Comments on: Fixing The Heart With Stem Cells

CBS News Exclusive: Using A Heart's Own Stem Cells To Heal Itself

[tautomer]

Stick to the article at hand.

[tautomer]

This article wasn't referring to embryonic stem cells. Which life did you think was destroyed by this therapy using the "heart's own stem cells"?

[armyoftwelve]

by indivthinker June 29, 2009 5:25 PM PDT
Try taking a bioethics class and you might actually learn something. Just because you have the capability to manipulate life does not make it the moral or ethical thing to do, especially when you have to destroy other human life to do it.

EXACTLY!!! Unfortunately, that point is lost on some posters, especially the one you were responding to.
This country NEVER impeded stem cell research! President Bush had his shortcomings but stem cell research wasn't one of them. Can anyone cite ONE major breakthrough using embryonic stem cells--even from the federally funded lines??? Nope, because there haven't been any. If embryonic stem cells were so promising private labs would have come up with SOMETHING over the past 8 years.

The only thing driving policy in the Obama regime is the need to throw red meat to the President's electoral base. Why bother with ethics when you can satisfy pro-abortion nutjobs?

[tautomer]

Similarly, we have no idea how much better of the world might be had YOUR ESCs been harvested, slowdude. Think of all those Special Ed dollars we would have saved!

[mollybenz]

Ken Milles is not the first person to get stem cells as I, along with about 100 others, got them into my heart muscle in 2/27/07 at Shans Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. It was a double blind stem cell research program conducted by Baxter Healthcare. I had cronic angina and now hardly ever have angina pain. I can now walk 2 miles or more, bike and I work out on weights at a gym 2 days per week. I am 76 and can do more that most my age and many years younger. Stem cells have definitely worked for me.

You should research your facts before presenting them.

John E. Benz
Goodlettsville, TN

[Samjia]

Dear Molly: That is a great post and I am happy to hear of your progress with the heart stem cell therapy and wish you much luck in the future. Adult stem cell therapy using one's own stem cells must be working for you and it will work for many thousands of people who are suffering from COPD, heart diseases, and many more.

[Samjia]

To John:

I suppose your not a doctor because you obviously are not up on the research and successes of stem cell transplantation and regrown organs in other countries.

In November 2008 a 30 yr old Spanish woman regained a whole windpipe after having tuberculosis, which had left her without being able to breath. The researchers and doctors in Barcelona took her stem cells and grew a new trachea, and replaced hers successfully. Now the woman can actually go up a flight of stairs and go dancing. She did not need rejection drugs for the rest of her life. From the sound of your argument you do not believe the body can repair itself although we come equipped with stem cells from birth. I find it strangely revealing that in the United States -there is much backward thinking on stem cell therapy and many are trying to prevent such research. These stem cells if you read the article above are "master cells" they can repair or replace organs and tissue in the body and are called autologus (self-growing) for a reason. I would much rather have that woman dancing than in a bed on an oxygen tank for the rest of her life, remember she was only 30 years of age, that would be over 50 or 60 years of medical care if she lived that long. I am sure you would rather see her alive that dead wouldn't you John?

These new developments will unfortunately, leave some people kicking and screaming in disbelief at the possibilities and success stories that are occurring all over the world. It is a pity that Americans have to travel out of the country to get these treatments because of the hold that the pharmaceutical companies and the corruption at the FDA will not allow cures for diseases -they would much rather prolong disease for profits. As the other countries surpass the US in research and breakthroughs it is because they are not financially tied to drug companies overseas.

I would much rather have the treatments the woman from Spain had-than to take harmful drugs that do nothing but damage the immune system.

I have to say I enjoyed your comment though....it made me laugh and reminded me of the barbaric "good old days" where they carve out your heart after breaking open your rib cage and patch up your heart with plastic parts only to have to do them over and over again until you croke. Just ask David Letterman.

[indivthinker]

"It's unthinkable that a modern soceity would willingly impede stem cell research.

Just another reason that Bush's attempted theocracy signaled the end of the Republican Party."
- by slownewsday_05 June 29, 2009 4:51 PM PDT

Try taking a bioethics class and you might actually learn something. Just because you have the capability to manipulate life does not make it the moral or ethical thing to do, especially when you have to destroy other human life to do it.

And before you call me a close-minded evangelical Christian, know that I graduated college with a degree in biology and now go to medical school, and I am a firm believer in evolution. I have spent hours and hours reflecting on bioethics, and I have probably given a lot more thought than someone like you who approves of anything so long as it is convenient to you and your beliefs. Give thought to that life which you are so easily willing to discard.

It is not acceptable to destroy innocent human life to postpone the death of other human life.

[tautomer]

This article wasn't referring to embryonic stem cells. Which life did you think was destroyed by this therapy using the "heart's own stem cells"?

[tautomer]

Stick to the article at hand.

[John_Merritt]

The more that you add to any surface might create a beneficial affect, but it also increases the overall tissue thickness where can create a greater burden to supply the oxygen and blood to that area over the long haul. It can cause a strain on the surrounding areas that require the same amount of oxygen and blood and increase or decrease the ventricular contractility, to name just a couple of things. Stem cell research is a great tool, but nothing beats preventative measures from the outset of life. Remember the area affected by stroke or heart attack is just a microcosm of the surrounding areas as well as the overall structure. sign me: not a physician but don't need to be one to make an opinion.

[Samjia]

To John:

I suppose your not a doctor because you obviously are not up on the research and successes of stem cell transplantation and regrown organs in other countries.

In November 2008 a 30 yr old Spanish woman regained a whole windpipe after having tuberculosis, which had left her without being able to breath. The researchers and doctors in Barcelona took her stem cells and grew a new trachea, and replaced hers successfully. Now the woman can actually go up a flight of stairs and go dancing. She did not need rejection drugs for the rest of her life. From the sound of your argument you do not believe the body can repair itself although we come equipped with stem cells from birth. I find it strangely revealing that in the United States -there is much backward thinking on stem cell therapy and many are trying to prevent such research. These stem cells if you read the article above are "master cells" they can repair or replace organs and tissue in the body and are called autologus (self-growing) for a reason. I would much rather have that woman dancing than in a bed on an oxygen tank for the rest of her life, remember she was only 30 years of age, that would be over 50 or 60 years of medical care if she lived that long. I am sure you would rather see her alive that dead wouldn't you John?

These new developments will unfortunately, leave some people kicking and screaming in disbelief at the possibilities and success stories that are occurring all over the world. It is a pity that Americans have to travel out of the country to get these treatments because of the hold that the pharmaceutical companies and the corruption at the FDA will not allow cures for diseases -they would much rather prolong disease for profits. As the other countries surpass the US in research and breakthroughs it is because they are not financially tied to drug companies overseas.

I would much rather have the treatments the woman from Spain had-than to take harmful drugs that do nothing but damage the immune system.

I have to say I enjoyed your comment though....it made me laugh and reminded me of the barbaric "good old days" where they carve out your heart after breaking open your rib cage and patch up your heart with plastic parts only to have to do them over and over again until you croke. Just ask David Letterman.

[skyk-2009]

Samjia, Well said and add to the the Cost to all of us keeping her under the kind of Medical Care that would be needed for that length of time. Some people in this nation simply are afraid of ANY change and ANYTHING they do not understand. That fear is fed for Profit by the Snake Oil Salesmen who run the American Taliban.