A dangerous combination of political and social ideology is determined to make embryonic stem cell research (SCR) succeed. In normal research, when Plan A (embryonic SCR) does not work and Plan B (adult SCR) does work and gives the results desired for Plan A, Plan B would attract the publicity, scientists, and financial support. Plan A would be abandoned.

The first problem is embryonic SCR has not produced any useful results. In fact, embryonic stem cell injections have produced subsequent malignant tumors in laboratory animals and humans. This has not been a problem with adult stem cells, which have the ability to turn off and stop growing. Embryonic stem cells do not appear to have this ability.

The second problem is embryonic SCR supporters have resorted to political action to force its funding. Such political pressure has been historically placed on science in totalitarian nations such as the Soviet Union.

The third problem is embryonic SCR destroys human life and, as such, is unethical and illegal. It violates US laws and international policies including The Nuremberg Code, the World Medical Association's Declaration of Helsinki, and the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

The fourth problem is embryonic SCR exploits women. Embryos may be required in numbers that fertility clinics cannot provide. If human cloning is done to produce embryonic stems cells, this will necessitate massive numbers of human eggs from volunteer and paid egg donors.

The fifth problem for embryonic SCR is adult SCR continues to show great promise and has successfully treated dozens of human diseases. More than 15,000 therapeutic adult stem cell procedures are performed each year in the US.

These facts are very inconvenient for the advocates of unsuccessful embryonic SCR. Accordingly, the positive results from adult SCR are minimized and even disparaged. We see little news of the thousands of leukemia patients who have survived after adult stem cell [bone marrow transplant] therapy.

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