Diabetes, stem cells and the Shaheens
Jeanne Shaheen’s grandaughter, Elle, has Type 1 diabetes. In the 2008 U.S. Senate campaign, Jeanne Shaheen used her grandaughter’s diabetes to bash Sen. John Sununu for his opposition to federal funding for stem cell research that would destroy human embryos (Sununu supported federal funding for all other types of stem cell research). Shaheen’s daughter Stefany, Elle’s mother, mentioned Elle’s diabetes when introducing Michael J. Fox at a campaign event last September. Fox was there to urge the spending of federal taxpayer money on stem cell research that would destroy embryos.
Yesterday, Stefany and Elle were at the signing ceremony when President Obama lifted President Bush’s executive order restricting federal funding to stem cell lines in which the embryos had already been destroyed as of Aug. 9, 2001.
The Shaheens have stated that Elle’s hope for a cure rests on federal taxpayer money being used to destroy human embryos. But that is completely untrue. And they certainly knew that.
In 2007, researchers CURED Type 1 Diabetes in more than a dozen patients by using the patients’ own stem cells, drawn from their blood, to basically reboot their immune systems. The researchers said that more experimentation was needed, but they thought a cure could be widely available within eight years.
So a year before candidate Shaheen used her grandaughter as a political tool, and nearly two years before Stefany Shaheen and her daughter thanked President Obama for allowing tax money to be used to destroy human embryos, a cure for diabetes might have been found — using adult stem cells.
Last month, scientists at Novocell announced that they had used human embryonic stem cells to control diabetes in mice. Note, that was weeks BEFORE Obama lifted the Bush compromise. Federal funding for embryo-destroying research was not involved in what might turn out to be another cure for Type 1 diabetes.
Also note that the embryonic stem cell cure has serious drawbacks, including the creation of tumors, not associated with the adult stem cell cure.
A stem-cell-based cure for diabetes is probably going to happen, maybe within the next decade. The research is tremendously promising. And the groundwork was laid without federal funding for embryo-destroying research, despite what the Shaheens have said.
“I can tell you there is nothing more personal than having the man who stole the election from your mother in 2002 be the one vote you needed and the person standing in the way of a cure for your daughter’s chronic disease,” Stefany Shaheen said in introducing Michael J. Fox at her mom’s campaign event last September — 17 months after researchers announced they had cured Type 1 diabetes in more than a dozen adults and children by using adult stem cells.
If the Shaheens want to use their family to advocate for more funding for stem cell research, I think few would argue with that choice. But to exploit a family disease in such a misleading way — to falsely claim that your opponent is “the person standing in the way of a cure for your daughter’s chronic disease” — is more than just dishonest. It’s repugnant.
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