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Below please find a story taken from the September 14 issue of the Washington Fax, an online information source covering national medical and political news. The article discusses the recently announced recommendations of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC) regarding federal funding of stem cell research and provides an update on the status of this important medical research issue. Subscribers to this Listserve may be particularly interested in President Clinton’s comments listing Parkinson’s patients as likely beneficiaries of advances in stem cell research. As a founding member of the Patients’ CURe (Patients’ Coalition for Urgent Research), the Parkinson’s Action Network works in concert with a broad alliance of patient groups to educate Congress and the public and encourage support for federal funding of stem cell research. While pursuing the important work of the Patients’ CURe, the Network remains focused on the other priorities of the Parkinson’s community, including doing everything possible to increase the level and focus of federal funding for Parkinson’s research. Questions, comments or requests for more information should be directed to the Network’s Policy Coordinator, Michael Claeys, at (202) 628-2079 or emailed to [log in to unmask] NATIONAL BIOETHICS ADVISORY COMMISSION RELEASES FINAL STEM CELL RECOMMENDATIONS As expected, the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC), in a final report issued late yesterday, has recommended that "research involving the derivation and use" of stem cells from human embryos should be eligible for federal funding, asserting that the current ban on publicly supported embryo research raises "serious moral and public policy concerns." "In our view, the ban conflicts with several of the ethical goals of medicine and related health disciplines, especially healing, prevention and research," the report states. "These goals are rightly characterized by the principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence, which jointly encourage pursuing social benefits and avoiding or ameliorating potential harm." NBAC restricts its recommendation for federal funding to work with human embryos "remaining after infertility treatments" and to work with aborted fetuses. The commission opposes using federal funds for research with embryos created solely for scientific purposes, saying that, in addition to the moral problems involved, leftover embryos, along with aborted fetuses--a stem cell source already available to federally-funded scientists--should "provide an adequate supply" of material, at least for the time being. President Clinton, who last November asked NBAC to review stem cell research, issued a statement commending the commissioners for their "thoroughness" in seeking all points of view. He did not comment directly on the report's recommendations. Clinton, however, noted that "the scientific results that have emerged in just the past few months already strengthen my hope that one day, stem cells will be used to replace cardiac muscle cells for people with heart disease, nerve cells for thousands of Parkinson's patients, or insulin-producing cells for children who suffer from diabetes." Recent advancements in deriving stem cells from human embryos have prompted great excitement among patient advocates and scientists, given the stem cells' potential to become almost any type of human tissue and to be a new source for a host of regenerative therapies. However, opponents of embryo research say scientists should seek other methods of achieving the same ends and should not destroy what is potentially a human life solely for medical purposes. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) stoked the controversy earlier this year when, citing a legal opinion issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, it asserted that the existing ban on embryo research does not legally block federal grantees from working with embryonic stem cells, as long as the cells are derived with private funds. NIH currently is trying to develop guidelines that could allow grantees to seek funding for work with stem cells obtained from private sources. The final NBAC report rewords language from a previous draft version that said, among other things, that there is "no compelling ethical justification for distinguishing between the derivation and use of human stem cells." The final report focuses on the scientific importance of supporting both use and derivation of stem cells. It argues that "although some may view the derivation and use of (embryonic stem) cells as ethically distinct activities, we do not believe these differences are significant from the point of view of eligibility of federal funding." "This separation--under which neither biomedical researchers at NIH nor scientists at universities and other research institutions that rely on federal support could participate in some aspects of this research--rests on the mistaken notion that the two areas of research are so distinct that participating in one need not mean participating in the other," the report states. "We believe this is a misrepresentation of the new field of human stem cell research and this misrepresentation could adversely affect scientific progress for several reasons." NBAC notes that research in which stem cells are extracted from human embryos can provide scientists with information crucial to both basic understanding of cellular process and to the development of stem cell-based therapies. The report states that those who want to see stem cell research obtain the maximum scientific and therapeutic benefits "within a system of appropriate ethical oversight" should be "dissatisfied with a position" that allows funding for use but not derivation. Tim Leshan, director of public policy for the American Society for Cell Biology, said the NBAC report is "important" because the commission's work involved "a diverse body of folks looking at the various recommendations and clearly coming down on the side of derivation and use." Several observers also noted that the NBAC report should spur action on the NIH guidelines, which the agency initially had planned to release this summer, and should stimulate a much-needed debate on Capitol Hill. --Matthew Davis The report is to made available today on the NBAC web site: http://www.bioethics.gov __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com