WHEN WILL BACHMANN ADDRESS THE ISSUES?
07/20/2006
It’s time for Republican Congressional candidate to let CD 6 voters know where she stands on stem cell research
ST. PAUL (7/19/06) – With Karl Rove, the chief political adviser to President Bush, set to arrive in Stillwater on Friday to headline a fundraiser for Republican 6th Congressional District candidate Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota DFL Party called on Bachmann to announce whether she supports the radical Rove/Bush position of rejecting real stem-cell research.
“With the president today vetoing a bill aimed at increasing the viable use of stem cells in life-saving medical research, and with Karl Rove in town for her on Friday, Michele Bachmann needs to let Minnesotans know where she stands on this life-saving method of research,” Minnesota DFL Chair Brian Melendez said. “She’s had a parade of top Bush Administration officials raising mostly out-of-state cash for her, but does she really want to endorse the Administration’s anti-stem-cell position, rejecting the best advice the medical community has to offer?
“Michele Bachmann wants to be in the U.S. House, which passed the bill that President Bush vetoed today. Where does she stand on the issue of stem cell research? With George Bush, Karl Rove and the radical right wing of the Republican Party? Or with the majority of Americans, in favor of life-saving medical research? It’s time to address the issues.”
591 Organizations – Scientific Societies, Research Universities, Health Organizations, Patient Advocacy Groups, and Others – Wrote to Members of the Senate Today Saying That Only H.R. 810 Will Advance Stem Cell Research. “Of the bills being considered simultaneously, only H.R. 810 will move stem cell research forward in this country.” [Letter from 591 Organizations to President Bush, 7/17/06]
Eighty Nobel Laureates Wrote to President Bush Urging Support of Embryonic – Not Adult – Stem Cell Research. They wrote: “Some have suggested that adult stem cells may be sufficient to pursue all treatments for human disease. It is premature to conclude that adult stem cells have the same potential as embryonic stem cells – and that potential will almost disease to disease. Current evidence suggests that adult stem cells have markedly restricted differentiation potential. Therefore, for disorders that prove not to be treatable with adult stem cells, impeding human pluripotent stem cell research risks unnecessary delay for millions of patients who may die or endure needless suffering while the effectiveness of adult stem cells is evaluated.” [Letter from Eighty Nobel Laureates to President George W. Bush, 2/22/01]
Research Team Headed by William Neaves, President and CEO of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Debunks Claim That Adult Stem Cell Research Treats 65 Diseases – Only Nine Conditions Respond to Adult Stem Cell Treatment. “‘In fact, adult stem cell treatments fully tested in all required phases of clinical trials and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are available to treat only nine of the conditions on the Prentice list, not 65,’ Neaves` team wrote. ‘Most of his cited treatments remain unproven and await clinical validation. Other claims, such as those for Parkinson`s or spinal cord injury, are simply untenable.’” [(Review of research originally appearing in Science), UPI, 7/14/06]
Ruth Faden and John Gearhard of Johns Hopkins University Say the Science is Unequivocal—Non-Embryonic Sources of Stem Cells Have Nowhere Near the Potential of Embryonic Stem Cells. “As much as we might wish it to be otherwise, no non-embryonic sources of stem cells – not stem cells from cord blood or from any ‘adult’ sources – have been shown to have anything like the potential to lead us to viable treatments for such diseases as juvenile diabetes, Parkinson’s and spinal cord injury that stem cells derived from very early embryos do. The science here is unequivocal: Access to embryonic stem cell lines is essential to rapid progress in stem cell research.” [Ruth Faden and John Gearhard of Johns Hopkins University, Washington Post, 8/23/04]
National Academies of Science Says Embryonic Stem Cell Research Is Needed to Advance Regenerative Medicine. The National Academies of Science has said that research on both embryonic and adult stem cells is needed “to most efficiently advance the scientific and therapeutic potential of regenerative medicine” and recommended that “research on both adult and embryonic human stem cells should be pursued.” [NAS, 2002]