Coalition to fight for stem cell research
WASHINGTON, May 21, 1999 (Reuters Health) -- Thirty patient advocacy
groups have formed a coalition in an effort to stop anti-abortion
lawmakers from halting federal funding of stem cell research, it was
announced here on Thursday.
``We want to make sure that as the debate goes forward, that we are here
to articulate the needs of patients and their families,'' said Daniel
Perry of the Alliance for Aging Research at a Capitol Hill news
conference to announce the establishment of the Patients' Coalition for
Urgent Research, or CURe.
The goal of the coalition, whose members include groups ranging from the
American Cancer Society to the Parkinson's Action Network to the
Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, is to educate the public, the
media, and legislators about human pluripotent stem cell research.
Embryo-derived stem cells are immature cells that can give rise to just
about any type of adult tissue, and are considered a promising avenue of
research for a number of ailments.
Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services in January
ruled that research using such cells derived from discarded embryos did
not violate Congress's ban on embryo research. At least 70 members of
the House have vowed to seek to overturn that ruling when Congress takes
up the department's annual funding bill late this spring or summer.
``The tissue to be used is tissue that is to be discarded anyway, tissue
that is in the process of being thrown away,'' said Dr. Glen McGhee, a
bioethicist from the University of Pennsylvania. ``Stem cell research is
an appropriate kind of research and it is absolutely critical that it be
federally funded'' in order to ensure that it is carried out ethically
McGhee explained. ``Only through oversight can we resist irresponsible
research,'' he said.
After the press conference, Richard Doerflinger, a representative of the
National Conference of Catholic Bishops commented that most stem cell
research can already proceed with federal funding, including research
that has isolated stem cells from adult bone marrow and fetal tissue. It
is only the research in which the cells are derived from embryos that is
at issue, Doerflinger said.
Even if the cells are derived without federal funding, ``the language
(of the existing ban) was always intended to deny funding for research
projects in which destruction of a human embryo is a part. What we're
trying to do is not have the federal government promote the destruction
of human embryos,'' he added.
But Dr. John Gearhart, a Johns Hopkins University researcher who has
pioneered much of the stem cell work, said that all avenues for deriving
the cells need to be pursued. ``It is much too early in this game to
determine which derivation would be better,'' Gearhart said.
Copyright © 1999 Reuters Limited.
--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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