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The Threshold of Judgment : Embryonic Stem Cell

| mon, march 9, 2009 |
 

 I began my studies this morning in Revelation chapter 3, I felt compelled by the Holy Spirit to pray about the decision today our current president will be making. Below is an excerpt from Bloomberg.com.

 

March 7 (Bloomberg) – President Barack Obama’s expected reversal of an 8-year-old restriction on U.S. funding for embryonic stem cell research has excited scientists and health advocates who say the action will accelerate the search for cures to major illness.

 

Obama plans to lift the funding ban, imposed by former President George W. Bush, in a March 9 signing ceremony, said two government officials, who spoke yesterday on condition of anonymity. Bush objected to the use of the tissue because the process caused the destruction of human embryos.

 

The change will free federally backed scientists to work with hundreds of newer cell colonies that have been off-limits under Bush’s order, including some that carry genetic mutations causing diseases such as juvenile diabetes and Huntington’s. If scientists can study these cells using U.S. government funding, it will speed research into those conditions, said Larry Soler, executive vice president of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

 

The expected shift will “update the current policy, which has been frozen in place since 2001 and allow broad use of new technologies discovered over the last eight years,” Soler said yesterday in a telephone interview. “For 30 million Americans with some form of diabetes, stem cell research offers a possibility to develop new treatments.”

[End of excerpt]  

The next excerpt that follows from Sky News has a key note at the end, catch what will guide the Obama administration.

The latest reversal of controversial policies, implemented by the last administration, is expected to be announced today. 

The long-promised move, coming nearly two months into his term, will allow a rush of research aimed at better treatment, if not cures, for ailments from diabetes to paralysis.

 

The research stirs intense controversy over whether government crosses a moral line with such research.

 

Embryonic stem cells are master cells that can morph into any cell of the body.

 

Scientists hope to harness them so they can create replacement tissues to treat a variety of diseases.

 

These could be new insulin-producing cells for diabetics, cells that could help those with Parkinson’s disease or maybe even Alzheimer’s, or new nerve connections to restore movement after spinal injury.

 

But the research is controversial because days-old embryos must be destroyed to obtain the cells.

 

They typically are culled from fertility-clinic leftovers otherwise destined to be thrown away.

 

Former President George W. Bush banned their use. He and his supporters said they were defending human life.

 

Mr Obama also plans to make a broad declaration that science – not political ideology – will guide his administration.

[End of excerpt]  (Italics mine)

These are a list of basic questions listed on a government funded website, link is below.

 

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Basic Questions of stem cells

 

What are human embryonic stem cells?

Stem cells are cells that have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body. Serving as a sort of repair system for the body, they can theoretically divide without limit to replenish other cells for as long as the person or animal is still alive. When a stem cell divides, each "daughter" cell has the potential to either remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell.

 

What classes of stem cells are there?

There are three classes of stem cells: totipotent, multipotent, and pluripotent.

 

A fertilized egg is considered totipotent, meaning that its potential is total; it gives rise to all the different types of cells in the body.

Stem cells that can give rise to a small number of different cell types are generally called multipotent.

Pluripotent stem cells can give rise to any type of cell in the body except those needed to develop a fetus.

Where do stem cells come from?

Pluripotent stem cells are isolated from human embryos that are a few days old. Cells from these embryos can be used to create pluripotent stem cell "lines" —cell cultures that can be grown indefinitely in the laboratory. Pluripotent stem cell lines have also been developed from fetal tissue obtained from fetal tissue (older than 8 weeks of development).

 

Why do scientists want to use stem cell lines?

Once a stem cell line is established from a cell in the body, it is essentially immortal, no matter how it was derived. That is, the researcher using the line will not have to go through the rigorous procedure necessary to isolate stem cells again. Once established, a cell line can be grown in the laboratory indefinitely and cells may be frozen for storage or distribution to other researchers.

 

Stem cell lines grown in the lab provide scientists with the opportunity to "engineer" them for use in transplantation or treatment of diseases. For example, before scientists can use any type of tissue, organ, or cell for transplantation, they must overcome attempts by a patient's immune system to reject the transplant. In the future, scientists may be able to modify human stem cell lines in the laboratory by using gene therapy or other techniques to overcome this immune rejection. Scientists might also be able to replace damaged genes or add new genes to stem cells in order to give them characteristics that can ultimately treat diseases.

 

The FAQ above can be found at http://stemcells.nih.gov/StemCells.

 

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Isaiah 49:15

 

What is most disturbing in the research of stem cells is the loss of life associated with harvesting. A fertilized egg is the very begin of life, human embryos just a few days old, whether grow in a mother, test tube, or in any other “controlled environment” is still a human life. To grow or initiate life for the intention of killing it to reap stem cells is an atrocity comparable to Hitler and his research, and truthful even as evil as Hitler was, this evil is greater.

 

Man is not a god, nor will man ever be GOD. To take life and disregard the sanctity of life so that man can engineer cells for the purpose of good is ironically an oxymoron. Killing one to save another is hardly admirable.

 

I am only capable of scratching the surface of such an issue as this, but all that has to be known is the lives that are lost, the moral issue of growing life just to harvest the vital cells and then disregarding the fetal body once the stem cells are acquired, and the complete lack of respect for God’s code of moral conduct is the greatest issue that stands between me and the issue of stem cell research.

 

Today our dear leader will announce He is lifting bans put in place by former president George W. Bush, allowing the science community in the very near future to expand the already heinous process of killing more babies in the name of science.  This act will further the call of America’s destruction.

 

America is already the leading researcher in the field of stem cell harvesting and soon it will pioneer the way. God save us….

 

Mr. Obama also plans to make a broad declaration that science - not political ideology - will guide his administration. What happened to God leading the ideology of his great administration, I believe we have already seen the products of an administration lead by the ignorance of pride and not of Godly conviction. A man relying on science instead of the Creator, if continued, this man will surely fail.

 

I am asking for all who have a conviction about the sanctity of human life to pray today with www.prayersforthepeople.com and all of the others who are against such horrific research. Let us pray that the policies sought after will be blocked, that if necessary God Almighty will block this research from moving forward, and that Obama would have a change of heart and follow the I AM and not science for his ideologies.

 

Today at 10:40 eastern time the declaration to move forward in the research will be proclaimed. Don’t be surprised if the coming days hold a response from the Almighty.  God forgive us….

 

 Threshold : The point that must be exceeded to begin producing a given effect or result or to elicit a response.

 

Judgment : a misfortune regarded as inflicted by divine sentence, as for sin.

 

In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit. Zephaniah 1:9


The threshold of judgment will soon be crossed, be prepared, seek GOD, and let us repent.

God Bless, daniel