Promoting Life Through Stem Cell Research

Promoting Life Through Stem Cell Research

A bipartisan coalition of House members yesterday overwhelmingly passed a bill to expand federally funded stem cell research. Ignoring President Bush’s manipulative baby-hugging photo-op, House members made a forceful statement in defense of stem cell research as a true promotion of life with the potential to help millions of people worldwide overcome debilitating illnesses.

• Stem-cell research could one day help to fight serious illnesses such as Alzheimer's, strokes, brain or spinal injuries, Parkinson's, diabetes and heart defects. As 80 Nobel laureates have argued to the president, adult stem cells do not offer the same potential for significant medical and scientific breakthroughs as embryonic stem cells. Adult stem cell lines are difficult to work with and cannot develop – or “differentiate” -- into all types of cells like embryonic stem cells. For example, they are unable to produce insulin-producing cells to fight diabetes. In contrast, embryonic stem cells—a cluster of about 150 cells (also known as a “blastocyst”) formed a few days after the joining of a sperm and egg—have the potential to become any of the 200 kinds of cells that make up the human body and therefore have far greater potential to help those with particularly debilitating and painful diseases or injuries.
  
  
• Existing opportunities for stem cell research are far too limited to support life-enhancing medical research. President Bush’s stem cell policies have clearly handcuffed U.S. scientists from making advances in the field. After taking office, President Bush limited federal funding for embryonic stem cell research to what he called the “more than 60” lines already in existence as of 8PM on August 9, 2001. Fewer than two dozen of those lines were actually viable, and many of those are tainted and inferior to those being used in private research. They were all developed using cells from mice, for example, meaning they will never be able to produce usable human therapies.
  
  
• Stem cell research upholds the dignity of life and the privacy of individuals. Under the House bill passed yesterday, only donated embryos will be used to support stem cell research. No one is forced to do anything, and couples are free to do whatever they desire with their surplus embryos. They can donate them to science or donate them to another couple. They can continue to freeze their embryos or perform religious ceremonies. Stem cell research is fully consistent with America’s strong tradition of using science to promote and enhance life while respecting individual choice and freedom.