Warner Todd Huston
A good, pro-life Hollywood story
By Warner Todd Huston
Here at the site we often take Hollywood to task for its outrageous liberalism, and rightfully so. Of course it's our job to look for the worst cases to alert you all about the nagging left-wing bias. But occasionally there are stories that are good ones and it is incumbent upon us to report those, too. This is one of those stories.
More often than not when we have stories out of Hollywood about life issues it is invariably a pro-abortion tale and in the case of scientific studies, it is usually some denizen of Tinseltown coming out forcefully for unethical fetal stem cell research. The destruction of life is de rigueur out there, unfortunately.
But not this time.
You might say that this celebrity has boldly gone where no Hollywooder has gone before. You also might wince at my horrible attempt at humor when you find out that we are here today to celebrate the efforts of Eugene W. Roddenberry Jr., the son of Gene Roddenberry the creator of Star Trek.
You see, in October the son of the "Great Bird of the Galaxy" donated $5 million to stem cell research. But, unlike so many of the Hollywood persuasion, this gift is not earmarked for fetal stem cell research. It is instead going to a facility that specializes in adult stem cell research.
The generous donation from the Roddenberry Foundation was bestowed upon The Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, an independent research institute which is associated with the University of California, San Francisco.
As reported by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the Roddenberry gift will, "expand these existing areas of expertise among Gladstone scientists by creating the Roddenberry Center for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine — named after Gene Roddenberry, who created Star Trek."
One of the notable scientists at Gladstone is Shinya Yamanaka, M.D., Ph.D., who is pursuing research into reprogramming adult cells into embryonic stem cells.
Why is all this so notable? Because this is essentially a pro-life pursuit instead of one of those usual, liberal anti-life efforts. After all fetal stem cell research has proven ineffective in the many years it has been pursued — no advances in medicine have been credited to fetal stem cells in the last 20 years — but many of the far left are married to it regardless. Worse, fetal stem cell research is highly controversial as human embryos are necessarily destroyed in the effort. This raises ethical questions about human life being destroyed for the sake of science.
Some of you might remember the controversy that George W. Bush wound up in when he allowed federal funds to be used for fetal stem cell research using stem cell lines created before August of 2001. In 2006 Bush successfully vetoed an effort to expand federal money for fetal stem cell research.
Unfortunately, sticking to his penchant for infanticide, in 2009 Obama reversed those federal limitations. It should be remembered that before he became a national figure, Obama was the only Illinois state Senator that favored the barbaric practice of partial birth abortions.
Sadly, Obama's reversal of the Bush era rule was one built on ideology and not real science. Even U.S. News reported that embryonic stem cell research is an obsolete field, and U.S. News is hardly a bastion of conservatism.
So, kudos to Eugene Roddenberry for putting his money where it will not only do some good but will do so ethically. Unlike the ideology drenched Obama administration, Mr. Roddenberry is interested in real science.
I think his father would be proud.
© Warner Todd Huston
January 4, 2012
Here at the site we often take Hollywood to task for its outrageous liberalism, and rightfully so. Of course it's our job to look for the worst cases to alert you all about the nagging left-wing bias. But occasionally there are stories that are good ones and it is incumbent upon us to report those, too. This is one of those stories.
More often than not when we have stories out of Hollywood about life issues it is invariably a pro-abortion tale and in the case of scientific studies, it is usually some denizen of Tinseltown coming out forcefully for unethical fetal stem cell research. The destruction of life is de rigueur out there, unfortunately.
But not this time.
You might say that this celebrity has boldly gone where no Hollywooder has gone before. You also might wince at my horrible attempt at humor when you find out that we are here today to celebrate the efforts of Eugene W. Roddenberry Jr., the son of Gene Roddenberry the creator of Star Trek.
You see, in October the son of the "Great Bird of the Galaxy" donated $5 million to stem cell research. But, unlike so many of the Hollywood persuasion, this gift is not earmarked for fetal stem cell research. It is instead going to a facility that specializes in adult stem cell research.
The generous donation from the Roddenberry Foundation was bestowed upon The Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, an independent research institute which is associated with the University of California, San Francisco.
As reported by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the Roddenberry gift will, "expand these existing areas of expertise among Gladstone scientists by creating the Roddenberry Center for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine — named after Gene Roddenberry, who created Star Trek."
One of the notable scientists at Gladstone is Shinya Yamanaka, M.D., Ph.D., who is pursuing research into reprogramming adult cells into embryonic stem cells.
Why is all this so notable? Because this is essentially a pro-life pursuit instead of one of those usual, liberal anti-life efforts. After all fetal stem cell research has proven ineffective in the many years it has been pursued — no advances in medicine have been credited to fetal stem cells in the last 20 years — but many of the far left are married to it regardless. Worse, fetal stem cell research is highly controversial as human embryos are necessarily destroyed in the effort. This raises ethical questions about human life being destroyed for the sake of science.
Some of you might remember the controversy that George W. Bush wound up in when he allowed federal funds to be used for fetal stem cell research using stem cell lines created before August of 2001. In 2006 Bush successfully vetoed an effort to expand federal money for fetal stem cell research.
Unfortunately, sticking to his penchant for infanticide, in 2009 Obama reversed those federal limitations. It should be remembered that before he became a national figure, Obama was the only Illinois state Senator that favored the barbaric practice of partial birth abortions.
Sadly, Obama's reversal of the Bush era rule was one built on ideology and not real science. Even U.S. News reported that embryonic stem cell research is an obsolete field, and U.S. News is hardly a bastion of conservatism.
So, kudos to Eugene Roddenberry for putting his money where it will not only do some good but will do so ethically. Unlike the ideology drenched Obama administration, Mr. Roddenberry is interested in real science.
I think his father would be proud.
© Warner Todd Huston
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