A couple of weeks ago, on consecutive days, two major announcements were made in the realm of stem-cell research. The first announcement was by the American Heart Association reporting new evidence that adult stem cells can repair a damaged heart.
The new evidence came from some recent clinical studies. In one of the studies, conducted at Cedars Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles and the University of Louisville’s Jewish Hospital in Kentucky, 33 subjects had laboratory-grown stem cells (derived from their own heart tissue) deposited into the damaged area of their hearts. The other 15 subjects received standard heart care.
According to news reports, all of the stem cell recipients at Cedars Sinai (17) had their heart attack scars reduced dramatically. These recipients saw, on average, almost 50 percent of their damaged heart muscle replaced by new healthy heart tissue. The control subjects (8) saw no improvement in their heart function.
"This is unprecedented, the first time anyone has grown living heart muscle," says Dr. Eduardo Marban, who directed the study. "No one else has demonstrated that. It’s very gratifying, especially when the conventional teaching has been that the damage is irreversible."
Likewise, the Jewish Hospital subjects who received an infusion of their own heart stem cells (16) saw marked improvement in their hearts’ pumping ability while those subjects given standard medications (7) showed no improvement.
According to the Do No Harm Coalition, there are more than 70 different diseases or conditions that have been favorably treated (not necessarily cured) in human patients with adult stem cells. A list of these diseases and the published studies documenting the successful treatments can be seen on its website at www.stemcellresearch.org.
The second major announcement was that a key player in embryonic stem-cell research, Geron Corporation, will stop conducting this immoral research which involves the destruction of embryonic human beings. Geron said that its decision was based on economic (not ethical) considerations and it still believes in the promise of embryo-destructive research.
One of the reasons that Geron’s decision is such big news is the prominence of this company in the realm of embryonic stem cell research. Geron, a Califonia-based company, was the first to get approval by the Food and Drug Administration for a human trial using embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Less than three years after getting FDA approval, Geron not only announced that it was canceling this study, but is abandoning the ESC field completely.
Geron’s claim that this shocking decision is economically-based is incredible to me. For one thing, the company has already invested tens of millions of dollars into ESC research and had just started the first-ever human trial. To give it all up now is inexplicable and begs the question, is the real reason economic or something else?
The economic reason cited by Geron is also questionable given that several years ago, a majority of California voters approved a ballot measure to appropriate $3 billion for embryonic stem cell research precisely to assure that sufficient funds would be available to support ESC research. And just last year, Geron received $25 million from this California taxpayer fund to support its human ESC trial. Oops, looks like another lousy investment of taxpayer dollars.
As a footnote to California’s $3 billion dollar investment in ESC research, of the 19 research grants it provided this year, only five were for ESC research and the rest were for adult stem cell research. In the previous round of research grants, only four out of 14 grants were for ESC research. Go figure.
Josephine Quintavalle, founder of a British pro-life group called Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: "At long last after 10 years of unremitting hype, reality has caught up with embryonic stem cell claims. If Geron is abandoning this project it is because it is simply not working, despite the millions of dollars and hot air that has been invested in the promotion of this research."
You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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