stem cells

[Sid Roberts <sirobert@xxxxxxxxxx>]

In an article in yesterday's Sunday New York Times (Nov 15,1998 p.25)
President Clinton is reportedly concerned about the experiments on embryonic
stem cells and has directed the National Bioethics Advisory Commission to
review the medical and ethical considerations of the work that is being
done. The latest creation is part human, part cow stem cells.

A political consideration "is the ban on Federal financing of fetal
research. The ban, imposed by Congress, has created the situation that
university scientists, who mostly depend on Federal money, cannot work on
the human embryonic stem cells wheras the private sector may conduct
whatever research it pleases."

Human embryonic stem cells, as readers of this List already know, "can
develop into any of the body's 210 types of cells, a process that happens
naturally during fetal development."  Geron, a company doing this research,
hopes to grow cells in the laboratory that can be injected into patients
suffering degenerative diseases such as Parkinson"s.

According to the NY Times the ethical problems of this research are also
important because of the source of the stem cells. "In one case the cells
came from excess pre-implantation embryos created in infertility treatments,
and in the other from aborted fetal tissue.  Both sources were legal but
research using the first would have been ineligible for Federal money."















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     Sid Roberts   68/3   <sirobert@xxxxxxxxxx >     Youngstown, Ohio