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Stem Cells To Take Focus At Convention BY MALCOLM RITTER - ASSOCIATED PRESS July 26. 2004 3:26PM NEW YORK -- Stem cell research, a topic that long ago spread beyond the laboratory and into politics, will catch the spotlight briefly on Tuesday at the Democratic National Convention. A speech by Ron Reagan, a son of the late President Reagan, will be just the latest development that has kept attention on this difficult and controversial field. Of course, Reagan's death from Alzheimer's disease in June gave a new push to the stem cell advocacy by his widow, Nancy Reagan. Soon afterward, Cambridge University announced it would open a major center for research into stem cells. Earlier this year, the British government opened a national stem cell bank and American researchers announced they'd created new collections of embryonic stem cells, the kind of stem cell most of the hubbub is about. Those steps added to what many scientists call the inadequate inventory approved by the White House for federally funded research. John Kerry, the presumed Democratic nominee, has already said that if elected he'd overturn those funding restrictions. Kerry was among 58 senators who recently urged President Bush to relax his policy, which forbids federal funding for research on embryonic stem cell lines created after Aug. 9, 2001. Bush said he won't change his mind. More stem cell politics are on the horizon. In November, California voters will decide whether to approve a $3 billion bond issue to finance stem cell research. Also this year, the United Nations will revisit the issue of whether to propose an international treaty to ban "therapeutic" cloning — which produces stem cells from cloned embryos — as well as "reproductive" cloning, which makes babies. Embryonic stem cells are prized because of their ability to morph into all the cell types found in the body. So scientists are eager to learn how to use them. The most publicized use would be the treatment of diseases like diabetes, Parkinson's and spinal cord injury by coaxing the cells into becoming replacement parts for damaged tissue. "Of course we don't know whether it will work. If we did know, we wouldn't have to do the experiments," Harvard researcher Douglas Melton told a meeting of U.N. delegates recently. "We cannot promise we will succeed," he said, but the cells are "one of the best chances we have." The controversy arises because of where the cells come from. When an embryo is about five days old, it's a sphere composed of about 200 cells, just barely visible to the naked eye. Embryonic stem cells come from the interior of this sphere, and to get them, the embryo has to be destroyed. That's abhorrent to people who consider an embryo to be a developing human life that must be protected. As for cloning to produce an embryo, that's "wrong because it treats human life as an object of manufacture," Cardinal William H. Keeler of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said recently. SOURCE: Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL http://tinyurl.com/6yrpl * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn