2005 in review: Applying ethics to stem cells
BY AMY ADAMS
This past year the stem cell research community on the national, state and university level took steps to ensure that research is conducted in an ethical manner. It was an important development for researchers who have worked under inconsistent and sometimes unclear guidelines.
At the national level, a panel assembled by the National Academy of Sciences issued recommendations for how human embryonic stem cell research should be conducted. Although these are only advisory, David Magnus, PhD, director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, said he expects they will become the yardstick that all states and universities use when devising their own regulations.
The NAS panel made recommendations on how people should give consent to have their eggs or sperm used to create new stem cell lines, the types of research that embryonic stem cells should be used in and how universities should oversee human embryonic stem cell work.
At the state level, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, established to fund stem cell research in California when Proposition 71 passed in the fall of 2004, has issued its own guidelines for how research funded through CIRM grants should be conducted. The CIRM has begun awarding money—including a $3.7 million training grant to Stanford—though the funds are not yet available because of court challenges to the legality of the new institute.
Stanford has responded to the need to organize stem cell research efforts by forming the Program in Regenerative Medicine that will encompass all stem cell and regenerative medicine research across its campus. This program falls under the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. The PRM, with the school's legal department, has been assembling guidelines for stem cell research on campus.
Stanford's guidelines will fall in line with the NAS recommendations and with the CIRM guidelines, including recommendations that all egg and sperm donors receive no money, are not coerced to donate, understand the donation process and sign consent forms.
One pressing issue has been how to keep research on new stem cell lines, which is prohibited from using federal funds, separate from all federally funded projects. The medical school has handled this problem by moving embryonic stem cell research off campus to a building that does not have federal funding. Eventually that work will move to a new building on campus where it will again be isolated from federally funded research.
The administrative work in 2005 should help ease concerns of researchers who want to work with human embryonic stem cells at Stanford. Already Michael Longaker, MD, professor of medicine and chair of the PRM advisory committee, said he's had interest in the PRM from researchers across Stanford campus who want to enter this new area of research. With the groundwork in place these researchers will have an easier time pursuing new disease treatment and cures in upcoming years.
Share This Story