Perhaps...Help at last?

As I was doing my research for this post, I came across this woman. Representative Diana DeGette, back in 2007 worked on getting former President Bush to sign off on stem cell research. Unfortunately at that time, she could not succeed with the president and he continued to veto the bill. I do not completely agree with her views on abortion, however she seems to be an advocate for stem cell research and trying to get funding and more support. I think through her we might be able to get more awareness out there, even just locally to start.
If you want to contact her, write her a letter like me, asking for her help and encouragment to keep fight for the research.

Rep. Diana DeGette

U.S. Representative, Colorado’s 1^st District
District Address
600 Grant Street
Suite 202
Denver, CO 80203

What's Colorado's Deal?

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_7595316

I found this article on THE DENVER POST website. I think it is great that this family had such a great experience with their son's stem cell transplant. And even more great that they have and are donating more money to the research here in Denver. I think it is unfortunate that Colorado is behind the other states in getting funding for the purpose of saving lives.

During this research process I have been writing Colorado's Senator's Michael Bennett and Mark Udall to try and get them to realize that something needs to be done about this. Unfortunately, I have heard absolutely nothing back from them. However, that will not stop me. I keep sending them letters, to their Colorado office and even to their Washington, D.C. office in hopes that my nagging with catch their attention or at least bother them so much they will respond. I think because it is election time they are ignoring me. But I WILL NOT STOP!

For Fun

I thought I would have a little bit of fun on this post, so I found some comics that are on both sides of the debate. So here you go and enjoy.

Interesting...

As I am doing my own research to better my understanding of stem cell research I am starting to have a hard time truly defining my stance on the issue. I came across this article from The Boston Globe from 2007, so it is a bit dated, but I think it makes one really think.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/04/08/embryo_ethics/
I have seen quite a bit of information and studies on the benefits of stem cell research and cord blood. It seems that the opposing defense is strictly of a moral stance. I think Bush, with his christian views, could not get passed the fact that the embryos were, essentially, humans without a womb to grow. Now, I am a parent and an LDS man, and yes, a Republican. I do feel that it is unfortunate that these tiny humans have no place to go to grow. However, I think it is wonderful and brilliant that our minds are so developed to be able to discover something so great as a way to heal the afflicted. If these embryos are going to simply get tossed away, then why not use them for good?

Life Saving

This is a great article about saving the cord blood of a new born. Luckily this couple had a second child with cord blood to save that help their oldest child. It makes me think that for my next child we should save their cord blood, just in case. With all the stories I hear today of children getting ill, I'd rather have it and not needed than need it and not have it.

http://stemcellresearchnews.net/news_frame.asp?article=acff62bd-a751-4930-a203-8b6b9125a735&title=Bright%20Future%20for%20Leukemia%20Girl%20After%20Stem%20Cell%20Treatment

Federal Policy

I was doing some research this week to find out what the government thinks about stem cell research. I knew Bush was against it and that funding had been blocked for years. In March, 2009, soon after Obama entered the office, he lifted the heavy restrictions on funding for stem cell research. Here is the link for the PDF version of the Executive Order.

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-5441.pdf

"Advances over the past decade in this promising scientific field have been encouraging,
leading to broad agreement in the scientific community that the research
should be supported by Federal funds."
Though, I do not always agree with Barak Obama's "spending habits," I don't think there is really much of another way for these scientific institutions to receive the required amount to study. I think the over all good the research does with out weigh the cost. This part of the EO I really like. Obama pulls to the heart strings here.
"The purpose of this order is to remove these limitations on scientific
inquiry, to expand NIH support for the exploration of human stem cell
research, and in so doing to enhance the contribution of America’s scientists
to important new discoveries and new therapies for the benefit of humankind."

Check out this video

I found this video today and I thought it was interesting a really neat. I think it's great that science has come so far that it can help people in this way.

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=10996902

A Brief History

To start, I thought it would be wise for me, and those who read this blog, to understand and make ourselves familiar with the history of Stem Cell Research. Here are some bullet points that are important (i feel) to understand this topic.

• Scientists have been fascinated with human cells since the invention of the microscope in the 1800's.
  
• Early 1900's researchers found that the different types of blood cells came from a particular 'stem cell.'
• 1963 that the first quantitative descriptions of the self-renewing activities of transplanted mouse bone marrow cells were documented by Canadian researchers Ernest A McCulloch and James E Till.
  
• After the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade, discussions began about how to conduct ethical research on human fetal tissue.
  
• bone marrow transplants – actually a transplant of adult stem cells – have in fact been used in patients receiving radiation and chemotherapy since the 1950’s.
• James Thomson, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, in 1998 successfully took stem cells from the unused embryos given to him by fertility banks. After his ability to grow the stem cells, doors were opened and light shone on stem cell research and it's capabilities.

http://domain883347.sites.fasthosts.com/research/history.html
http://www.scienceprogress.org/2009/01/timeline-a-brief-history-of-stem-cell-research/