to produce pluripotent stem cells without the creation and destruction of embryos. 4 - Politicization of Scientific Inquiry When politics enters the stage, we see how a reasonable line of scientific inquiry was transformed into public relations campaign that makes extraordinary promises without the science being anywhere close to it, politicans and organizations dedicated to abortion piggyback the issue due to the destruction of human embryos that would be necessary as a means of promoting abortion, and scientific research is better served by steering clear of politics, public opinion, lobbying, and the other corrupting influences it invites such as the patenting of embryonic stem cell lines with $70,000 to $200,000 licensing fees while the patent holders lobby for more government funding. 5 - Federal Funding & Supposed Economic Benefits There is absolutely no barrier in this country to donating and giving your money for the purpose of scientific research. You are free to earmark all the money you wish to funding the research of your choice. There are philanthropic sources of funding, investment vehicles, and private equity markets where funding for research can be found, especially if the purported medical miracle wonderland lived up to the hype. Government funding invites politicians to arbitrarily decide who the winners and losers are despite any actual results at the expense of other people's money and leads to the creation of entrenched lobbyists making wild promises no matter how far-fetched. It becomes wasteful and inefficiently spent. Government spending also removes money from the private sector limiting the capital available and having a harmful effect on economic growth. Economics has always dealt with the problem of scarcity of resources and when the government wastefully and inefficiently squanders those resources, there are fewer resources available elsewhere for more promising fields of research with actual results. 6 - Miscellaneous Issues My opponent, forgive me for pointing this out, but HSCT was an example of adult stem cell research. Also, my opponent as a resident of California ought to know that the state spends $3 billion a year on embryonic stem cell research despite bad fiscal problems. It should be noted also that the National Debt has exceeded 100% of GDP and we have a monumental debt problem in terms of the unfunded liabilities of entitlement programs compounded by the fact that the federal government runs huge budget deficits each year and the more money printed by the federal reserve to allow this spending increasingly drives up inflation and we risk the inflation of another economic bubble that will cause another economic catastrophe. We cannot ignore many other areas of scientific inquiry that could treat and/or cure diseases as we could develop with breakthroughs in nanotechnology. 7 - Conclusion I see embryonic stem cell research as a legitimate line of inquiry, but I see grossly exaggerated claims that if possible would be many decades away, the politicization of the issue for political ends, the denial of the actual treatments found with adult stem cells, and I do not see government funding as a benefit to either the research, the society at large, or the economy. I think people could easily support the research of their choice with their own checkbook or through social media efforts like the ice bucket challenge (even though you don't have to dump ice water on your head to give money). I'm not against research so much as I see clear alternatives and realize the future and medical research have a vast array of avenues to cures and this is only one inquiry.