Stem Cell Research
Recent News
-National: On June 20 the President again vetoed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act . He also issued an executive order similar to S. 30 -it encourages research into alternative methods of deriving stem cells. This is largely symbolic, as these alternative methods are already eligible for NIH funding.
-Science: Science has released a survey indicating that about half of patients with embryos left over from fertility treatments would donate those embryos for research rather than see them discarded or donated to another infertile couple.
Scientific Breakthrough
The issue of stem cell research burst on the scientific scene in November of 1998 when researchers first reported the isolation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). The discovery, made by Dr. James A. Thomson, a biologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, offered great promise for new ways of treating disease. The cells, which are derived from several-day-old embryos, can theoretically differentiate into virtually any type of human cell, from blood cells to skin cells. Scientists hope to find ways of using them to repair damaged tissue. For a clear and concise description of stem cells and their potential, see the National Institutes of Health (NIH) report Stem Cells: Scientific Progress and Future Research Directions, executive summary.
Ban on Embryo Research
Dr. Thomson's breakthrough work was not eligible for funding from NIH, the federal government's primary sponsor of biomedical research and the sponsor of some of his other research projects. Instead, he set up a separate lab to work on hESCs supported by private funding from the Geron Corporation of Menlo Park, California and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).
The work was ineligible for public funding because of a ban placed by Congress on NIH-funded human embryo research. In 1995, Congress attached the ban to the bill appropriating...
View Full Essay