“There’s no shortage of scientific evidence showing the promise of ethical research from stem cells taken from adult tissue,” said Father Joseph Howard, executive director of the American Bioethics Advisory Commission. “And there’s also no shortage of studies which confirm the destructive effects of unethical experimentation on stem cells taken from embryonic babies.”
Father Howard said in the face of such evidence, “it is unfortunate that so many scientists have allowed scientific fact to deteriorate into unfounded political opinion.”
He cited a number of studies pointing to the benefits of ethical research on stem cells gleaned from adult bone marrow, umbilical cord blood or placental blood:
- In the world’s largest study thus far, a group of prominent researchers transplanted placental stem cells into 562 patients suffering from leukemia and a wide variety of other diseases to achieve beneficial results. (New England Journal of Medicine, Nov. 26, 1998, Vol. 339 No. 22, pp. 1565-1577).
- University of Pittsburgh scientists demonstrated that muscle-derived stem cells can become bone after transplantation.
- The National Neurological Institute in Milan demonstrated that neural stem cells (when transplanted into bone marrow) became a variety of cell types including myeloid, lymphoid and hematopoietic cells.
- The National Academy of Science demonstrated that bone marrow stem cells can become brain cells.
Father Howard also cited a recent study showing that stem cells stripped from aborted babies — when implanted into victims of Parkinson’s disease — had nightmarish effects.
“If brain can become blood, and blood become brain — ethically — why can’t Nobel laureates understand that killing embryonic persons is not only unethical, but unnecessary,” Father Howard said. “It is disreputable indeed when scientists make political statements in the face of scientific fact, on behalf of an ideology which sanctions the killing of embryonic persons.”
Release issued: 13 Mar 01
