Deception in the Stem Cell Research DebateThe Nobel Laureates' Inaccurate Letter to President Bush Urging Him to Inject Federal Funds into Research on human embryonic stem cells had public relations value in the media. This perpetuates a number of misconceptions and misleading statements regarding stem cell research, particularly embryonic stem cell research as opposed to adult stem cell research, and will contribute to continued obfuscation of the issue. Some of these misleading statements are the subject of this essay. I believe President Bush and his team are well aware of the truth about embryonic and adult stem cell research. Unfortunately, many people in the public will read this letter, recognize some prominent "icons" or simply the fact that there are a lot of "smart people" who signed up and think they know everything about this scientific research . Well-informed people do not always perpetuate the truth. President Bush and Congress obviously have the final say on how federal research funds will be spent. The hope is that everyone participating in this debate is fully informed of the facts and does not allow themselves to be influenced by woefully misinformed or deliberately misled celebrities, but rather weighs the scientific and ethical evidence. There is a lot of misinformation. and the deception continues in press accounts of the stem cell debate. This is probably the worst problem in this entire debate: the perpetuation (innocent or not) of misleading statements that obscure many of the real facts. The Nobel laureate's letter itself is an excellent example of the "mixmaster" treatment of facts. What is usually missing from news articles are a few key “adjectives” that clarify the situation – defining whether the cells discussed are human or animal cells, and especially whether they are “embryo” or “adult” stem cells. sent to President Bush says "insulin-secreting cells normalized blood sugar levels in diabetic mice." These experiments were performed with ADULT mouse stem cells, NOT embryonic stem cells. In fact, there are no reports so far that anyone is able to produce insulin-secreting cells from human embryonic stem cells, but human ADULT stem cells that secrete insulin HAVE been isolated. The letter promulgates the assertion (made repeatedly in NIH documents) that adult stem cells do not have the same potential as embryonic stem cells, which in theory can form any tissue. But studies done with adult stem cells (studies that mirror those done with embryonic stem cells) show that adult stem cells have the ability to form essentially any tissue..