Atlanta at center of stem-cell progress, debate

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Atlanta at center of stem-cell progress, debate
October 12, 2010
Jay Bookman
AJC

Atlanta’s Shepherd Center made international news Monday with the announcement that it was hosting the world’s first human spinal-injury patient injected with cells derived from human embryonic stem cells.

According to Geron, the company that developed the cells, previous research using injured animals has produced noticeable improvement in functionality. Paralyzed animals injected with stem cells “had improved hind limb locomotor control. Paw placement, stride length and paw rotation all significantly improved compared to controls,” the company reports. If treatment produces similar benefits in human subjects, a lot of lives could be significantly improved.

However, the main purpose of the limited trial underway at Shepherd and later at other spinal centers around the country is to ensure that the experimental treatment doesn’t harm human patients in any way. Once the safety of the approach is established, the plan is to enroll additional patients and begin to test the treatment’s actual effectiveness.

For some, the use of embryonic cells remains controversial, even though most Americans support such treatments. A Harris poll released last week found that 72 percent supported the use of embryonic stem cells in research and treatment, while only 12 percent opposed the approach.

“Fifty-eight percent of Republicans think stem cell research is acceptable (versus 24 percent opposed), as do 69 percent of Catholics and 58 percent of born-again Christians,” the Harris poll found. “Sixteen percent of Catholics and 22 percent of born-again Christians oppose it.”
Source: Harris Interactive

Source: Harris Interactive

Here in Georgia, however, the political consensus doesn’t seem quite that strong. Conservative legislators have made repeated but so far unsuccessful efforts to ban embryonic stem-cell research from the state, a step that would probably do great damage to the state’s growing biotech industry.

Roy Barnes, the Democratic nominee for governor, supports research and opposes a legislative ban. His Republican opponent, Nathan Deal, apparently takes the opposite approach. Deal’s spokesman, Brian Robinson, told AJC reporters that Deal “supports research that does not include the creation of life for the purpose of destroying it.”

That’s a curious way to phrase it. Almost all stem-cell lines used in research, including those injected in the Shepherd patient, are derived from donated embryos left over from in vitro fertility treatment; in other words, they did not involve “the creation of life for the purpose of destroying it,” as Robinson put it. As a member of Congress, Deal voted against federal funding of all embryonic stem cell research, regardless of the source.

Personally, I agree that the creation of human embryos for the purpose of research crosses a dangerous line, but it’s a line that science itself already respects. I see no problem whatsoever with using tissue from embryos that would otherwise be discarded. In fact, I think it would be immoral and inhumane not to pursue that line of research, given the number of lives that could be saved or improved.

All else being equal, of course, the ideal solution would be to convert normal human cells into stem cells that have the same marvelous capabilities as embryonic stem cells. While scientists report encouraging success in that effort, few of them believe that the work is far enough along to justify ending research using embryonic stem-cell lines.

The potential gain is just too great to begin slamming doors shut this early in the experimental process.