US Panel Urges New Rules For Stem-Cell Research
Date: 27-Apr-05
Country: USA
Author: Maggie Fox
The National Academy of Sciences panel said universities and private companies doing the work should establish strict ethical and scientific guidelines and reassure the public that there are controls on the sometimes controversial science.
"The premise is not to advocate that the work be done -- that has already been debated with some consensus reached in the scientific community and elsewhere -- but rather to start with the presumption that the work is important for human welfare, that it will be done, and that it should be conducted in a framework that addresses scientific, ethical, medical, and social concerns," the panel said in its report.
"The public increasingly supports this area of research and its potential to advance human health," it added.
"In the absence of federal guidelines broadly governing the generation and research use of human embryonic stem cells, the scientific community and its institutions should step forward to develop and implement its own," the report said.
Supporters of stem-cell research welcomed the report as vindicating their arguments.
"Because of an absence of comprehensive federal oversight stem-cell researchers are operating in a Wild West of science," said Colorado Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette, who has co-sponsored bipartisan legislation to remove federal funding limits on stem-cell research.
Rival bills are on the table in both the House and Senate that would either actively promote embryonic stem cell research or ban it outright. All bills would ban the use of cloning technology to create a living human baby.
Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, a Republican who opposes all embryo research, condemned the Academy's report.
"These so-called 'guidelines' for destructive human embryonic stem cell research try to put a good face on an unethical line of research," said Brownback. He has vowed to fight any bill promoting embryonic stem cell research or cloning.
"They attempt to frame the issue as 'how to conduct ethical research,' but the guidelines entirely miss the point: We should not be destroying young human lives for the benefit of others."
In August 2001, President George W. Bush announced strict limits on federal funding of human embryo research and said work could only be paid for if it used batches, or lines, of stem cells that already existed at that time.
Scientists, including the National Institutes of Health, have complained that these limits will not allow them to do the research that may lead to new, tailored medical therapies and perhaps even treatments for diseases such as juvenile diabetes, Parkinson's disease and cancer.
The issue has divided anti-abortion conservatives. Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch has signed on with liberals such as Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy in support of a bill that would promote stem cell research and also so-called therapeutic cloning.
Stem cells are the body's master cells, used to generate new tissue and blood cells. Taken from days-old embryos, when they are still a ball of cells, these stem cells have the ability to become any type of cell or tissue in the body.
