OPINION: Time to End the Embryonic Stem Cell Ban

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Time to End the Embryonic Stem Cell Ban
Bush's flimsy funding policy is hurting promising research and real people

4/2/2004

It's been more than two years since US President George W. Bush addressed the 
nation to announce his embryonic stem
cell policy. On August 9, 2001, from The Bush Ranch in Crawford, Texas, he 
teasingly began by noting the importance of
federal funding. Then he revealed his hand, citing the "highest standards of 
ethics" in announcing strict federal
funding limits. "Research on embryonic stem cells raises profound ethical 
questions, because extracting the stem cell
destroys the embryo, and thus destroys its potential for life," he said.

The compromise: The government would fund research on 78 embryonic stem cell 
lines that already existed. There would be
no money for new lines. "This allows us to explore the promise and potential of 
stem cell research without crossing a
fundamental moral line, by providing taxpayer funding that would sanction or 
encourage further destruction of human
embryos that have at least the potential for life," Bush said.

As we look back and around, it's strikingly apparent that this address is a 
milestone in the Bush administration's
politicization and misuse of science, announcing one of its most regressive, 
deceptive and damaging policies. (The
address is further tainted by the fact that in it Bush introduced the world to 
his new bioethics council, as well as
its new chairman, Leon Kass, who has been criticized widely for his 
ultraconservative position on everything from
living longer to eating ice cream in public.)

Almost immediately, scientists attacked the policy. Turns out that few of those 
promised stem cell lines were
available, and probably none could be used for human trials. But the ban has 
stood, despite being a massive failure
that smells of purposeful deception and has severely hurt not only promising 
medical research, but real people with
real suffering. Meanwhile, private money is funding work on embryo research, 
private companies are getting wide-ranging
patent rights, states are legislating to override the policy and, ban or no 
ban, embryos from fertility treatments are
being destroyed anyway.

Potent promise

While research on adult stem cells is progressing, embryonic stem cells are 
still far closer to use in regenerative
treatments. Besides being less potent?a recent study stifled hope by finding 
that they can't replenish damaged heart
muscle?adult stem cells are also harder to work with. Those from bone marrow or 
blood, for example, are highly
variable, difficult to culture and rarely tolerated by a recipient's immune 
system when transplanted from a foreign
donor.

Leaving aside stem cells from cloned embryos ("therapeutic cloning," as its 
called, may prove financially prohibitive
even if not legally prohibited, since it's so customized), stem cells from any 
embryos could soon provide treatments
for diseases ranging from diabetes to Parkinson's. Human embryonic stem cells 
can be cultured indefinitely and appear
to provoke no immune response in recipients?somehow, the immune system doesn't 
recognize them as foreign, as it does
with adult stem cells.

In a recent study, for example, Richard Burt from Northwestern University in 
Chicago, Illinois and his colleagues
reconstituted bone marrow and blood cells from embryonic stem cells even in 
genetically mismatched mice. If the
finding, to be reported in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, holds true for 
humans, people wouldn't need
genetically matched human bone marrow donors to fight leukemia, immune 
deficiencies and autoimmune diseases. A single
line of embryonic stem cells could be cultured to provide treatments for many 
sufferers.

Recognizing such promise in embryonic stem cells, many countries are 
encouraging research with government oversight. In
1990, for example, the British Parliament created the Human Fertilisation and 
Embryology Authority to oversee embryo-
related research and clinics, and later stem cell and cloning research. While 
few other countries have such
organizations, many have taken a similar stance on the legality?and ethics?of 
embryonic stem cell research. China,
Japan and Singapore even have regulations for embryonic stem cell research that 
allow therapeutic cloning while banning
reproductive cloning. Canada's recently passed Bill C-6, which in its patchwork 
slapped-togetherness is by no means a
model for anyone, at least allows the extraction of stem cells from excess 
embryos created for fertility treatments.

Stop the insanity

The US could be a leader in stem cell research. This year's budget calls for 
the National Institutes of Health to
receive about US$28 billion. Few countries, and no private companies, could 
match the kind of money that it could throw
at real embryonic stem cell research?if it were allowed. And by funding the 
research, it could provide oversight and
transparency.

Instead, the stem cell ban has created an environment in which private 
companies can purchase tremendous intellectual
property for little money while they pursue research in secrecy. In his 
excellent book Merchants of Immortality,
Stephen Hall notes that the Bush ban paved the way for entrepreneurs to perform 
a "free-market override of the
congressional funding ban" that "completely transformed the technological 
landscape."

Hall notes, for example, that the ban gave Menlo Park, California-based Geron a 
huge amount of power over the future of
stem cell research. "It positioned Geron to amass seemingly dominant commercial 
rights in the field," he says. Geron
made an initial investment of as low as US$30,000, Hall says, that "would have 
potentially purchased a fabulously large
patent estate for a relatively modest sum." This gave the company exclusive 
commercial rights to embryonic stem cell
treatments for the heart, nervous system, liver, pancreas, blood-forming and 
bone-forming system. If a researcher used
the company's cells to find a disease cure, it could claim the 
commercialization rights and sue anyone who tried to
bring the cure to market.

Make no mistake, the Bush ban hasn't stopped embryonic stem cell research. 
Besides private companies stepping in,
several states, including California, have created or are considering creating 
legislation to keep various forms of
embryonic stem cell research legal, including therapeutic cloning. And 
universities have begun setting up privately
funded stem cell clinics.

All the ban has really done is slowed research, reduced government oversight, 
given private companies a nice gift,
diminished information sharing and transparency and all but guaranteed that the 
US won't be a leader in stem cell
treatments. And for no good reason, because excess embryos from fertility 
treatments are being destroyed anyway.
Despite the Christian Right's attempts, there simply aren't enough people who 
want to adopt an embryo. Not only that,
there are some couples who actually want their excess embryos used for research.

Certainly, the Bush administration has a lot on its plate, what with Iraq and 
Osama and an upcoming election. But it
should take a few minutes to show some real leadership, admit a big mistake and 
reexamine a policy that is hurting real
people with real diseases.

To this end, the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation recently initiated a 
"Letter to President Bush" campaign
showing bipartisan support for the government to revisit its stem cell ban.

Alas, if Bush doesn't listen, maybe John Kerry will.

Simon Smith is the founder and editor-in-chief of Betterhumans. You can reach 
him at simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

SOURCE: Betterhumans, Canada


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