Sam Brownback: “This is an op-ed piece in the Washington Post. David Shaywitz put it in, in 2005. While stem cell advocates have helped…”

“This is an op-ed piece in the Washington Post. David Shaywitz put it in, in 2005. While stem cell advocates have helped voters connect stem cell research with compelling images of patients who might one day benefit from treatments, such therapies are unlikely to emerge soon enough to benefit most current proponents. . . . . . . scientists must do a better job of articulating the limitations of our existing knowledge, taking care to emphasize not only the ultimate therapeutic potential of these cells, but also how far we are from achieving such therapies. That is from scientists who support embryonic stem cell research. Let's be clear what we are talking about in this particular field. Now I want to talk about the pluripotent nature of adult stem cells. Here, Dr. Coburn, Dr. Frist, and others would be better qualified, obviously, than I could ever dream of being about this topic, but this has been raised for some period of time. The theory has gone, embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, they can form any type of cells. Adult stem cells cannot. Their plasticity is insufficient for them to be able to form other types of cells. I simply point to this chart, listing 16 peer-reviewed studies showing alternative sources of pluripotent stem cells other than embryonic stem cells, and almost all of these are out of adult stem cells--pluripotency. I urge my colleagues, the science has moved quite rapidly on this. I hope we can get up to speed with where the science is on this.…”