I truly don't understand the arguments of those who insist embryonic stem cell research is wrong, yet who accept the highly unnatural in vitro fertilization programs that produce these blastocysts in the first place. Such programs guarantee extra embryos will be produced, and these are destroyed if not used. So if you oppose embryonic stem cell research you must oppose IVF programs, too.

Having said that, I do think intent matters, just as it does in other areas of medicine. For example, it is ethical to give a dying patient narcotics to relieve pain and distress, even if doing so reduces their breathing just a bit, because our intent is to relieve pain and not hasten death. Likewise, I think it is ethical for us to use discarded embryos for research if our intent in producing them was to create a pregnancy; it would be unethical for us to produce these embryos for the purpose of harvesting stem cells. It may seem like a sophistic distinction, but it's not; we confront similar situations in other areas of medicine.

• Adult stem cells are ‘Hidden in the nooks and crannies of our brains, bone marrow, and hair follicles.’¹

• C.J. Chiu, a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at McGill University Health Center in Montreal, injected a type of stem cell from bone marrow, called a stromal cell, into the hearts of rats. These cells differentiated into new heart muscle that made the right connections to nearby cells so they could all beat together.²

• There are many causes of blindness involving the deterioration of blood vessels in the eyes. The hereditary disease retinitis pigmentosa (RP) involves degeneration of blood vessels, while age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy are caused by excess growth of blood vessels. In an experiment by a team from Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA led by Martin Friedlander, a type of stem cells from bone marrow called endothelial precursor cells (EPCs) could be injected into the eyes of mice. They had no effect on healthy mice, but in mice with a genetic defect that causes blood vessels to degenerate, the EPCs incorporated themselves into the blood vessels and preserved them from degeneration. And EPCs genetically modified to produce a protein that inhibits blood vessel growth would stop new blood vessels growing, so show promise to treat the diseases resulting from proliferation.³

  Friedlander points out that eye diseases often involve nerve problems as well as vascular ones. But this might be solved by an ealier study also involving adult stem cells. In rats, stem cells from the hippocampal region of the brain were transplanted into their eyes, and migrated to damaged parts of their retinas and even began to make nerve connections. This may have promise for helping restore vision in patients with these problems as well as retinal detachment.⁴

• Stem cells and other versatile ‘transient amplifying cells’ found in the outer root sheath of hair follicles can be transformed into skin cells which can be used for skin grafts.⁵

• A team led by University of Florida immunologist Ammon Peck permanently cured insulin-dependent diabetes in mice, with stem cells from adult pancreatic ducts. The stem cells differentiated in vitro into the insulin producing structures called the islets of Langerhans. These islets were injected under the skin of adult mice with IDD, and they functioned as a pancreas, releasing insulin, and blood vessels developed toward them. In a week or so, the mice could regulate their blood glucose levels again. Dr Peck said:⁶

‘Our first observation was the fact that one can take a single stem cell and induce it to grow and differentiate into a full-functioning organ, containing all the differentiated, end-stage cells found in the exocrine pancreas.’

• PPL Therapeutics PLC, the British firm that helped clone Dolly the sheep, intends to experiment with a new technique called dedifferentiation, i.e. undoing the process of differentiation. They hope to return a skin cell from an adult human to its embryonic state—they claim to have already achieved this with a cow.⁷

• Closer to home, the husband of one of the AiG(USA) staff had a bad case of bone marrow cancer, and donated over 30 million of his own stem cells, which were extracted from his blood prior to his first bone-marrow transplant. These are called hematopoietic [blood-forming] stem cells.

• An abundant source of stem cells is umbilical cord blood, which already have proven themselves in treating leukemia. A more recent discovery was that stem cells from umbilical cord blood were injected into mice which had suffered strokes, and they effected a 50% recovery in brain tissue. The About Genetics article Umbilical Cord Stem Cells: Hope for Millions? reports (21 February 2001):

‘Researchers attending the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science presented research suggesting that stem cells from umbilical cord blood may be as useful as stem cells found in fetuses. This breakthrough may lead to an easing of tensions surrounding stem cell research and could eventually lead to breakthroughs in the treatment of brain damage and brain disease. …

‘Given the abundance of umbilical cord stem cells and the fact that umbilical cord cells are already being used for other disorders like childhood leukemia, many researchers expect that umbilical cord stem cells will start being used to treat stroke victims within the next few years.’

• Probably the best source of stem cells is liposuctioned fat, which should not be hard to obtain in the country with the highest rate of obesity in the world. Researchers have grown cartilage, muscle, or more fat cells, from such stem cells, depending on the nutrients in which the cells were grown.⁸ Charles Vacanti, M.D., professor and chairman of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and a co-editor of Tissue Engineering commented:⁹

‘These findings are extremely significant for several reasons. They demonstrate the tremendous potential of adult-derived stem and progenitor cells, which are potentially superior to fetal-derived cells. Not only do they avoid the problems associated with rejection, but they may also be simpler to differentiate into the specific tissue needed. Most significantly, their use will very likely obviate the therapeutic need for fetal cells, making that ethical debate a moot point.’

In fact, stem cells derived from fat, adipose-derived adult stromal (ADAS) cells, have healed a rat’s skull fracture too big to fix by itself. This is proof that it can work in a living animal. If it could be applied to humans, it would be a whole new way of mending broken bones and repairing other defects now requiring bone grafts and prosthetics. See Fat stem cells heal broken skulls.

• The article Stem cells from skin grow into brain tissue provided still more evidence for adult stem cell benefits.¹⁰ A team led by Jean Toma and Freda Miller at McGill University’s Montreal Neurological Institute, Canada, grew stem cells from skin (the dermis) into smooth muscle cells, fat cells and brain cells. They were successful with stem cells from mouse skin and from human scalp. The article commented:

‘The new research, published Monday in Nature Cell Biology, bolsters the view that scientists can find alternative — and less controversial sources of stem cells … one intriguing aspect of growing them from stem cells found in skin is that scientists could have a vast and easily accessible supply. This breakthrough may lead to an easing of tensions surrounding stem cell research and could eventually lead to breakthroughs in the treatment of brain damage and brain disease. …

‘Patients receiving new tissue grown from stem cells taken from their own skin would face far fewer problems of rejection, if any, than they would after receiving a transplant of stem cells derived from human embryos.’

• The article Brain cells offer disease hope yet again ‘proves that embryonic stem cells are not the only stem cells able to be developed into new cells.’ A team at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, grew neurons from adult neural stem cells (NSCs) from mouse brains.¹¹ The authors state: ‘This demonstrates that a predominant, functional type of stem cell exists in the periventricular region of the adult brain with the intrinsic ability to generate neural and non-neural cells.’ They believe that the technique can be applied to humans and offers ‘hopes of a treatment for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.’

• The leading German biological journal Naturwissenschaften showed that mesenchymal stem or mesenchymal progenitor cells (MSC) from adult bone marrow stroma ‘have the potential to develop either in vitro or in vivo into distinct mesenchymal tissues, including bone, cartilage, fat, tendon, muscle, and marrow stroma (connective tissue), which suggest these cells as an attractive cell source for tissue engineering approaches.’¹²

• The NewScientist.com article Ultimate stem cell discovered describes the ‘exciting’ experiments by a team led by Catherine Verfaillie of the University of Minnesota. They extracted (or possibly generated) what is probably a truly pluripotent stem cell from adult bone marrow.¹³ These multipotent adult progenitor cells (MAPCs) have been grown into many different tissue types, including muscle, cartilage, bone, liver and different types of neurons and brain cells. This discovery should have been the final nail in the coffin for ESCR by removing the last excuse, the latter’s supposedly greater versatility. But the deafening media silence provides further support for my arguments below that the secular media have an anti-life agenda.

• New Scientist described a successful treatment of the disease using a patient’s own neural stem cells extracted from his brain.¹⁴ Parkinson’s disease is caused by damage to brain cells that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. So the stem cells were grown in the lab under conditions that favoured the development of neurons that made this vital neurotransmitter, then implanted into the patient’s brain.

  ‘Before the operation, the man’s condition had been deteriorating, despite drug treatment. But now, three years after the treatment, the patient has no symptoms …’

  Conversely, the article pointed out that neural cells from aborted babies ‘alleviates the Parkinson’s symptoms in some, but can cause serious side effects such as a worsening tremor.’ See also the web version, Re-implanted stem cells tackle Parkinson’s, 8 April 2002.

• A Welsh baby boy Rhys Evans has been cured of the fatal ‘bubble boy’ disease using cells from their bone marrow. The disease is caused by a defective gene on the X-chromosome that stops the development of T cells, a vital part of the immune system. Researchers at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, used a modified retrovirus to add a normal copy of the gene to the stem cells. Rhys now has normal T cell levels seven months after treatment, and another boy is doing well three months after treatment.¹⁵

• Muscle stem cells have been grown into muscles themselves, as well as components such as connective tissue, blood vessels and nerves. Researchers have injected such stem cells into mice with a disease similar to Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and much of the wasted muscles regenerated, so that up to 20% of the muscle mass came from the stem cells. This treatment is still in the early days though. ¹⁶

• Bone marrow stem cells helped to restore damage to hearts after a heart attack. These cells were extracted from the bone marrow of six patients, and injected into the boundary between living and dead heart muscle tissue. All six patients showed improvements in heart strength and blood supply, indicating that the stem cells differentiated into cardiac muscle and blood vessels.¹⁷

• Bone marrow stem cells have generated brain tissue, so could lead to treatment for Alzheimer’s. Eva Mezey’s team at the US National Institute Neurological Diseases and Strokes analysed the brains of four women during autopsies, all of whom had bone marrow transplants from men. Some of the brain cells from all four women had the male Y chromosome, conclusively proving that they came from the marrow. Mezey thinks that damaged tissue attracts circulating stem cells via chemical signals. Their work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: Transplanted bone marrow generates new neurons in human brains.

• Some Italian researchers at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan used adult neural stem cells to cure mice with multiple sclerosis. These stem cells from the brain ‘almost abolished’ the ‘functional impairment’.⁴⁰ ‘The stem cells help repair scarred and inflamed brain and nerve tissue.’⁴¹

• Adult stem cell researcher was named 2003 Queenslander of the Year! This was Professor Alan Mackay-Sim, deputy director of Griffith University’s School new Institute for Cellular and Molecular Therapies in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. He has extracted stem cells from the upper part of one side of the nose, because that is the only area of the nervous system outside the brain that can regrow. He has transplanted these stem cells to the spinal cords of paraplegic patients in the hope that the damaged nerves can regenerate. It is too early to know whether it will work, but so far there have been no ill effects to the patients. Prof. Mackay-Sim also hopes to use nasal stem cells to treat Parkinson’s and schizophrenia. His work has been supported by the Queensland State Government as well as a $50,000 grant from the Catholic Church designed to support adult stem cell research.⁴²

  This was not the only research into adult stem cells in Queensland. The husband-and-wife professors Gordon and Julie Campbell have grown new blood vessels from hematopoietic stem cells. This should be a great help to patients needing heart bypass surgery. At present, the arteries needed must come from another part of the body, and this can be painful and slow to heal.⁴²

  Professor Perry Bartlett’s work with brain stem cells to replace repair damaged nerve cells was the cover story of Nature.⁴³ He believes that this research could also help us to understand brain function, and help repair damaged or diseased brains and retard aging. He has been appointed to the University of Queensland’s foundation chair in neuroscience.⁴²

• John Gurdon and colleagues used immature frog eggs to reprogram nuclei of both mouse and human adult cells so they become like stem cells. The mouse or human Oct-4 mRNA appeared two days later, and this a definite indicator for stem cells. The effect was even stronger when the genetic material was injected into the frog egg nucleus. The Nature brief stated, ‘Gurdon and colleagues hope to analyse and isolate the molceules responsible, so that, in future, adult cells taken from patients can be reprogrammed directly. This would allow the production of a limitless supply of donor-matched stem cells and replace damaged and diseased tissue.’⁴⁴

• The L.V. Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India, has cured a number of cases of blindness due to corneal disease and surface damage. They have a 70% success rate in treating over 180 patients by implanting cells obtained from cultured adult stem cells. This technique can repair the whole outer surface of the eye, improving on previous methods that repair only the cornea.⁴⁵

• The pulp of baby teeth is a good source of stem cells, as researchers from the Hanson Institute at South Australia’s Royal Adelaide Hospital have shown. See Aussie scientists get teeth into stem cell Research.

Jonathon:

You make a long list of interesting observations. Thank you for that. But it all boils down to your last line: "It is my personal belief that we cannot justify destroying human life for research under any circumstances."

Of course we can't. Do you see that by defining a soon-to-be-discarded blastocyst from an IVF program as "human life" you have tilted the debate in your favor with a semantic sleight of hand? I'm sure you genuinely feel that way, but you must not define my position as being in favor of destroying human life.