The Politics Of Stem Cell Research

“We have a moral obligation to provide our scientific community with the tools it needs to save lives,” said Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland.
The bill states that the research would be done under “strict ethical guidelines” and that funding would only apply to stem-cell lines from embryos that “would otherwise be discarded by fertility clinics.”

No question, the stem-cell debate has been helpful to the Democrats as a wedge issue. It paints Republicans as bigoted opponents of saving lives. And celebrities like presidential son Ron Reagan and Michael J. Fox have given the issue emotional impact.

It doesn’t matter that conservatives have pointed out again and again that embryonic stem cells have not yet shown to be effective in fighting degenerative disease, whereas adult stem cells have. Our friends in the MSM have been remarkably reluctant to differentiate the two types of stem cell. But you would expect that.

In recent days, of course, there has been a startling announcement on the stem cell front. According to Karen Kaplan in The Los Angeles Times:

Researchers have found that some stem cells in human amniotic fluid appear to have many of the key therapeutic benefits of embryonic stem cells while avoiding their knottiest ethical, medical and logistical drawbacks, according to a study published Sunday.

Er, which demonstrated therapeutic benefits would that be, Karen?

Columnist Charles Krauthammer reminds us that the stem-cell question is not just black and white. We have to draw the line at harvesting human life somewhere—don’t we?

There is also the rather difficult question about embryonic stem cells. They often turn cancerous. Amniotic stem cells seem likely to be more safe, according to Krauthammer.

Even better, amniotic fluid might prove to yield an ideal stem cell — not as primitive as embryonic stem cells and therefore less likely to grow uncontrollably into tumors, but also not as developed as adult stem cells and therefore more “pluripotential” in the kinds of tissues it can produce.
If it is proved that these are the Goldilocks of stem cells, history will record the amniotic breakthrough as the turning point in the evolution of stem cell research from a narrow, difficult, delicate and morally dubious enterprise into an uncontroversial one with raw material produced unproblematically every day.

But then it wouldn’t be such a useful political issue.

Technorati tags: embryonic, stem, cell, amniotic

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Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.

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