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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 * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn