EDITORIAL: Ease Stem Cell Restrictions

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

EDITORIAL: Ease Stem Cell Restrictions
The Ledger, FL - May 8, 2004

Scientists at the University of Florida were, frankly, surprised when recent 
tests indicated that adult blood stem
cells harvested from bone marrow may have the ability to transform themselves 
into brain cells.

If the research bears out, the discovery could eventually have a host of 
applications in the treatment of neurological
disorders.

It's a promising line of inquiry. But most scientists who engage in stem cell 
research acknowledge the limitations
posed by the use of adult cells. Simply put, they are less able to reproduce 
themselves and less capable of being
converted to other types of cells than are embryonic stem cells.

Embryonic stem cell research has much greater potential to develop treatments 
and cures for a wide range of disease,
from diabetes to Alzheimer's to Parkinson's disease to cancer.

But the most promising and important embryonic stem cell research is likely to 
take place beyond America's borders in
the coming years.

That has less to do with science than with politics. Responding to demands from 
the anti-abortion lobby, the Bush
administration will fund only research that uses material harvested from a 
limited number of embryonic stem cell lines
(about 19) that already existed before Aug. 9 2001, when the policy decision 
was announced.

That's an arbitrary and illogical restriction. Although the stem cells must be 
harvested from embryos, it is not
necessary to collect them from, say, aborted fetuses. Ample supplies can be 
derived from material that is routinely
discarded by in vitro fertilization clinics.

This ban is based on politics and ideology, not science. And among the critics 
of the restriction is Nancy Reagan, who
has watched helplessly for years while her husband, former President Ronald 
Reagan, has slowly succumbed to the ravages
of Alzheimer's Disease.

Today in California, the former first lady will attend a fund-raiser for the 
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation at
which millions of dollars are expected to be raised for stem cell research. At 
that time, she is expected to call on
President Bush to ease the restrictions he has placed on federally funded stem 
cell research.

Meanwhile, 206 members of the U.S. House, including several prominent 
Republicans, have signed a letter that also urges
the president to change his policy restricting embryonic stem cell research. A 
similar letter is being circulated in
the Senate.

The potential medical benefits to be derived by allowing wider access to 
embryonic stem cells makes this, literally, a
life-ordeath policy decision.

Politics should have no place in the research lab. Even Senate Republican 
Leader Bill Frist, RTenn., a staunch Bush
ally and a physician, concedes that it's time to revisit the policy established 
by the administration.

Objections raised by the abortion opponents ring hollow compared with the pleas 
of Americans who have watched loved
ones and family members cruelly victimized by illnesses that might one day be 
successfully treated with new therapies
and medicines.

Easing nonsensical restrictions on embryonic stem cell research will neither 
encourage abortion nor cheapen human life.

To the contrary, to the extent that stem cell research can push back the 
frontiers of medical science, human life will
be enhanced and enriched.

SOURCE: The Ledger, FL - May 8, 2004


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