Stem Cell Alternatives Bring Skepticism

Chicago1871 · Jul 12, 2005

Stem Cell Alternatives Bring Skepticism

WASHINGTON - Senators who want the public to pay for human embryonic stem cell studies are giving a skeptical hearing to scientists studying unproven but less controversial methods.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said any legislation to pay for theoretical alternatives is a ploy by the White House to sink his bill, which would lift
President Bush's restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Bush and many conservatives say such studies are immoral because the process destroys the embryo.

Harkin countered that paying for less-proven alternatives isn't right either.

"The method we're discussing today hasn't been published in a single scientific journal. It hasn't even cleared the peer review process. What's more, it's only been tried in mice. We're a long way from proving it works with human embryos," Harkin said in prepared remarks.

The scientists' methods got no friendlier reception from Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the Republican chairman of the committee holding Tuesday's hearing. Specter, a cancer patient, said in an interview that he is growing impatient with the delay in studies on the all-purpose cells, considered by some to carry great promise in the search for cures of diseases like cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

"I think it's time that a little hell was raised about this subject," Specter said.

That time arrives when he gavels open the Senate's first hearing on a bill to lift the restrictions, according to Specter.
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MattR · Jul 12, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/10/h...=2125ee31b61fc4b4&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

I think we should sink another couple of billion on this one...

The 'Placebo Effect'

Since 2000, at least 10 studies of intercessory prayer have been carried out by researchers at institutions including the Mind/Body Medical Institute, a nonprofit clinic near Boston run by a Harvard-trained cardiologist, as well as Duke University and the University of Washington. Government financing of intercessory prayer research began in the mid-1990's and has continued under the Bush administration.
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