http://news.crosswalk.com/partner/Article_Display_Page/0,,PTID74088|CHID194343|CIID1117300,00.html
January 25, 2002
Crosswalk.com News Channel - As a
newly released research from the University of Minnesota reveals what is
possibly the "most important cell ever discovered," the nation's largest
faith-based physicians' organization says the findings provide new hope
for patients and should end the push to clone and destroy embryonic human
beings.
According to David Stevens, MD, executive
director of the Christian Medical Association (CMA), "Cells taken ethically
from adults with no loss of life have already shown tremendous potential
and proven benefits.
"This discovery should remove any
last vestiges of doubt in the lifesaving potential of adult stem cells.
As many had predicted, it now appears that adult stem cells are the avenues
to providing real cures for real people."
Stevens adds, "If the remarkable
results of this study prove consistent with early published reports, then
no reasonable person could justify violating ethical barriers to clone
and harvest human embryos for their cells."
According to a recent report in NewScientist.com,
Catherine Verfaillie at the University of Minnesota discovered cells in
the bone marrow of adults that "can turn into every single tissue in the
body."
Princeton University's Ihor Lemischka
has labeled the work "very exciting," noting that the cells "can differentiate
into pretty much everything that an embryonic stem cell can differentiate
into."
Stevens notes, "Given this breakthrough
news and the consistent performance of adult stem cells, if you were investing
in the stock of companies pursuing therapies from adult stem cells or from
cloned human embryonic stem cells, where would you put your money?"
What Can Stem Cells Do?
Studies using non-embryonic stem
cells, derived ethically and safely from umbilical cord blood, bone marrow,
brain tissue and fat, have moved well beyond theory to application. These
clinical studies offer solid benefits to patients suffering from heart
disease, blood disorders and other afflictions.
Adult stem cells have already been
used successfully with patients: to treat cartilage defects in children;
restore vision to patients who were legally blind; relieve systemic lupus,
multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis; and to serve as an aid in
numerous cancer treatments.
The use of a patient's own stem cells
is even preferable to using embryonic stem cells because it avoids the
problem of the body rejecting cells other than its own. Other new methods
such as somatic cell gene therapy are increasingly successful in tissue
regeneration and otherwise treating disease.
By contrast, embryonic stem (ES)
cells have yet to demonstrate a single human therapeutic benefit. The most
recent studies in animals have shown ES cells to be unstable and unpredictable-"errors
[that] can lead to premature death or serious abnormality."
Worried ES cell researchers were
caught doctoring their interpretations of ES cell problems because they
reportedly feared that "any mention of that potential problem in the article
might be exaggerated by political factions that oppose the research on
religious and ethical grounds."
As the ES cell hype smokescreen disappears,
a lot of disillusioned and angry patients will question scientific integrity.
Learn more about the Christian Medical
Association at http://www.cmdahome.org/
Copyright 1995-2002. Crosswalk.com,
Inc
By Jon Imbody
Senior Policy Analyst, CMA