The Pentagon is investing a quarter of a billion dollars into adult stem-cell research. The new program is designed to help service members injured on the battlefield, according to Colonel Bob Vandre.

“These young men and young women give a very important part of their lives. They give their bodies essentially, and are wounded protecting our country.”

Vandre is the originator of the program. The five-year initiative will use patients’ own stem-cells to grow bones, stop the scarring of wounds, and rebuild tendons. But Vandre says that’s only the beginning. 

“I think regenerative medicine is going to change the world.”

“I can see increasing peoples lives, quality of their lives, and just becoming a huge technology that’ll completely change the way we do medicine throughout the country.”

Dr. David Prentice, Senior Fellow for Life Sciences at the Family Research Council, applauds the Pentagon’s program. He says adult stem-cell research has proven successful for thousands of patients, unlike embryonic stem cell research.

“There’s such an obsession in the U.S. with embryonic stem cells. About all embryonic stem cells have done is make tumors in rats.”

And there’s the ethical dilemma of using embryonic stem-cells.

“Who do you sacrifice as a donor so that you might help other people.”

In fact, many leading scientists wonder if destroying embryos in stem-cell research will ever help cure patients.