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The Breeze - Opinion Issue: 11/8/04 _____ Will we ever learn? By Michelle Meyer Americans, for the most part, are a bunch of lemmings. We follow. The new girl has a Louie Vaton bag, we want one; the guy at the gym has 45 in. biceps, we start pumping; Joey's daddy got him an '05 Mustang, and that's just not fair. It's in our culture. If we can slap a band-aid on a problem and make it invisible, it'll be all right - as far as we care. The subject doesn't matter as long as we feel better - be it about ourselves or the world. How sad. Well, at least we're not discriminate about our cultural apathy. Take voting for instance. How many of us cared enough about our county, and the way it's run, to take the time to read up on the candidates. Some did, maybe. How about the props? Thought so. Prop 71: government funding for stem cell research. And away go the lemmings. Have a nice trip. News flash, boys and girls. Just because Christopher Reeve was in favor of something doesn't mean the rest of us have to follow suit. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not against stem cell re-search. I happen to think there are many good and necessary things that stem cell research can accomplish, has accomplished and will accomplish. Adult stem cell research has helped patients with diseases like lupus, multiple sclerosis and sickle cell. Adult stem cells are taken from the patient they will help. Those cells are treated and then re-introduced into the body, which can result in improvements in spinal cord injuries, gangrene, heart damage, even some forms of cancer. Embryonic stem cell research is another story. This type of stem cell research has produced no results. That's right, nada, not a one. Now, we should be asking ourselves, why, if there are no good results, is embryonic stem cell research promoted over the adult version? Very good question. I want the answer to that one myself. Researchers say that embryonic stem cells are better because they can more easily adapt to whatever part of the body they are needed for. Sounds like a good reason, right? Maybe in theory. In practice, however, embryonic stem cells are generally rejected by the body - and that's a good scenario. Embryonic stem cells have also been known to cause tumors. So, scientifically adult stem cells seem to be more promising than embryonic cells, right? Maybe it's just me. What exactly is an embryonic stem cell? Embryonic stem cells are harvested from living human embryos. Usually those embryos are between five and seven days old. Let's take a moment to remember back to that sex-ed class we were forced to sit through. What is the necessary ingredient to fertilize an egg? Very good - sperm. Whether it's in a petri dish or otherwise, when these two things come together, life is created. Yes, I said life. This translates embryonic stem cell research to murder. Yes, I said murder. We can debate when life begins until we are blue in the face, but when the research-ers say they need samples from live em-bryos, that's more than enough for me. I personally don't see how you can call something live but not alive. Again, maybe it's just me. Let's re-view. Adult stem cells have helped numerous people with a wide variety of illnesses, they are taken from the person who will receive the treatment, and-most importantly-the patient lives after the extraction. Embryonic stem cells have helped a grand total of zero, are usually rejected, can cause tumors, and the donor cannot live through the procedure. Seems like a no-brainer. And that's not all. Prop 71 denies funding for adult stem cell research. So not only are we forced to take the life of embryos, we also can't use any of the funding for the research that shows the most promise. Why did we pass it then? Greedy politicians knew that we would believe anything they said because we don't like to have to think for ourselves. Seriously. Did we hear anything about the three billion in funding ballooning out to six billion over the course of the next 30 years because of interest? Or how about the fact that we couldn't get out the program if we wanted to because it amends the constitution? Of course not. We bought the lie - hook, line and sinker - and it's too late now. People, I hope we've learned our lesson. We have to think for ourselves. We need to know what we feel and how we believe. A little bit of research on our parts could easily have saved this state six billion dollars. What will it be next time? _____ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn