M
mlchance
Guest
An article appearing recently in Nature Medicine on-line is being used by advocates of human embryonic stem cell research, and the killing of embryonic human beings, to question whether existing lines (funded under President Bush’s decision of August 2001) are “contaminated” by the animal sugar solution in which they are grown for the creation of new lines (and the destruction of more living embryos). But this is all a tempest in a teapot. First, the stem cells in question simply evidence a “sugar-coating” which comes from the liquid in which they are grown.
The research paper itself shows that these sugars can be diluted and “washed away” by growth in a source of human sugars. Second, some of the embryonic stem cell lines that do qualify for federal funding are still frozen, have not been exposed to the animal sugars, and could be used if it were determined the existing lines were fatally compromised. And third, this would only be a potential problem when, or if, embryonic stem cells could ever be shown safe and effective, something which even proponents of the research admit is decades away at best.
But perhaps the fundamental lesson is that the use of human embryonic stem cells is problematic - for scientific as well as ethical reasons. We shouldn’t waste our time - and tax dollars - on such research. Far better to fund non-embryonic stem cell research, and to pass the Brownback bill to ban cloning of human embryos altogether.
– Mark L. Chance.
The research paper itself shows that these sugars can be diluted and “washed away” by growth in a source of human sugars. Second, some of the embryonic stem cell lines that do qualify for federal funding are still frozen, have not been exposed to the animal sugars, and could be used if it were determined the existing lines were fatally compromised. And third, this would only be a potential problem when, or if, embryonic stem cells could ever be shown safe and effective, something which even proponents of the research admit is decades away at best.
But perhaps the fundamental lesson is that the use of human embryonic stem cells is problematic - for scientific as well as ethical reasons. We shouldn’t waste our time - and tax dollars - on such research. Far better to fund non-embryonic stem cell research, and to pass the Brownback bill to ban cloning of human embryos altogether.
– Mark L. Chance.