 |
 |
EDITORIAL: End Of The Lines ... Stem Cells Between Promise and Handicap Daytona Beach News-Journal, FL - Aug 2, 2004 Last update: 02 August 2004 Embryonic stem cells are harvested from week-old embryos. The embryos are destroyed in the process. The cells, in theory, can be developed into any kind of cell type in the human body, like interchangeable spare parts. In theory, the process can lead to replacing diseased cells or body tissue with healthy replacements. In theory, people coming down with all sorts of diseases, including Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, could be cured. The distance between theory and reality is untold years away, and indeed may never be bridged. But scientists predict that time and a huge investment in research will indeed bridge the distance -- for the same reason that Jules Verne could imagine in 1865, and with striking accuracy, that men would one day reach the moon "in 97 hours, 20 minutes": because vision drives discovery. So Ron Reagan wasn't being fanciful when he told the Democratic National Convention last week that stem cell research "may be the greatest medical breakthrough in our or any lifetime." For now, it is turning into one of medicine's greatest missed opportunities for the wrong reasons: politics and ideology. When President Bush explained his position on stem cell research in August 2001, he reached for a strange compromise. He would allow research to continue on 60 stem cell lines already harvested from embryos, but would not allow federal money to pay for research drawn from new stem cell lines. It was strange because the compromise implicitly recognized the "unique potential" of stem cell research, thus negating the argument that it's a medical fantasy. Noting that stem cells can also be derived from adult cells, Bush also conceded that "most scientists, at least today, believe that research on embryonic stem cells offers the most promise." Still, with the religious right breathing down his electoral prospects, Bush agreed to the strange compromise. Without federal money -- that is, without the involvement of the National Institutes of Health -- stem cell research is set back the way, say, a trip to the moon might be set back without NASA's involvement. It's not entirely impossible. But the obstacles are daunting. And while the president was right that existing stem cell lines "have the ability to regenerate themselves indefinitely, creating ongoing opportunities for research," he was -- all matters of ethics aside -- wrong on two important counts. Within days of his speech, the journal Science corrected him on the number of stem cell lines available to researchers. There were 34, not 60 (10 of them in the United States, the rest of them in Sweden, Australia and Israel). By February this year, the NIH was reporting to Congress that in the "best case scenario," only 23 lines will be available for federally funded research. And nothing says that those lines will remain fit for research. They can be corrupted. This is a controversy that, scientifically speaking, has no merit. Religious conservatives have created a link between abortion and stem cell research that just doesn't exist. In his own speech Bush pointed out that stopping the harvesting of stem cells from embryos won't mean that embryos won't continue to be donated to science by couples whose in vitro fertilization produces more embryos than they need. It is from those embryos, which are otherwise frozen or destroyed anyway, that new stem cells could be harvested. Other ideological opponents of stem cell research point to the uncertainty of success compared with the sums of money that would be spent. The cost-benefit argument sounds appealing, especially when its purveyors trot out such factoids as a 30-year, $40 billion war on cancer that has yet to yield a clear victory. But considering that as much money has been spent on cancer research in 30 years as on the drug war in a single year, the argument ought to be about whether the nation has had its priorities straight. Reagan was right last Tuesday: "We have a chance to take a giant stride forward for the good of all humanity" in the next election. (John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president, supports federally funded stem cell research.) "We can choose between the future and the past, between reason and ignorance, between true compassion and mere ideology." SOURCE: Daytona Beach News-Journal, FL - Aug 2, 2004 http://tinyurl.com/579ut * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn