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Sunday, August 12th. 2001 Bush walks fine line on stem-cell decision By Bob MacDonald -- Toronto Sun If you or your loved ones were stricken with such serious afflictions as diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord paralysis or cancer, would you refuse a cure if it had been developed from the use of human embryo stem cells? Sure, that's a blunt way of putting it. But that very likely will be the situation if some of the very strong possibilities already being researched by scientists involving stem cells prove successful. And that's the lure that drew U.S. President George W. Bush into opening the door slightly by announcing his government will finance such research -- but only in a very limited way. But it's likely to prove a breakthrough decision. Unfortunately, the use of human embryo stem cells in this very hopeful research is full of controversy. It revolves around the fact that the stem cells exist in those first few days after a human egg has been fertilized. Such cells have the power to develop into becoming any part of the body -- bone, tissue, organs, blood, brain, etc. And that's why stem cells, first removed from a human embryo by an American researcher just three years ago, have become one of the hottest possibilities in treating and curing the above mentioned afflictions. The idea is to use them to repair those organs and parts of the body damaged by disease -- even the brain and severed spinal columns. However, the fact is that the frozen embryos -- produced in the laboratories as part of helping couples with pregnancy problems -- are essentially destroyed by removing the stem cells. And that's where many ethical and religious opponents to their removal object, claiming it kills what they consider to be a potential human life. So President Bush, a Methodist who opposes both abortion and the destruction of intact embryos, has approved research using what he said were 60 "lines" of stem cells already removed from embryos. Federal financing using those stem cells would be given because "the life-and-death decision has already been made," he said. Bush's decision was based on "the need to protect life in all its phases with the prospect of saving and improving life in all its stages." From a personal and political point-of-view, the president's position was pretty astute for a guy whose critics have always claimed he was a dummy. Bush limited the research to the so-called 60 stem cell lines, but indeed made the key decision to begin government funding of research programs. Oh yes, and he appointed a commission that will monitor the programs and make recommendations. And it's my bet that, down the line, that commission will be encouraged to expand the research. However, some researchers criticized the "half-measure" decision by Bush, saying that there are really only about a dozen stem cell lines in existence instead of 60. And they noted there are over 100,000 frozen human embryos with intact stem cells that are prohibited from being used by Bush's ruling. And yet they will be destroyed since they are not needed in the various fertility programs. Carl B. Feldbaum, head of an organization representing 1,000 research groups, said Bush's limitation "may place roadblocks to medical progress" and "may cost years, even lives." But James Thomson, the University of Wisconsin researcher who first isolated human embryonic stem cells in 1998, said "the proposed compromise will slow the research, but the compromise is better than halting the research entirely." So there. The limited U.S. government-financed program begins while countries like Britain and Canada already allow stem cell removal from embryos for research. Some day, hopefully sooner than later, treatments and cures for many afflictions now considered incurable will come out of this very exciting area of research. Read Bob MacDonald every Wednesday and Sunday. Reach him at [log in to unmask] or 416-947-2236 SOURCE: The Toronto Sun http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoNews/26n1.html * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn