International Herald Tribune Editorial - Moving ahead on stem cells

International Herald Tribune Editorial - Moving ahead on stem cells
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune
Published: January 10, 2007


Democrats in the House of Representatives are poised to push through a bill this week that would loosen President George W. Bush's restrictions on federal support of embryonic stem cell research. The bill will be opposed by legislators beholden to religious conservatives. Many are likely to cite a new study suggesting that broadly useful stem cells can be derived from amniotic fluid without destroying embryos to get them.

The new study, while certainly intriguing, in no way lessens the need to widen the array of embryonic stem cells available for research and ultimately therapy.

Under the policy enunciated by Bush in 2001, federal money can be used to support research on only 20 or so stem cell lines that existed before the policy was set. Many of these cell lines are deteriorating or contaminated, and their number is far too small to allow the full range of research needed to explore the value of stem cells for treating Parkinson's, diabetes, spinal cord injuries and other serious ailments.

The Democrats' bill would expand the number of lines by directing the secretary of health and human services to finance research using human embryonic stem cells regardless of when they were derived. The source of these cells would remain highly restricted. No embryonic stem cells could be tailor-made to study specific diseases or therapies. The stem cells would have to be derived only from embryos that were originally created for fertility treatments and would otherwise be discarded.

An alternative approach that attracted wide attention this week was described by scientists at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. They extracted stem cells from the amniotic fluid of pregnant women and used them to create muscle, bone, fat, blood vessel, nerve and liver cells. These stem cells, spun off by the developing fetus, seem to have some — though quite probably not all — of the versatility that allows embryonic stem cells to grow into a wide range of body tissues.

It would be a mistake to use this promising research, which has yet to be replicated or fully accepted by other scientists, as another excuse for hobbling embryonic stem cell research. The days-old embryonic cells are likely more versatile than fetal cells extracted months later from amniotic fluid, and they allow a range of research on the very earliest stages of human development.

Stem cell research holds enormous promise, though top researchers say it could take a decade or more to develop useful therapies from it. At this point, it is important to explore all approaches: using "adult" stem cells, which can grow into a very limited range of body tissues; the cells found in amniotic fluid, which may yield a broader range of tissues; and the most versatile cells of all, those derived from early human embryos.