By now you've probably heard that scientists have discovered an elegant way to create the equivalent of embryonic stem cells (ECS) without having to create — and destroy — embryos. They just reprogram some skin cells and, voila, bypass all the controversial stuff. The long-promised miracle cures are still a long way off, if they're coming at all, and ECS research still has its boosters, but it seems pretty clear that stem cells have been decoupled from the abortion wars.
Still, there has been one amazing breakthrough. Thanks to stem cells, journalists are finally growing backbones.
At the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Ron Reagan Jr., the acclaimed dog show emcee, tried his hand at being an infomercial snake oil barker. "I am here tonight to talk about the issue of research into what may be the greatest breakthrough in our or any lifetime: the use of embryonic stem cells," Reagan announced. After listing numerous diseases and injuries it could cure, Reagan delivered the pitch: "How'd you like to have your own personal biological repair kit standing by at the hospital? Sound like magic? Welcome to the future of medicine."
"Wait! There's more! Order your Biological Repair Kit in the next seven minutes, by voting 1-800-D-E-M-
Reagan wasn't alone, either. Then-vice presidential candidate John Edwards proclaimed in 2004, "If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk, get up out of that wheelchair and walk again."
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., outraged by conservatives seeking to inject religion into politics, nonetheless proclaimed: "Mr. Speaker, the National Institutes of Health and Science hold the biblical power of a cure for us."
When President Bush was grappling with embryonic stem cell research in 2001, Newsweek's science correspondent, Sharon Begley, warned in a cover story that this might be "a cruel blow to millions of patients for whom embryonic stem cells might offer the last chance for health and life."
In the current issue of Newsweek, Begley now tells us that the technology was always oversold. The notion that stem cells will lead to quick cures and transplants is "more fiction than fact."
The New York Times, in the words of Yuval Levin, formerly of the President's Bioethics Council, "has been tenaciously partisan and frankly dishonest in its advocacy for embryo-destructive research in the past decade." The Times almost never used the word "cloning" and downplayed the risks to women who donated eggs. Now, it points out to readers that not only did the old method have considerable drawbacks, but that the task of delivering cures and therapies remains "daunting." But, as Levin writes at Commentarymagazine.
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