NIH Funds Cloned Stem Cell Research


 

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.


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