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Saturday, August 11, 2001 Stem-cell decision gets mixed reviews here Portland Press Herald Report The issue of stem-cell research is a very personal one to Karen Bardo, a 47-year-old Alna woman who has Parkinson's disease. So she was relieved when President Bush announced that he would allow limited federal funding of stem-cell experiments that could lead to new treatments — even a cure — for her illness. "Any research that we can get is good," she said. "We never get it all, I think. At least we get something." Bush's decision, announced Thursday, allows federal funding to be used for research on existing stem-cell lines taken from human embryos that have already been destroyed. It's the most restrictive choice he could have made short of a full ban. Mainers who support stem-cell research viewed Bush's decision on Friday as a first step toward expanding the scope of the research later. "It gave the president a way of making a step forward because these (stem cells) are from embryos that have already been destroyed, so you can't say that you're killing life," noted Richard Gelwick, a bioethicist from Cundys Harbor. What's still unknown, Gelwick said, is whether existing stem-cell lines will provide enough research opportunities to make significant progress fighting disease. "At least it's a beginning on research that ought to be done," he said. Others felt Bush unacceptably crossed a moral line. "It truly was a compromise, and from the Catholic Church's point of view — and church doctrine — it isn't an issue you can compromise on ethically and morally," said Marc Mutty, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Maine. The debate over stem-cell research is "the next logical racheting up of the abortion debate," said Rushworth Kidder, president of the Institute for Global Ethics in Camden, because the key philosophical conundrum in both issues is the question of when life begins. What's different in the debate over stem-cell research, he said, is that there are scientific researchers, pharmaceutical companies and entrepreneurs who want to turn it into a business. "There are huge amounts of money invested on one side of this," he said. As a political compromise, Bush's decision to allow limited research was "pretty astute," said Ron Morrison, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of New England. But his moral argument, while generally well reasoned, "goes wrong in some places," he said. Morrison said Bush seems to imply in his speech, for example, that the days-old embryos used in stem-cell research are human life and thus should not ever be destroyed. Morrison subscribes to the view that embryos are "not human beings in the same way that you and I are." "But on the other hand, they're not nothing, either," he said. "They're not just a bunch of cells. "They are a human embryo, after all, and they are deserving of some kind of respect that should prevent us from treating them with some sort of callous indifference." Allowing surplus embryos from fertility clinics to be destroyed and used for research would be more respectful than throwing them away, he said. "In this sense, I think, the president's decision is too restrictive," Morrison said, "and I think this is where politics may have triumphed over reason." Julien Murphy, professor of philosophy at the University of Southern Maine, agreed. Although embryos have the potential for human life, she said, not all of them become a full-fledged human being, just as all seeds do not flower. Some embryos do not implant in the womb, some are miscarried. "We're talking about very, very early embryos, 5-day old embryos," she said. "When I weigh suffering of a family member with Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's disease with the status of a 5-day-old embryo, that's a very early point on the developmental line." Bush, she said, is "so severely limiting stem-cell research that it's going to take a whole lot longer to see what promise it really holds for curing these diseases." Harold Jones, president of the Maine Parkinson's Society, called Bush's decision "good enough for now." He said Bush struck a good balance between pro-life concerns and those of people with Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other diseases. "I thought he did a wonderful job," said Jones, who is Bardo's father. "I admit to being Republican and all that, but I think this is one of the defining points of his presidency. It affects so many people." Diagnosed five years ago, Bardo still works and even goes backpacking. But she knows her mobility may not last forever as her Parkinson's progresses. "I'm almost 48," she said, "and that's pretty young to have to think of maybe going downhill." Bardo said she would even support the idea of creating human embryos solely for stem-cell research if it could alleviate human suffering. "I don't see why that wouldn't be OK to do that if it's helping people, and there are a lot of people who need help," she said. Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at: [log in to unmask] SOURCE: The Portland Press Herald http://www.portland.com/news/state/010811stemcell.shtml * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn