Hi All,
I've been waiting a long time for this.....

Sunday, Jan. 21, 2001
Canadian scientists pushing for federal guidelines on stem cell research

OTTAWA (CP) -- Canadian scientists are poised for a major push into
one of the hottest and most controversial areas of modern medicine --
stem cell research.

 But they say they're being held back by the lack of federal regulations
or guidelines in a field whose promise is accompanied by potentially
explosive ethical questions.

 Embryonic stem cells, derived from the earliest developmental stages of
an embryo, have the ability to develop into virtually any type of body
cell.

 "This is a very hot, up-and-coming field," Ron Worton, head of the
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, said in an interview.

 "It's clear an embryonic stem cell can make any and every tissue. It can
make blood, your liver, your kidneys, your brain, your lungs --
everything."

 Worton, co-discoverer of the gene that causes Duchenne muscular
dystrophy, is excited at the possibility of rebuilding muscle in victims of
that disease.

 In the past two years, scientists have learned that stem cells in adult
tissues, while not as potent as those from an embryo, can also give rise
to many useful tissues.

 They believe stem cells from one part of a person's body might
eventually be used to regenerate tissue needed somewhere else.
 "If we could take bone marrow cells and put them into muscles and
have them rebuild muscle, that would be amazing," said Worton.
 Animal experiments have produced highly promising results, but work
with human cells is still in the very early stages.
 Still, excitement is growing.

 Worton has assembled $35 million in funding for a Centre for Stem Cell
and Gene Therapy that will open in Ottawa within 18 months.

 He has also proposed national research network and is confident of
support from other scientists across the country.

 "Altogether that's going to take Canada from being relatively nowhere
in terms of the overall stem cell work to being a world leader," he said.
 The biggest problem is that researchers need to work with cells from
human embryos, at least in the early stages.

 "Any time you do research on fetal tissue involving embryos there's an
understandable hesitancy on the part of the researchers," says Tim
Caulfield, law professor at the University of Alberta.

 "Part of it is an intuitive hesitancy, because they understand and
respect the significance of the tissue they're working with, but part of it
also is that they're working within somewhat of a regulatory vacuum."

 Britain and the United States have introduced guidelines to guide stem
cell research; some countries have effectively banned it. The situation in
Canada is unclear.

 In 1993 the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies
recommended tight regulations to govern the use of fetal tissue, but
they were never implemented.

 Ethicists agree that a woman's decision about abortion should not be
tainted by the question of providing material for research purposes, said
Caulfield.

 But he raised questions about tissue from a fetus that has already been
aborted, material which would otherwise be treated as medical waste.
 Also, there thousands of surplus frozen embryos in storage at fertility
clinics across the country. Many will eventually be disposed of under
current practices.

 But there's no procedure for getting access to them for research
purposes. Scientists say the current ambiguity has become a major
problem.

 "We have to have a regulatory framework in which to conduct
ourselves," said molecular geneticist Michael Rudnicki of the University
of Ottawa, who will be director of the new stem cell research centre.
 "I think most people are holding back because a regulatory framework
not only prevents abuse, it also protects the investigator from the
perception of abuse."

One scenario, distasteful to most researchers, is that people could
produce in-vitro embryos specifically for use in research.

 "We don't want that to happen," said Worton. "We desperately do not
want to see that happen."

 What's clear is that without regulations or guidelines, anything could
happen.

 Sources told the Canadian Press that some Canadian labs, frustrated
with the lack of government guidance, have already quietly begun work
on human stem cells.

 The National Institutes of Health Research is expected to recommend
guidelines soon, but political decisions will still be needed.

 Health Minister Allan Rock has not indicated where he stands on the
issue.

 His office will not say whether there are plans to reintroduce legislation
on new genetic and reproductive technologies in the coming session of
Parliament. That will be revealed in the throne speech.

 Two previous bills have died on the order paper.

 Worton says the guidelines are urgently needed and should not be tied
in with all the other controversial issues which make such legislation
difficult to write and pass.

http://www.canoe.ca/NationalTicker/CANOE-wire.Stem-Cell.html

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