"If paralyzed people are ever going to walk again, it might be because of the scientist in this story. His name is Dr. Hans Keirstead and he has made great strides using human embryonic stem cells. He is among the best and the brightest in his field - a field that shows enormous promise, but has been restricted by a ban on federal funding for research because it involves the destruction of human embryos. To move the science forward, California allocated its own money to pay for stem cell research, luring some of the top scientists in the nation, who are doing cutting edge work that could change the way we treat disease.If you missed 60 Minutes last night you missed a very interesting segment on the exciting progress being made in human embryonic stem cell research. In spite of the narrow-minded foresight of far-right Republicans, led by George W. Bush, hES research is making great strides in developing cures for paralysis, heart disease and other fatal diseases. Scientists like Dr. Keirstead are making these wonderful discoveries in this research but they are still hampered by as I said in the post yesterday on this subject, the Luddite-type of thinking coming from extremists on the right. Fortunately, and as usual, the state of California has broken away from the rest and invested their own money, basically telling Bush and the federal government to go to hell, and they will lead the country to successes that will benefit everyone. People like George Bush and the 33% of his followers who oppose hES research, who aren't sophisticated enough to figure out that something the size of the period at the end of this sentence isn't a 'baby', have absolutely no business deciding what's best for the rest of us. They should just shut-up, go stand in the corner, do some chanting, and allow this scientific break-through to some day save their narrow-minded asses and possibly their children and grandchildrens' lives, too. If you have some time and you didn't see 60 Minutes last night, check out the transcript and video here.
