Stem Cell Research, Assumptions, and Getting a Grip

All stem cell research is important, and should be in the news.

I'll get back to that, after reminiscing about the 'good old days.' There's a connection.

The 'Good Old Days' - Weren't

I remember the 'good old days,' when many 'regular Americans' saw the world as one big battleground between dirty communists and America. It wasn't an entirely simplistic world view. These folks sometimes went after Americans they thought were commie sympathizers, and that's another topic.

Don't get me wrong: I like living in America. I think there's a reason that folks are trying to break into this country. I also think that communist leaders have a far-from-unblemished record; and that no country or system of government is even close to being perfect.¹

Stem Cell Research

"Critic points out media bias against adult stem cells"
Marianne Medlin, CNA (Catholic News Agency) (November 25, 2011)

"After researchers in California called off a major U.S. embryonic stem cell study, a legal expert says that most major news outlets have given zero coverage to the far superior benefits of adult stem cells.

" 'Since embryonic stem cells were first derived, the media has told a materially unbalanced story,' said Wesley J. Smith, a lawyer and senior fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism.

"Smith said in a Nov. 23 interview with CNA that successful adult stem cell clinical trials 'have either been ignored totally, or generally underplayed as story after story has claimed adult approaches offer more limited benefits than embryonic.'..."

I don't know why old-school journalists don't seem to know about research or applications involving adult stem cells.

Maybe there's a deliberate effort to make 'the Masses' believe that:

• Life-saving medical research depends on embryonic stem cells
• Abortion centers provide a steady stream of dead "embryos"
• Any opposition to abortion, therefore, is
  • Anti-science
  • Anti-medicine
  • Anti-woman
  • And pretty much icky

Or maybe traditional American journalists simply never imagined that adult stem cells were useful. After all, the 'right' folks keep telling journalists about embryonic stem cells: and adult stem cells are what Catholics and other outsiders talk about.

Assumptions

I think it's very easy for folks to believe that what 'everybody knows' is true. Particularly when 'everybody' is a relatively small, somewhat insulated, set of friends and acquaintances. Or when 'everybody' is part of a majority that also has a great deal of economic, social, and political power.

Back in the 'good old days,' when America was more of a WASP nest than it is now, I think quite a few folks took chauvinistic patriotism at least somewhat seriously.

That was then, this is now. The folks who hold the reins in today's America aren't any more solidly attached to reality as the Frank Burns types, and I've been over this before.²

Getting a Grip

I could rant about 'those Satanic people over there,' and how we must do anything it takes to end abortion now.

The end justifies the means, right?

Wrong!

" 'An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention' (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Dec. praec. 6). The end does not justify the means." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1759)

The Catholic Church thinks truth is important. (Catechism, 2464-2503)

We're also told that lying is wrong. (Catechism, 2482-2486)

Following the 'but he started it' principle, I could decide start using the same sort of hype as old-school news media. But lying, or distorting truth, is against the rules: and that's a topic for another post.

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Updated (November 28, 2011, 9:03 PM)

I wrote about lies, distortions, and rules, here:

• "Lie and Hype for a Good Cause?!"
  (November 28, 2011)

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Related posts:

• "My Take on the News: Stem Cells, Science, and 'The Man with the X-Ray Eyes' "
  (November 18, 2011)
  Particularly
  • Stem Cells, Business, and the Vatican
    (Vatican-NeoStem commercial agreement)
• "Is it Wrong to Kill One Person on the Chance that Someone Else Might Benefit?"
  (August 30, 2010)
• "Stem Cell Research in the News: My Take"
  (August 23, 2010)
• "Stem Cell Research: Backed by the Vatican, No Kidding"
  (April 28, 2010)
• "Stem Cell Research: Change Some of Us Won't Live With"
  (March 9, 2009)

In the news:

• "Critic points out media bias against adult stem cells"
  Marianne Medlin, CNA (Catholic News Agency) (November 25, 2011)

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¹ I've discussed cultural biases and blind spots, past and present, before:

• "President Lech Kaczynski's Undelivered Speech: and a Lesson to Learn"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (April 18, 2010)
• "Being Counter-Cultural: I am Not Now, Nor Have I Ever Been, a Hippie"
  (January 12, 2010)
• "Fear of Right-Wing Extremism: Commie-Hunting in Reverse"
  (April 19, 2009)
• "Moral Equivalence, Prisoners, and Al Qaeda"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (July 21, 2007)

² Insularity may be easier to maintain with relatively small groups who are physically isolated from the rest of the world. Folks whose world is urban American aren't immune, though. And those who live in an insular subculture and control traditional information media may be particularly resistant to unfamiliar ideas:

• "Small Town Hicks and Sophisticated Urbanites: A Reality Check"
  (November 9, 2009)
• "What is an Information Gatekeeper?"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (August 14, 2009)
• "The New York Times, Insularity, and Assumptions"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (October 21, 2008)