Posted on Fri, Mar. 28, 2003

Couples must choose destiny for frozen embryos with federal ban in
mind
BY LUKE TIMMERMAN
The Seattle Times

(KRT) - Dr. Lori Marshall has a freezer full of fertilized human
eggs, and each one represents a complicated ethical choice.

A fertility specialist at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle,
Marshall helps couples decide what to do with the embryos left over
after they're finished having children. They can give them to another
couple, discard them or donate them for scientific research.

The last option has grown popular in the five years since scientists
learned to isolate human stem cells from embryos, kicking off an
exciting new branch of research. Stem cells have the capability to
morph into any cell in the human body, and scientists believe they
could someday be useful for everything from tissue transplants to
cancer treatments.

But U.S. stem-cell research has been stymied since 2001, when
President Bush banned federally funded labs from using embryos as a
source of new stem cells. The policy has let research go on with a
few groups of existing cells, but has effectively kept thousands of
embryos shut in freezers at Virginia Mason and other fertility
programs around the country.

Marshall is frustrated. As an ethics panelist with the American
Society of Reproductive Medicine, she believes embryos deserve
special respect as potential human life - they shouldn't be sold, for
example.

"We think use of spare embryos for stem-cell research is a wonderful
alternative that can benefit society," Marshall said. "If the
alternative is to discard them, many couples would rather donate to
research."

Anti-abortion activists and some religious groups, however, have
pushed for federal legislation that would go further than the Bush
policy and permanently ban all forms of human cell cloning, including
medical research. A bill to that effect has passed the U.S. House of
Representatives but faces significant opposition in the Senate.

"The supposed medical benefits of human cloning remain a pipe dream,"
the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said. But stem-cell
research's "threat to human life and dignity is real and immediate."

Scientists say they have no problem banning cloning of human beings,
but they do want the option of cloning embryos to obtain stem cells,
which they call "therapeutic cloning."

While stem-cell research is still in its infancy, the stakes are
potentially huge. In theory, stem cells could regenerate into liver
cells tailored for a person who needs a liver transplant. Because the
cells would carry the same genetic code as the donor, scientists
believe they might escape attacks from the immune system that
commonly cause organ rejection.

---

Since the Bush decision, Marshall has watched couples agonize. Many
consult their clergy, sometimes paying freezer fees for years as they
wrestle with what to do with their spare embryos.

Few are comfortable with choosing to end potential human life, having
it thawed out and tossed into medical waste, even after they're told
it's a microscopic ball of cells without organs.

Many couples also aren't comfortable with the idea of giving their
potential children to another couple, enduring the emotions people
sort through when giving up children for adoption.

Before they make the decision, Marshall walks them through a list of
disclosures, including the potential purposes of research and that it
involves destruction of embryos.

They're told the stem cells may have commercial value someday, and
that they will not share in it. They can change their minds at any
time until the experiment begins, and should be told that no embryos
used in studies will be transferred for pregnancy.

Ultimately, both the man and woman must agree for the embryos to be
donated.

One Seattle-area woman who recently went through this process said
she and her husband wanted to give back to a research system that
saved his life with a heart transplant.

"As long as (researchers) don't use them to clone people, we think
it's extremely important they be used for research," said the woman,
who asked not to be identified for fear she would become a target of
protests.

---

Meanwhile, stem-cell research is continuing in many places, though
the Bush policy has had a big impact in limiting its scope. Some
laboratories have steered away from stem-cell research completely
because of the controversy, and U.S. scientists contend they will be
at a significant disadvantage to their counterparts in Europe, where
there are no restrictions.

Dr. Chuck Murry, an associate professor of pathology at the
University of Washington, is attempting to use stem cells to
regenerate human heart tissue. He received his first batch in August.

He said researchers are still trying to understand the basics - how
the cells change from their primitive state into a specialized cell,
or how the body controls their growth so they turn into heart muscle
but don't become a tumor.

Much productive work can be done on existing stem cells, Murry said.
But as science moves forward in the next two or three years, he said,
researchers will begin clamoring for more diverse lines of stem
cells, which can come only from new embryos.

The Bush policy does not restrict privately funded research, but so
far, the biotech and pharmaceutical industries and their deep-
pocketed investors have shown little willingness to pick up where the
government is leaving off, because the research is not yet advanced
enough to offer big returns on investment.

---

In December, Stanford University received a $12 million anonymous
donation to establish an institute to use stem cells from embryos in
cancer studies. The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is spending
$4 million a year for a variety of stem-cell research, from embryos,
adults and animals.

But such funding is minuscule compared with the muscle of the
National Institutes of Health, which expects to spend $27.3 billion
this year alone on medical research. That's enough money to set up an
endowment the size of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation every year.

Marshall said unless the federal government throws its financial
might behind more stem-cell research, she can see embryos piling up
in freezers or being discarded.

"It's becoming clear that the rest of the world is going to learn
things we're not going to learn," she said.

---

SOURCE: The Seattle Times
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/5503645.htm

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