Stem Cell Research
by: Jerry Price - Jan 9, 2006 - comment
“As the mother of a 10-year-old with juvenile diabetes, I yearn more than most for breakthroughs in scientific research. My son takes between four and six shots of insulin daily and must test his blood sugar by pricking his finger the same number of times. This disease affects every major organ system in the body and places him in the high-risk category for more problems than I care to name. When he settles down to sleep at night, I can never be entirely sure that he won’t slip into a coma from a sudden low blood sugar. How happily I would take the disease upon myself if I could only spare him! So please don’t lecture me about grinding a political axe.
“But like millions of others, I am troubled by the idea of embryonic stem cell research. It crosses a moral line that this society should be loath to cross. Taking the stem cells from human embryos kills them … Proponents of embryonic stem cell research point out that some of the embryos currently sitting in freezers in fertility clinics around the world are going to be washed down the drain anyway—which surely kills them, and without any benefit to mankind. This is true. There are several answers to this. The first is that a society that truly honored each human life would take a different approach. Fertility clinics and the couples who use them would understand the moral obligation not to create more embryos than they can reasonably expect to transfer to the mother’s uterus. In cases where this was impossible, the embryos could be placed for adoption with other couples. “Once you begin to pull apart a human embryo and use its parts, you have thoroughly dehumanized it. You have justified taking one life to (speculatively) save another … Those of us who follow the field with avid interest have been disappointed by avenues of research that have failed, thus far, to pan out. Still, opponents of stem cell research should not argue that the research is going to be fruitless. No one knows.
Mona Charen, Stem Cell Debate is Misleading (The Log Cabin Democrat of Conway, Arkansas), August 24, 2004 [Accessed August 25, 2005]
Embryonic stem cells have been known for some time to be unstable and difficult to control. Further research now shows that, like the old children’s game of “telephone” where a message is begun and passed along—resulting in quite a different message at the end—the longer embryonic stem cells are cultivated, the more genetic errors grow. That conclusion was reached and reported by Dr. Aravinda Chakravati, a geneticist at the Institute of Genetic Medicine of Johns Hopkins University. Johns Hopkins University has been a consistent proponent of embryonic stem cell research.
Dr. Chakravati said in his article reporting the research in the journal Nature Genetics, “These mutations we are finding are a much bigger problem.” His research team “found that as they were cultured, stem cell lines went through 35 cell divisions and found that 90 percent showed changes in patterns of methylation — the process in which certain genes in a cell are turned on or off — 22 percent had mutations in mitochondrial DNA and 50 percent had major deletions or amplifications in the DNA. Moreover, it was the connection between the particular genetic problems the cells developed and the formation of tumours that was most worrying.” He went on to say that if the cells do become unstable over time “that would put limits on the practical life spans of the cells and their usefulness for therapeutic purposes.”
Dr. Chakravati said that one possible solution would be to use the stem cells only when they are new. But embryonic stem cell treatment for disease “depends on a long process of cultivation and differentiation into particular tissue types.” That may end the hope of using these cells directly in therapeutic applications.
Embryo Stem Cells Genetically Unstable after Long Cultivation (LifeSiteNews), September 6, 2005
“Three teams of researchers have announced in less than three weeks separate discoveries of cells with the apparently potent capabilities of embryonic stem cells without their ethical drawbacks … The recent developments in stem cell research are:
- Harvard University scientists announced they have transformed skin cells into embryonic-like stem cells without the use of human eggs or the creation of embryos, The Washington Post reported Aug. 22.
- A team of Texas and British researchers revealed they have generated what appear to be embryonic stem cells from umbilical cord blood, according to the Aug. 19 issue of the Houston Chronicle.
- University of Pittsburgh scientists said they have discovered embryonic-like stem cells in the placenta, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Aug. 5.
“The results have produced cells that appear to share a highly valuable trait that many scientists attribute to embryonic stem cells—the ability to transform into other cells and tissues in the body. This elasticity, and the hope it has provided for therapies for many diseases, has been a major reason that embryonic stem cell research has gained much more publicity than experiments using non-embryonic stem cells.”
New Discoveries May Remove Ethical Problems in Deriving Embryonic Stem Cells (Baptist Press), August 22, 2005
“Despite ongoing successes with adult stem cell research, recent months have seen the debate over embryonic stem cell research continue unabated. This is especially true in state legislatures across the country where dueling proposals to ban such research or to allow and fund it continue with fascinating political drama.
“In an attempt to cool the debate, some researchers have offered imaginative new ways to obtain embryonic stem cells without the necessary step of destroying living human embryos. Four proposals have been floated in recent months.”
These proposals are complex and each has ethical implications. To learn more about these proposals and their ethical implications, read the article at the following Web address:
David McConchie, ‘Ethical’ Embryonic Stem Cell Research? (Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity), June 10, 2005
Scientists from Kingston University in the United Kingdom and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have discovered a type of cell in the umbilical cord which has the same properties as embryonic stem cells. Known as “cord-blood-derived embryonic-like stem cells” (CBE), they are not as flexible as cells derived from embryos. But they are more flexible than stem cells derived from bone marrow, the usual source for “adult” stem cells.
“CBE cells combine the medical advantages of adult and embryonic cells having some of the characteristic proteins or ‘markers,’ considered as identifiers of embryonic stem cells. The CBE’s also do not require a ‘feeder’ layer of animal cells as a growth medium which has been found to contaminate stem cell lines . . . This discovery follows on the heels of a recent one by researchers at the University of Toronto who found a source of stem cells, known as Wharton’s Jelly, inside the umbilical cord.”
The team working with CBE’s has been able to induce the cells to create liver tissue and they are working on getting them to “morph into other types of tissue.”
Umbilical Cord Blood Found to Yield Embryo-Like Stem Cells (LifeSiteNews), August 18, 2005
Further Learning
Learn more about: Life, Stem-Cell Research