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HUMAN STEM CELL RESEARCH
Media reports, up to 2001-JUN
Sponsored link.
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1998-NOV: Stem cells isolated: Scientists first announced the
isolation of stem cells. | |
1998-DEC: U.S.: Senate hearing: The U.S. Senate's Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and
Related Agencies subcommittee (L/HHS) began hearings on 1998-DEC-2. They
determined that stem cell research is prohibited by the existing
Federal government ban on funding research that destroys embryos. | |
2000-APR: U.S.: Senate bill: Senators Arlen Specter,
(R-PA), and Tom Harkin, (D-IA) introduced the Stem Cell Research Act of 2000 (S.
2015). It would allow federal researchers to extract stem cells from
embryos. It would prohibit the sale of embryos at a profit. At the Senate health appropriations
subcommittee hearings of APR-26, actor Christopher Reeve asked: "Is it more ethical for a woman to donate unused embryos that
will never become human beings, or to let them be tossed away as
so much garbage when they could help save thousands of lives?''
Senator Sam Brownback, (R-KS) compared the destruction of embryos with
World War II era medical experiments. He commented: "This sounds ... like what happened in World War
II. [Nazis reasoned that] these people are going to be killed, why not
experiment on them...Federally funded human embryonic stem
cell research is illegal, immoral, and unnecessary.1 | |
2000-SUMMER: U.S.: National Institutes of Health: According to Focus on the
Family, the NIH "is expected...to proceed with plans to
fund [stem cell]...research...." Their rationale is
that as long as private funding is used to actually extract the stem
cells, that the government can fund subsequent research which uses
those
stem cells. 1 Also, there are large quantities of
stem cells which were extracted from embryos in the past, and whose
descendents continue to propagate in the laboratory. So, research can
continue without killing any new embryos. | |
2000-JUL-3 U.S.: Heart Association backs stem cell research: According to Focus on the
Family: Heart Association (AHA) President RoseMarie Robertson said her
organization will consider funding specific stem-cell research
projects after it finalizes guidelines: "Nearly half of women and men in this country die of
cardiovascular disease and stroke," Robertson said. "Women
often don't recognize that, in fact, they share that same risk, and
the Association believes this type of research has tremendous value in
finding new ways to help those people." 2 | |
2000-AUG-17: UK: Human cloning may proceed in Britain: An
advisory group in Britain has recommended that the ban be lifted on
human "therapeutic cloning." See
above. The goal is to create organ transplants which bear the DNA
of the recipient patient. "At present embryo research is
allowed only for treating infertility and preventing disability in
children. Government ministers have already indicated that they
support Professor Donaldson’s proposals. Members of Parliament will
vote on the issue later this year. At the same time, the law will be
strengthened to prevent cloning with the aim of producing a baby."
3,4 | |
2000-AUG-23: U.S.: Stem cell research to proceed: The
draft version of the rules governing stem cell research which were
released in 1999-DEC have been formally issued. Federal funds will now
be available to study stem cells derived from human embryos. However,
the actual extraction of stem cells would have to be privately funded.
Only surplus frozen embryos left over from infertility treatments
would be allowed to be used. Persons donating embryos would be
prohibited from receiving financial reward.
The reaction of the pro-life community was intense:
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Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right
to Life Committee, wrote: "If a law said that no
federal funds may support 'research in which porpoises are
destroyed' and a federal agency then told its grantees to arrange
for porpoises to be caught and killed for use in federally
approved experiments, everyone would recognize this as illegal." |
Political reaction was divided strictly along party lines:
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Sen. Sam Brownback, (R-KS) said, in reference to a 1996 act
which prohibits federal supports research in which a human embryo
or embryos are destroyed that: "Embryonic stem-cell
research is illegal, immoral and unnecessary...[NIH] "is
violating both the spirit and letter of the law. If we manage the
cure of some diseases and the betterment of some aspects of bodily
health by means that involve the killing of the most defenseless
and innocent of human beings, we will rightfully be judged harshly
by history as having sought some benefits at the expense of our
humanity and moral being." |
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A spokesperson for presidential candidate George W Bush said:
"The governor opposes federal funding for stem-cell
research that involves destroying a living human embryo." |
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A spokesperson for presidential candidate Al Gore supports the
guidelines. The Democratic platform states: "We should
allow stem-cell research to make important new discoveries." |
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President Clinton referred to the benefits of stem cell research
as "potentially staggering." He said: "...I
think we cannot walk away from the potential to save lives and
improve lives, to help people literally to get up and walk, to do
all kinds of things we could never have imagined, as long as we
meet rigorous ethical standards. And I'm convinced ... that has
been done." 5 |
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2000-NOV-1: U.S.: Appeal by M.J. Fox: In an article in the New York Times about
the presidential race, Michael J. Fox who suffers from Parkinson's
disease, wrote: "The outcome is likely to have a dramatic
bearing on my prognosis — and that of millions of Americans whose
lives have been touched by Parkinson's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,
spinal cord injury, Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's disease and
other devastating illnesses. That's because one question that may be
decided on Tuesday is whether stem cell research — which holds the
best hope of a cure for such diseases — will be permitted to go
forward. Campaign aides to George W. Bush, who has not publicly
addressed the issue, stated on several occasions that a Bush
administration would overturn current National Institutes of Health
guidelines and ban federal funding for stem cell research...Mr. Bush
favors a ban on stem cell research, one aide said, 'because of his
pro-life views.' " 6 | |
2000-NOV-17: U.S.: Alternative source for stem cells: Researcher
Ira Black of the
University of Nebraska Medical Center announced at the conference
of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans that they had
had some success in extracting stem cells from adult cadavers. If
this discovery pans out, then the main objection to stem cell research
by
conservative Christians will no longer be significant. Stem cells
might be harvested from dead adults instead of living, discarded embryos. Dr.
William Berndt of the University of Nebraska Medical Center said:
"If the cells that are isolated have the same potential as
fetal cells, yeah, I think anybody in the business would quit using
fetal tissue and quit worrying about embryonic stem cells and use
material isolated from cadavers. But it's a long way from proof at
this point."7 Unfortunately, not all stem
cells are created equal. Stem cells have been extracted from several
sources other than embryos in the past. However, none of those
alternative sources produces cells that have the flexibility of
those derived from embryos. | |
2000-NOV-20: UK: Debate over stem cells: According to
NewsRoom:
The House of Commons will debate about stem cells on NOV-23. Following
the debate, members of parliament will be able vote freely -- probably
in December. They will be released from their obligation to vote along
party lines. 8 | |
2000-DEC-18: U.S.: President Bush becomes president-elect:
The Electoral College selected George W. Bush to be the next president
of the U.S. He will take office in mid-January. If he carries through
with his election promises, he will terminate federally funded stem
cell research in the U.S. That will satisfy conservative Christians
who generally regard the embryos from which stem cells are extracted
to be human persons. It will allow other countries to take the lead in
biotehnology. | |
2000-DEC-19: UK: Stem cell research approved: According to
MSNBC: In a free vote, members of parliament voted 366 to 174 to
permit stem cell research in their country. Yvette Cooper, the junior
health minister, told the House of Commons "In embryonic stem
cells may lie the key to healing within the human body...These
regulations do not raise any new moral issues beyond those that have
already been debated and discussed in the present law. Parliament is
not being asked to cross the Rubicon today." Opposition to
the bill was based upon the belief that stem cell research will lead
to (or is equivalent to) human cloning. One conservative MP stated: "For the first
time we are saying to the scientific community that we shall create
cloned human beings." A dozen demonstrators outside of the
House of Comment carried signs asking the MPs to "Vote No to
Cloning." This appears to be a misunderstanding
on the part of The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children
and other pro-life groups; stem cell extraction and cloning share a
few techniques, but are otherwise unrelated:
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Cloning of humans leads to the creation of an embryo that might develop
into a newborn. |
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Stem cell research removes an embryo's stem cells, thereby
destroying an embryo. These cells are then used to develop the
tissue of a single organ. Stem cells are incapable of inducing a
pregnancy and resulting in the birth of a newborn. |
It is not clear from the press reports whether those opposing stem
cell research who are raising concerns about cloning are:
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Merely misinformed about the nature of stem cells, or |
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Are exploiting the public's fear of cloning in order to generate
opposition to stem cell research. |
Under this bill, human cloning will remain illegal. 9 | |
2001-JAN-17: American Medical Association sends letter to
president-elect: The AMA sent a letter to President-elect George W.
Bush on behalf of "123 patient, research, and academic institutions."
They wrote that "The discovery of pluripotent stem cells may be the
single most important scientific and medical breakthrough in the past
decade or more." They urged a resumption of stem cell research. "For
diseases that prove not to be treatable with adult stem cells, impeding
human pluripotent stem cell research risks unnecessary delay for
patients who may die or endure needless suffering while the
effectiveness of adult stem cells is evaluated." | |
2001-FEB-22: Nobel laureates send letter to president: Advanced
Cell Technology Inc., coordinated a letter by 80 Nobel laureates to
President George W. Bush urging him to resume federal funding of embryonic
stem cell research. Richard Doerflinger, spokesperson for the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops, told the Washington Post: "Nobody
ever said these Nobel prizes are for ethics." | |
2001-MAR-8: Pro-life groups sue government: Several pro-life
organizations sued the government to block federal funding of stem cell
research programs. One of the organizations, Nightlight Christian
Adoptions, links infertile couples to fertility clinics so that the wife
can become pregnant with a surplus embryo. The lawsuit claims that if
the National Institute of Health funds stem cell research, that the
number of useable embryos will be reduced, thus financially harming
Nightlight and the prospective parents. | |
2001-APR-10: Stem cells extracted from fat: Researchers at
UCLA, the University of Pittsburgh and Duke University isolated stem cells
from animal fat that was collected by liposuction. They were able to
convert them into bone, cartilage and muscle. Dr. Adam J. Katz of the
University of Pittsburgh said: "We don't yet know the limits for stem
cells found in fat. So far, we have seen promising results with all of the
tissue types we have examined." | |
2001-APR-27: Mouse stem cells produce insulin: National
Institutes of Health announced that they had had coaxed embryonic
mouse stem cells into producing insulin in response to glucose. Dr. Doug
Melton, chairperson of Harvard University’s Department of Molecular and
Cell Biology, stated: "This work is about the most exciting in the
diabetes field in the last decade...You don’t have to be a rocket
scientist to say, 'Let's try this with human embryonic stem cells and
see what happens.' " | |
2001-APR-27: Further U.S. embryo research funding cancelled: The
National Institutes of Health had planned a meeting to review
researchers' requests for stem-cell project funding. The Bush
administration cancelled the meeting, even as scientists reported new
advances in embryo research. Presumably, when existing grants run out,
researchers will only be able to obtain funding from non-governmental
sources. The administration has ordered a review of the entire funding
program; it is scheduled to be completed during 2001-Summer. | |
2001-JUN-12: Presbyterian Church (USA) discusses research:
The Assembly Committee on Health and Social Issues of the
Presbyterian Church (USA) passed "A Statement on the Ethical and
Moral Implications of Stem Cell and Fetal Tissue Research" to their
General Assembly for approval.
According to PCUSA News: "Recognizing both the great progress in stem
cell and fetal tissue research and the complexity of the moral issues
involved, the proposed ethical guidelines would, if approved, offer
moral and ethical guidance on the use of tissue derived from fetuses,
subjecting it to appropriate limitations. Under the guidelines, the
decision to have an abortion would be separate from the decision to
donate fetal tissue and the sale or commercialization of fetal tissue
would be legally prohibited. Research with stem cells obtained from
human embryos would be conducted only when the goals to be accomplished
are compelling and unreachable by other means. As with the use of fetal
tissue, sale or commercialization of embryonic tissue would be legally
prohibited." 10 The Committee recommendations
were accepted by the General Assembly on JUN-15. | |
2001-JUN-16: Two stem cell bills reach the House:
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H.R. 2059, the Stem Cell
Research Act of 2001 was introduced by Rep. McDermott (D-WA) on
JUN-5.
It would "amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for human
embryonic stem cell generation and research." It restricts:
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Both research, and the funding of research, |
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By the government, and non-governmental labs, |
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If done on "on human embryos for the purpose of generating
embryonic stem cells..." |
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If done directly on stem cells |
Research would be restricted to:
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Only those embryos which "will never be implanted in a woman and
would otherwise be discarded," or |
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Embryos which "are donated with the written informed consent of
the progenitors." |
It also prohibits the creation of human embryos for research. It
prohibits human cloning. Embryos would have to be provided to the researchers
either free or on a non-profit basis. | |
H.R. 2096, the Responsible Stem Cell
Research Act of 2001 has been introduced by Rep. Smith's (R-NJ). It
would create a stem cell and umbilical cord blood bank at the
National Institutes of Health. It would also fund the project with
$30 million for fiscal year 2002. Only stem cells "obtained from
human placentas, umbilical cord blood, organs or tissues of a living or
deceased human being who has been born, or organs or tissues of unborn
human offspring who died of natural causes (such as spontaneous
abortion)" could be supplied to the bank. Stem cells derived from
therapeutic abortions would not be accepted. Also, stem cells from
surplus embryos which would otherwise be destroyed, would be rejected.
As it happens, the latter are the most flexible and potentially useful
type of cells; cells from other sources are currently of limited
usefulness in research. |
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2001-JUN-16: USA: Southern Baptists oppose cloning and embryo
research: At their annual convention, the Southern Baptists
passed a resolution which opposes human
and embryo research. They urged Congress to "enact a permanent,
comprehensive ban on human cloning." | |
2001-JUN-22: USA: Urinary sphincter muscle being developed: A
news item on a NPR program discussed the successful development, from
stem cells, of a urinary sphincter muscle for a pig. If further research
is not banned, human trials are possible within a few years. This has
the potential to help people regain bladder control -- a common problem
which limits mobility among the elderly. | |
2001-JUN-26: USA: Senator Orrin Hatch supports research:
Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) wrote a letter to President Bush recommending
that federal funds be used for embryonic stem cell research. He wrote,
in part: "I find, and hope you will as well, that proceeding with this
research is in the best interest of the American public and is consistent with our shared pro-life, pro-family values."
Colleen Parro, spokesperson with the Republican National Coalition
for Life, said Hatch "has forfeited his status as a pro-life
senator by endorsing the killing of embryonic babies so their cells can
be used for the benefit of other people." It is unclear whether
Hatch endorses the killing of new, surplus embryos or whether he
suggests that existing lines of stem cells be cultivated in laboratories
and used for research. 11 |
Sponsored link:
Related essays on this web site:
Cloning and stem cell research are unrelated lines of research. However, they
both start with an ovum and initially use some of the same techniques.
References used in the above essay:
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Ben Taylor et al., "Funding killing: New front opened on stem-cell
issue," Focus on the Family, at: http://www.family.org/cforum/cialert/A0010662.html
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Laura McGovern, "Heart Association backs stem-cell research,"
Focus on the Family, at: http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0012055.html
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"British experts back cloning," 2000-AUG-16, at: http://www.7am.com/cgi-bin/twires.cgi?
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"Stem cell research: Medical progress with responsibility,"
Chief medical officer's expert advisory group on Therapeutic Cloning,"
at: http://www.doh.gov.uk/cegc/
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Cultured neural stem cells reduce symptoms in model of Parkinson's
disease," at: http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/july98/ninds-20.htm
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http://www.os.dhhs.gov/progorg/asl/testify/t990126a.html
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Ben Taylor et al., "Funding killing: New front opened on stem-cell
issue," Focus on the Family, at: http://www.family.org/cforum/cialert/A0010662.html
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Laura McGovern, "Heart Association backs stem-cell research,"
Focus on the Family, at: http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0012055.html
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"Britain okays embryo cell research: Opposition calls it a step
toward human cloning," MSNBC, at: http://www.msnbc.com/news/505792.asp
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Nancy Rodman, "Health and Social Issues Committee tackles abortion
issues," PCUSA News, 2001-JUN-12
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Mark Cowan, "Hatch stem cell letter confuses issue," Focus on the
Family, at:
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/
Copyright © 1998 to 2001 incl., by Ontario Consultants
on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2001-NOV-8
Author: B.A. Robinson
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