Send Your Ice Bucket Challenge Donation to Ethical, Successful Adult Stem Cell Research

From http://www.lifenews.com/2014/08/21/send-your-ice-bucket-challenge-donation-to-ethical-successful-adult-stem-cell-research/

You’ve probably heard of it by now, the Ice Bucket Challenge.  Those challenged are supposed either to dump an ice bucket of cold water over their head, or donate to ALS research.  Most people do both, posting a video of their icy bath.

It’s a stunt, but has successfully raised awareness of ALS as well as donations for research.  But people should consider where their donations go and how the money is used.

ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a.k.a. “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”) is a fatal, progressive neurological disease.  It attacks the nerves that control voluntary muscles, so it is sometimes termed “motor neuron disease”.  As the nerves die, muscles weaken and atrophy, including the muscles for breathing; most people suffering from ALS die of respiratory failure.  The cause is unknown and at this point there is no cure, and very little that can even slow disease progression.

So, raising awareness about ALS and increasing support for ALS research is a good thing.  But whether you participate in a challenge or just donate to important research, where should your donation go?

So far, most of the attention and millions of dollars in donation have gone to the ALS Association.  However, the ALSA has admitted that it gives some of its money to embryonic stem cell research and has no qualms about doing so in the future.  (Note the ALSA page linked in the above has just recently been changed, and now notes that embryonic stem cell research “has raised ethical concerns.”)

As Rebecca Taylor has pointed out, ALSA also has given money to an affiliate, NEALS, that has given money to a trial that uses stem cells derived from the spinal cord of an aborted fetus.

That trial is being run by the University of Michigan and Emory University, and sponsored by a company called Neuralstem which uses aborted fetus cells for research (“from the donated spinal cord tissue of an 8-week-old aborted fetus.”)  All of the Neuralstem trials use cells derived from abortion.

Project ALS, another charity for ALS research, also funds embryonic stem cell research.

But there are alternatives for donations that use only ethical stem cell sources!

Abortionist Pulls Gun on Pro-Life Witnesses

CHARLESTON, South Carolina, October 4, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com)

A Tennessee abortionist was arrested, but released on $25,000 bail Saturday after brandishing a gun at pro-lifers peacefully witnessing outside a Charleston clinic.
Witnesses say Tennessee abortionist Gary Boyle, 62, pointed a loaded handgun from his vehicle at about 8:30am Saturday morning at three pro-life witnesses, including one 17-year-old young man, who were standing outside the Charleston Women's Medical Center in West Ashley. After Boyle entered the clinic, the pro-lifers called police.
"We were like, 'Well, that was a gun,'" John Karafa, one of the three, told the Charleston Post and Courier. "You can't do that." Karafa was a participant in the 40 Days for Life campaign, an international semiannual event of prayer, fasting, and pro-life witness outside abortion facilities. The abortionist was arrested and charged with pointing a firearm.
The Post reports that Boyle attended a bond hearing by video conference, and paid his $25,000 bail later the same day. About eight pro-lifers wearing 40 Days for Life wristbands attended the proceedings.
The Charleston Women's Medical Center is South Carolina's largest abortion center, performing 2,550 abortions in 2008, and nearly 55,000 between 1988 and 2008, according to Columbia Christians for Life.
Boyle has been in trouble with the law before. For several years in the 1990s, Boyle operated a Bristol, Tennessee abortuary without proper state certification; however, an appeals judge eventually ruled in 2002 that the statute requiring certification violated a woman's right to privacy, the Post reports.
Cheryl Freiberger, outreach coordinator for the local 40 Days for Life, told LifeSiteNews.com that the charge facing Boyle is a felony. She also said reports claiming the men had approached the abortionist as he sat in his vehicle before he brandished the firearm were false.
"It's not the peaceful pro-life people who are attacking or acting violently, but it's often the pro-choice people who act out against us," she said. She said she hoped that other minor assaults suffered by pro-lifers, which she said police had treated with less diligence, would receive more scrutiny thanks to the recent incident.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for December 17.