Editor's note. As most of you may have already noticed, there is now a "share" link directly above the title of this and every other TN&V piece. This allows you to forward this edition to any of a host of social networks. So, for example, if you have a Facebook account, you can post TN&V there for your friends to see. They, in turn, can post it on their Facebook account. And so forth. This is very exciting. Part Two is an analysis of a brilliant recent speech delivered by Archbishop Charles Chaput.

Even as there is another extraordinary breakthrough using acceptable sources of stem cells, pro-abortion President Barack Obama is posed on the brink of fulfilling yet another anti-life promise: overturning pro-life President George W. Bush's policy of not funding stem cell research that requires the destruction of human embryos. Throughout the campaign and since his election, Obama has comforted his allies with a commitment to signing an executive order. The question is when-- and how/whether this might be coordinated with further congressional action.

Over the weekend, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asked Obama aide David Axelrod, "When are you going to issue an executive order on stem cell research?' Axelrod responded. "[W]e'll be doing something on that soon, I think."

Pro-abortion President Barack Obama

Previously, the Washington Times reported that on February 5 Obama told House Democrats holding a retreat in Williamsburg, Virginia, "I guarantee you that we will sign an executive order for stem cells."

Meanwhile, scientists announced yesterday "the publication of a landmark peer-reviewed paper in the February issue of the Bentham Open Stem Cell Journal which outlines the long term results of the world's first clinical trial using autologous neural stem cells for the treatment of Parkinson's disease." In English, that means the patient's own brain cells were used to address the problem of Parkinson's.

Michael Levesque, MD, the lead author of the paper, said, "We have documented the first successful adult neural stem cell transplantation to reverse the effects of Parkinson's disease and demonstrated the long term safety and therapeutic effects of this approach." (Dr Levesque is affiliated with the UCLA School of Medicine and the Brain Research Institute and is a principal investigator for NeuroGeneration, a biotechnology company.) "Of particular note," he added, "are the striking results this study yielded -- for the five years following the procedure the patient's motor scales improved by over 80% for at least 36 months."

What exactly did they do? They were able to isolate brain stem cells derived from the patient, "multiply them in vitro and ultimately differentiate them to produce mature neurons before they are reintroduced into the brain's basal ganglia." And because the source was the patient's own neural cells, no immunosuppressants were required!

You can read about this groundbreaking paper at
www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=prnw.20090216.LAM033&show_article=1.

For an excellent overview of the successful treatments for many human diseases and injuries using adult stem cells, go to www.frc.org/insight/adult-stem-cell-success-stories-2008-update-july-december.

Please send your thoughts and comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com.

Part Two -- Archbishop Chaput's Sage Advice