from InfoBeat:
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558107671-19b
05:14 PM ET 01/19/99
Disputed Stem Cell Research Financed
Disputed Stem Cell Research Financed
By LAURAN NEERGAARD=
AP Medical Writer=
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Despite ethical questions,
the Clinton administration is about to finance research using the body's
own ``master cells'' _ the building blocks of tissue that scientists
have culled from human embryos.
Studying how to harness these embryonic stem
cells and turn them into therapies for Alzheimer's disease or diabetes,
as well as ways to prevent birth defects and rebuild damaged organs, is
considered
one of the most promising new frontiers of science.
It's also controversial because these ``master
cells'' are present only in early-stage human embryos. Some anti-abortion
groups in particular call stem cell research morally unacceptable, because
to get the cells, embryos would have to be destroyed.
Until now the research has largely been taboo, because
federal law prohibits using taxpayers' money for research using human embryos.
But scientists working last year with scarce
private funding succeeded in isolating some embryonic stem cells _ both
from aborted fetuses and from unused embryos from infertility treatments
_ and succeeded in multiplying the stem cells in laboratories
to grow a supply for research.
Now the National Institutes of Health, the
main provider of money for U.S. medical research, says that because
these lab-grown stem cells do not constitute an embryo, it thus is legal
for NIH to fund experiments using them _ and it will do so within months.
``We know this is ethically sensitive territory,''
NIH Director Harold Varmus said Tuesday after announcing the decision before
President Clinton's National Bioethics Advisory Commission. But
``the prospects of benefit to living human beings ... are
dramatic.''
Stem cells are the basic or primordial cells
from which all of a human's tissues and organs develop. By themselves,
the cells can't grow into a person.
But if scientists could control how the cells
switch on to form different bodily tissues, they might produce lifesaving
therapies: Growing heart cells to rebuild disease-ravaged hearts, or
insulin-producing cells for diabetics, or new brain cells for
victims of Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease.
The NIH's decision ``is terrific'' because
it will speed that research ``absolutely by years,'' said Dr. John Gearhart
of Johns Hopkins University, who grew one of the stem cell supplies from
aborted fetuses.
In addition, NIH involvement will ensure the
science is done with the public scrutiny not possible when private
companies control the purse strings, Gearhart added.
Abortion opponents immediately decried the
decision.
``Today's announcement ... is the latest step
by the Clinton administration to treat human beings as property to be manipulated
and destroyed,'' said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J.
NIH money will allow researchers to ``experiment
with cells obtained from human beings ruthlessly killed in the first weeks
of life,'' said Smith.
The congressman didn't say whether he would
challenge NIH's plans.
Because of Congress' ban, NIH ``will not fund
the act of destruction itself, but will reward those who destroy embryos
by paying them to develop the cells and tissues they have obtained by destructive
means,'' said Richard Doerflinger of the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops.
The bioethics commission will wrestle with
other questions: How appropriate is it to derive stem cells from live human
embryos? After all, University of Wisconsin scientists successfully used
spare embryos with the full consent of couples treated at infertility
clinics, who donated the embryos they didn't end up using to attempt a
pregnancy.
And what if doctors one day decide they want
to create an embryo solely for the purpose of deriving stem cells _ which
means growing the embryo to destroy it?
It also may be possible to use cloning techniques
to derive human stem cells by, for instance, placing human genes into an
animal's egg to grow a hybrid embryo.
Varmus says he does not expect Congress to
stop his funding plans. Indeed, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., who heads
the subcommittee that controls NIH's budget, has been investigating
stem cell research and praised the decision.
``We've got the potential for enormous advances
in medical science and we should utilize them,'' Specter said. Even where
stem cells did come from live embryos, they were embryos destined to be
discarded ``that could not be used to produce human life.''
Within months, NIH will draw up guidelines
that set just what kind of research the agency will fund.