March 17, 2009

There’s no doubt that President Barack Obama’s reversal of the federal funding ban for embryonic stem-cell research will affect countless lives. Whether this development is positive, though, depends on who you talk to.

“Embryonic stem cell research has not produced one treatment in humans, just a lot of dead lab mice,” said Joni Eareckson Tada, a Christian author and speaker who became a quadriplegic at age 17. Like many opponents of the President’s decision, she considers it short-sighted at best and immoral at worst.

“Families of disabled children want treatment now,” Eareckson Tada said, explaining that every dollar that goes toward embryonic stem-cell research is a dollar not going toward the study of adult stem cell treatment, which has already proved its efficacy in real life.

Even when setting aside the ethical issue of harvesting cells in a process that destroys the embryo, the medical benefits of embryonic stem cells to treat diseases such as Parkinson’s and cure spinal cord injuries so far has proved futile.

Studies suggest it could take many more years of research before embryonic stem cells can be successfully used to ease human suffering. And there is no guarantee such cells ever will work, which is why critics think the issue has more to do with playing politics than helping people.

Those favoring embryonic stem-cell research came out quickly in defense of Obama’s decision to eliminate the August 2001 restriction put in place by former President George W. Bush. Those restrictions limited the availability of federal funding only for research on the existing 21 stem cell lines.

Obama’s executive order will allow researchers to obtain federal funding to use human embryonic stem-cell lines that have been created since August 2001, along with future lines.

Still in place, however, is a Congressional ban that prohibits the use of federal funds for research that involves the creation and destruction of embryos. But Congress might now attempt to rescind that ban, considering it twice passed legislation that would have allowed the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies to pay for research using embryonic stem cells. Bush vetoed both bills.

Private research funding continues to be exempt from the Congressional prohibition.

“Stem-cell research is poised to change the face of medicine,” said Mary Jo Kilroy, a U.S. Representative from Ohio.

Few argue that point, but those who protest Obama’s decision stress that it’s essential to distinguish between stem cell research that currently works (adult) and that so far has not (embryonic).

“All breakthroughs have come from adult stem cells, not embryonic,” said Dr. Francisco Contreras, an oncologist and surgeon who is director, president and chairman of Oasis of Hope Hospital in Tijuana, Mexico. “Theoretically, strictly from a medical standpoint, the beauty of embryonic cells is their versatility, but that has proved to be an Achilles heel because a high percentage of the time in animals they also produce tumors. With adult stem cells, there have never been tumors.”