Weekly Pulse: Stem Cell Hell, Bad Eggs, and DIY Abortions

by: The Media Consortium

Wed Aug 25, 2010 at 13:01

by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that all federally funded human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research is illegal, thereby throwing the scientific community into turmoil. The judge decided that any experiments on these cells is research "in which a human embryo is to be harmed or destroyed," and is therefore disqualified for federal funding under an obscure provision known as the Dickey Amendment. Researchers called the ruling "absolutely devastating."

The ruling flies in the face of science and logic. True, a human embryo must be destroyed in order to create a line of stem  cells. However, once the line is established, the cells will keep  dividing forever. In nature, stem cells have the potential to develop into any kind of specialized cell in the body. There are no guarantees, but in theory, stem cell research could lead to treatments for anything from severe burns to heart failure to blindness.

The lineage of stem cells

The first line of human embryonic stem cells was  created in 1998.  In 2001, President George W. Bush banned federal funds for research on  stem cells created after Aug. 9, 2001. Even Bush acknowledged using old  stem cell lines wasn't destroying embryos. In 2009, President Barack  Obama loosened the rules for funding human embryonic stem cell research.  Under Obama's rules, researchers can't use federal funds to create new  hESC lines, but they can study stem cell lines of any age, not just the  ones created before 2001.

According to the judge's logic, a scientist is destroying an embryo when  she tests a drug on an embryonic stem cell that is the  great-great-great-granddaughter of a cell that belonged to a 5-celled embryo  that was destroyed in 1998. Hundreds of scientists all over the  world might be working with cells from that embryo at this very moment.  According to the judge, each of them is destroying an embryo that ceased  to exist 12 years ago. So, every day, they all get up, go to work and destroy the same non-existent embryo? What happens when come back from a coffee break? Do they destroy it again?

Ignoring the facts

"We strongly disagree with the judge's ruling because, by definition,  embryos and stem cells are two entirely different organisms. Today's  ruling is the case of one judge ignoring the scientific fact that  research on pluripotent stem cells is not the same as research on an  embryo," Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) said in a strongly-worded reaction to Monday's ruling. DeGette is a longtime champion of stem cell research, according to Scot Kersgaard of the Colorado Independent.

Lynda Waddington of the Iowa Independent asked officials of at the University of Iowa, a center of excellence in stem cell research, how the ruling might affect their work. The officials declined to comment, saying that they were still reviewing the implications of the injunction. The Obama administration announced that it would appeal the judge's ruling.

What's next? Bioethicist Arthur Caplan told Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! that the only way to get hESC back on a firm legal footing would be to abolish the Dickey Amendment. Dickey needs to go, but the judge's latest appeal to Dickey is extremely weak. The notion that studying a 1-day-old cell descended from an embryo destroyed 12 years ago is harming that embryo is absurd. Of course, getting rid of Dickey would also open the door for federal funds to create new stem cell lines, which would be a boon to society in its own right.

Bad eggs

Half a billion eggs have been recalled because they may be tainted with deadly salmonella bacteria. The eggs may have already sickened thousands of people. Democracy Now! reports that the entire batch can be traced to just two factory farms in Iowa, Hillandale Farms and Wright County Egg. This is the largest egg recall in U.S. history. Critics say the mass contamination exposes deeper failures in the U.S. food system.

Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly notes that Wright County Egg's parent firm has a rap sheet of health, safety, and labor violations stretching back two decades. However, Benen argues, the problem is deeper than one poorly inspected operation.

After the outbreak, former FDA Commissioner William Hubbard admitted in an interview that the George W. Bush White House would not let the FDA impose tougher standards on the egg industry because the administration was "very hostile to regulation." If the Invisible Hand of the Market tries to make you breakfast, don't eat it!

Back alley abortions are back

More women are inducing their own abortions with a drug called misoprostol, Robin Marty reports at RH Reality Check. Misoprostol, aka "Cytotec," is usually prescribed to treat ulcers. Doctors use it in combination with the so-called "abortion pill" RU-486 to induce chemical abortions, but only under controlled conditions.

Misoprostol is a prescription drug in the U.S., but it is available over the counter in many other countries. Some women misuse misoprostol that is prescribed for other conditions, some buy it on the black market, and some have families send it from overseas. Unsupervised misoprostol abortions are risky because about 10%-15% of the time, the drug will start the process but not finish the job. If that happens the woman is at risk for bleeding, infections, and other complications.

The anti-choice movement has campaigned for decades to throw obstacles in the path of women seeking abortions. The longstanding ban on federal funding for abortion means that many poor, uninsured women are stuck paying the costs of an abortion out of pocket. Even a few hundred dollars for the procedure and the cost of transportation to the nearest abortion clinic may be beyond the reach of many women. It's not surprising that these women are taking matters into their own hands.

Thanks to the machinations of anti-choicers and the compromises of the Obama administration, health care reform will provide little relief for women who can't afford abortions.

This post features links to the best independent, progressive   reporting about health care by members of The Media Consortium.  It  is free to reprint. Visit the Pulse for  a complete list of articles on health care reform, or follow us on  Twitter. And for the best   progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care  and  immigration issues, check out The Audit,  The Mulch,   and The   Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of  leading independent media outlets.

Congresswoman Diana DeGette Talks About Her Letter & Blocking The Stupak Amendment

by: Paul Rosenberg

Sat Nov 14, 2009 at 10:00

Open Left: As co-chair of the Pro-Choice Caucus, what's your explanation of how Stupak-Pitts caught people by surprise?

Congresswoman Diana DeGette: What happened was Bart really moved the goal post, because in the Energy and Commerce Committee in the summer he offered several of his amendments and we defeated all of them. So after that he said that he demendad that the Speaker allow him to offer his amendment on the floor, although he wasn't clear which one.  When the bill came up and he said that if he was not allowed to offer his amendment, then he would have 40 votes against the rule.  So we went out and very industriously got enough votes to pass the rule.  And so the Speaker said, 'You know we've got the votes to pass the rule. So I'm not going to support your amendment being in order.'

Then he said, this was like last Thursday or Friday, at the 11th hour, she said 'We've got the votes the votes for the rule, and it's not going to be in order,' and he said, 'Well, fine, if you don't include my amendment in the rule to bring the bill to the floor, then we're all going to vote against the bill.  So he sifted the goal post.  And what happened was-and the way it would have worked is that his language would have been a part of the rule to bring the bill to the floor, so all of us would have had to vote for it. We would have all had to vote for the biggest expansion of retrictins on a woman's right to choose in our lifetime.

Open Left: Was it just that he had never indicated that he might do that before and people just weren't expecting it, or...

Congresswoman DeGette: Right. Right. No, no, I mean, he's a Democrat, so we did what we needed to do and then he shifted, so he had never threatened to do that before.  And so then the Speaker said to him, she said 'We're not going to give you your amendment in the rule.  He said, 'Fine, we're just going to vote against the bill.'  

I saw too, she was looking at the votes she had for final passage, and if they didn't vote for it, the bill would have died.  So she said, 'Okay, I'll give you your amendment on the floor.'  Which the pro-choice caucus said, 'We're not going to vote for a rule that contains this awful language.'  And so when she said, 'I'll put it on the floor,' we said, 'Fine, we'll just fight against the amendment.'

I think a couple of things happened.  Number one, a lot of people did not realize that this wasn't just Hyde, because Congressman Stupak unto this day keeps saying he's just putting Hyde in there. But this is unprecedented, because now it says people with their own money-either in the exchange or the public option--cannot buy insurance policies that buy abortion. So that's a expansion.

Hyde says that no federal funding.  Somehow he thinks that if there's public money and private money, that then the private money's tainted by the public money. So, that's not in current law.  

Open Left: So do you believe that that confusion is what accounts for the margin that he was able to win on?

Weekly Pulse: Bristol Palin Calls Abstinence Unrealistic

by: The Media Consortium

Wed Feb 18, 2009 at 13:21

 By Lindsay Beyerstein, TMC MediaWire Blogger

“I think abstinence is, I don't know how to put it — like, the main — everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it's not realistic at all,” new mother Bristol Palin told Greta Van Susteren in an interview on Fox News (video below). Bristol's unwed, teenage pregnancy made headlines last year just as her mother, Gov. Sarah Palin, kicked off her vice presidential bid.