Another sign that the political side of stem cell research is heating up: another active advocacy group specifically formed to attempt to ensure that pro-research politicians are elected:

Millions of people who live with life-threatening conditions look to embryonic stem cell research as their greatest hope for a cure, but this research has been sharply curtailed and could be halted.

CASCR supports those candidates for federal office who believe in the freedom to conduct this potentially lifesaving research. We accomplish this through the use of independent expenditures to let you know where the canidates stand.

The chances are good that a member of your family, a good friend or even you may be faced with a disease or injury that is fatal or progressively debilitating. The only cure may be a stem cell transplant. But, you may not have that option. If the policy set in place by President George W. Bush, preventing the production of new embryonic stem cell lines, remains the law, such research will continue to be severely limited and could be halted in the US.

Scientists believe that embryonic stem cell therapy is the best potential treatment for many currently incurable diseases, such as cancer; degenerative neurological disorders like Parkinson’s, Muscular Dystrophy and Multiple Sclerosis; autoimmune diseases like Type 1 Diabetes and Lupus; and Sickle Cell Anemia, as well as spinal cord injury and organ regeneration. The procedure, know as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), inserts the patient’s own DNA into a donor egg in order to create stem cells which could potentially eliminate rejection as an issue in many circumstances. The magic of these cells is that they can be stimulated to develop into any type of cell in the body.

The Committee for the Advancement of Stem Cell Research is a 527 political committee organization that will run independent political advertising on this issue during the current election. This website is designed to help the concerned voter make an informed choice on the issue by education and endorsements of candidates for federal office.

CASCR seems to be a more political version of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, and is much more likely to be the product of a lobbyist group - who may or may not be primarily interested in stem cell medicine - rather than a true grassroots organization.

All this money going to lobbying could be much more productively spent in a society with a smaller, less intrusive, less regulatory government. So much is wasted because this present winner-takes-all system allows the politicians to exercise enormous control over what should be private decisions and contracts. We wind up with competing gangs of looters fighting over the spoils. You could cure a disease with the money spent on power struggles during a US election cycle...

Posted by Reason at July 19, 2004 12:18 PM | TrackBack (0)