Debi Vinnedge, Executive Director
Children of God for Life
https://www.cogforlife.org
Brochure Release Date: November 2012

What Exactly is a Stem Cell?

Stem cells are base cells that develop into mature cells, tissues and organs in the human body.  They begin forming at the moment of fertilization and have the ability to self-replicate indefinitely while maintaining their specific design. 

At the “adult” or “mature” stage they are unique to the type of tissue or organ in which they reside, ie, liver, pancreas bone marrow, heart, brain or skin. 

At the embryonic stage, they are known as “undifferentiated” cells, meaning they have not yet become a specific cell type.  Because of this, scientists believe embryonic stem cells can be “coaxed” to become virtually any type of cell and therefore might be used as replacement cells and tissues to treat virtually any type of human malady. 

However, there are serious drawbacks to using embryonic cells, the first of which is a moral one.  In order to extract these stem cells, the embryo will be deliberately destroyed in the process.  And from a clinical standpoint, because of their so-called “versatility”, embryonic stem cells are also very unstable and difficult to control. 

Instead of providing any sort of useful treatments or cures for patients, they form carcinogenic tumors and teratomas when implanted. 

Where Do They Get These Embryos?  

Most of the embryos scientists want to use are those that are “left-over” from In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) clinics.  Embryos can also be produced using various cloning methods.

Types of Stem Cells

Totipotent Stem Cells
Found only in early embryos, these cells can form all cells, tissues and organs in the body and they can also form entirely new embryos.
Pluripotent Stem Cells
From the early embryonic through the fetal stage (beyond 8 weeks development), these cells can form all cells, tissues and organs but they cannot form new embryos.
Multipotent Stem Cells
Found from the fetal stage through adulthood these cells can form most of the cells, tissues and organs in the human body but they cannot form new embryos.

Totipotent Implications
Since totipotent cells can form entirely new embryos by natural or forced “twinning” of themselves, scientists can produce multiple embryos from these cells.  This is commonly done in IVF clinics. 

Adult Stem Cell Sources
Adult or “mature” stem cells are found in a number of organs and tissues – retina, cornea, baby teeth, heart, liver, skin, bone marrow, fat, blood and cord blood to name a few!

Placenta Core Blood
After birth, parents are opting to save or donate their baby’s cord blood for future medical treatments.  Just one milliliter contains 100,00 stem cells; 5 milliliters is enough to treat one patient. 

Each placenta and umbilical cord will yield an average of 75 milliliters of cord blood.  The unique composition of cord blood makes it possible to perform cord blood transplants without an exact match between the donor and patient. 

Real Applications: Adult Stem Cells 

Autism – reversed in Germany, May 2009; bone marrow was used to repair patient’s neural cells.

Blindness – New South Wales, using corneal cells cultured on contact lenses eyesight was restored.

Brain Injury – Developmental Problems in children have been cuyred with donor cord blood.

Heart Disease – Multiple patients cured using bone marrow stem cells to repair damaged heart tissue, valves and blood pumping cells.

Paralysis – Erica Nader paralyzed from the upper arms down in a car accident, was successfully treated using stem cells from her nose that were implanted in the spinal cord.

Other Notable Cures:

Treatments for Breast Cancer, Lymphoma, Sickle Cell Anemia, Heart Disease, Stroke, MS, Diabetes, Leukemia, Parkinson’s,  Ovarian Tumors, Spinal Cord Injury, Auto-immune Disorders, Peripheral Artery Disease, Scleroderma, Liver disease – are only a handful of adult stem cell success stories!  Unlike embryonic stem cells which have failed to yield any positive results, over 70 diseases in over three thousand patients have been successfully treated and cured with adult stem cells.

So Why Use Embryos At All?

In a word, money.  Patients, university funding for research programs, the creation of jobs for research; these are just a few of the political reasons – not to mention of course, the insatiable desire to perform human cloning – yield an unlimited supply of human subjects for research.

For more information on Children of God for Life, please visit: https://www.cogforlife.org