The Roman Catholic

For several months now we have been hearing of new uses of adult and umbilical stem cell therapies. Now we see (pun intended) an article that highlights the progress made in India using corneal adult stem cells. Fortune Magazine recently reported on this new technique that has been successfully used by Indian doctors to save the sight of numerous patients.

The Indian doctors’ ability to manipulate corneal stem cells to multiply efficiently enough to be transplanted onto the defective corneas of patients is a global success story as it has plagued scientists elsewhere. This is good news for the pro-life supporters who have been fighting against embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells have received tremendous amounts of funding from several governments for several years but have zilch to show for their success.

On the contrary, adult and umbilical stem cells have been utilized in several types of therapies. Yet such stem cell research doesn’t receive as much funding as embryonic types. It’s sad that those who lobby for embryonic stem cell research are blinded by irrationality. Any sane person can make a mathematical case for funding adult stem cell research simply based on the successes derived thus far.

If financiers and entrepreneurs were involved in such research, simple ROI calculations who indicate that money should be invested in areas where there is a track record of success. In management lingo we call this exploiting our strengths and limiting our weaknesses. However when politicians are involved in such decisions they tend to exploit weaknesses and limit strengths.

Any wonder why embryonic stem cell research hasn’t advanced?

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 25th, 2007 at 8:32 and is filed under Prolife. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.