|
By AMY ADAMS Stanford researchers argued that creating new stem cell lines will play a crucial role in treating patients. The views came in a hearing Friday at the Faculty Club. State Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, called the hearing in an effort to quickly pass a state bill to allow new stem cell lines to be generated in the state. Six leaders in stem cell research — including three Stanford professors — testified in favor of conducting the research. "Hundreds of thousands of people suffer from chronic and acute disease, and stem cell research holds the promise to ease the suffering of these people." Ortiz said. "I feel strongly about our responsibility as a state to deliver on that hope."
Ortiz is racing to pass the California legislation, which is in direct opposition to a bill due to be debated in the U.S. Senate within the next few weeks. That bill, introduced by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., calls for a 10-year prison sentence and $1-million fine for any person who conducts human cloning for reproductive purposes, who uses the technique to generate new sources of stem cells, or who imports therapies based on stem cell research into the United States. A competing bill by Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., would allow cloning in order to produce new sources of stem cells. Professor emeritus and Nobel Prize-winner Paul Berg, PhD, said the word "cloning" bears some blame for the controversy over its use in stem cell research. "I regret that the frightening thoughts conjured up by the word ‘cloning’ have clouded the debate," he said. Berg noted that although cloning can be used for reproductive purposes — which all members of the panel opposed — it can also generate new sources of human stem cells. These cells may be able to take over for cells lost in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, type-I diabetes or in spinal cord injuries. President Bush announced last August that federal funding would be available only for research using 64 existing stem cell lines. But those lines aren’t ideally suited for some research, the panelists agreed. "There is no substitute for being able to make an embryonic stem cell line to study a disease," said Irving Weissman, MD, the Karel and Avice Beekhuis professor of cancer biology and professor, by courtesy, of biological sciences. For example, researchers could take a nucleus from a person with an inherited form of cancer and generate a stem cell line uniquely suited for studying the cancer’s development. The same technique — called nuclear transplantation — could generate stem cell lines for studying any number of other diseases. The panelists noted that those who oppose nuclear transplantation do so because isolating stem cells creates an extremely early stage human embryo. That embryo is destroyed in the process, which opponents say is ending a human life. "People who would ban such pursuits must take responsibility for the lives of those people who would be treated by the therapies," Weissman said. He related the current debate over stem cell research to a debate in the 1970s over recombinant DNA technology, which now produces wide-ranging medicines including cancer and diabetes treatment. "The lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans each year are saved or made better by such recombinant DNA products," Weissman said. "I believe the kind of medical research that can follow from nuclear transplantation will have a similar magnitude of medical benefits." Following testimony by the experts, Ortiz heard comments by people whose lives are affected by conditions that could, in the future, be treated by stem cell research. Don Reed, whose son is paralyzed because of a spinal cord injury, toured a research lab which treated paralyzed rabbits with stem cells. "I held in my hand a rabbit that could not walk and now could walk," Reed said. "I want that for my son." The U.S. senate is due to debate the Brownback and Feinstein bills before spring recess. Ortiz and state Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-Santa Clara, hope to get at least one house of the state legislature to pass a resolution supporting new stem cell line research ahead of the U.S. Senate vote.
|
Statement by President John Hennessy on Jim Clark's stem cell announcement (8/31/01) |
Stanford Report, March 13, 2002
