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Harvard's promising proposal Editorial Sunday, June 11 Harvard University's decision to attempt to create the world's first cloned embryonic stem cells is a noble one that holds great promise in finding treatments for debilitating diseases, such as genetic blood disorders and ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, for which there is no cure. There are no guarantees that embryonic stem cells can be created, but if research shows they can, and they are able to save at least one life, isn't that worth the risk? Too many people have suffered, and died slow debilitating deaths from these diseases, particularly ALS. One of the goals of scientific research is to cure diseases. That also should be one of our missions as human beings. Research has shown that embryonic stem cells can be used to replicate almost every cell in the human body, but these cells, taken from frozen early embryos at fertility clinics planning to discard them, do not have the DNA that contributes to the diseases that the scientists hope to stop. The idea behind Harvard's cloning of embryonic stem cells is to create cells that have the same DNA as the patient who has the disease. The Harvard researchers plan to extract DNA from the patient and place it in a donated egg cell where the DNA has already been removed. Once the stem cells have been grown in a lab, they are placed in the patient, where, in theory, they will grow into new, healthy tissue. In addition to Harvard, eight other teams, including one in Worcester, are also working on the cloning of embryonic stem cells. Unfortunately, none of them are receiving funding from the federal government. President George W. Bush five years ago prohibited the government from funding any research that would create new embryonic stem cells. The Harvard project is being funded through private sources. Unfortunately, not every research institution has Harvard's resources, and the White House's medieval anti-science attitude is blunting research programs and chasing scientists to more accommodating ground in Europe. Skeptics should remember that heart transplants were viewed as unreliable if not immoral when they began in the late 1960s. Some 40 years later, heart transplants are no longer viewed as an anomaly, and many people who would have been dead continue to live useful lives because of them. If the current research at Harvard leads to advances, we may view the cloning of embryonic stem cells in the same manner 40 years from now. The Harvard research is dependent upon donations from women who will be treated with drugs to induce ovulation. There is a risk involved, but Harvard researchers will outline those risks in appealing to women who want to help advance a scientific cause. Women will not be throwing caution to the wind in hopes of financial gain as state law forbids monetary incentives for stem-cell research. The cloning of human cells, of course, raises the specter of the creation of human clones. This may or may not even be possible, but if science refused to take risks the world would be infested by diseases that have long since disappeared into history. Harvard is no fly-by-night university and its project, one that holds so much hope for the future, is worth whatever risks are involved. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn