Pro-Life

Use Adult Stem Cells for Research to End Disabling Diseases

“Research on human adult stem cells suggests that these multipotent cells have great potential for use in both research and in the development of cell therapies.”

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Gregory J. Rummo
Contributing columnist
July 13, 2001

If you are sitting on the periphery of the debate over whether the federal government should fund research utilizing embryonic stem cells, it is easy to embrace such a measure in the name of ending such horrible diseases as Alzheimer’s, juvenile diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.
Certainly, this seems like a worthy end, justifying the means, which, if you believe what the media is telling us in this case, is simply the use of a few embryos most likely destined for destruction anyway.

But to those whose moral lodestone points heavenward, there is no end which can be justified by a means that involves destroying a life of another human being no matter how early that life is in its development.

Robert A. Sirico, a Roman Catholic priest who is president of The Action Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty recently wrote in the July 11, Wall Street Journal, “At every stage of development, human beings (whether zygote, morula, blastocyst, embryo, fetus, infant or adult) retain their identity as an enduring being that develops through the stages of life.”

This belief is not the sole property of the Roman Catholic Church and is actually rooted in Judaism, coming from the Old Testament book of Psalms.

In the 51rst Psalm, David wrote, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” This is not implying that sex is a sinful act as some have misconstrued. It instead offers a biblical text for when life begins. The psalmist is simply explaining that God infused an eternal soul—a unique identity with a sin nature—into the union of sperm and egg, which slowly went on to develop into the child that would later become one of Israel’s greatest kings.

In other words, according to the Bible—the foundation for America’s Judeo-Christian tradition—life begins at conception. Even the National Institute of Health, a champion of embryonic stem cell research, recognizes this fact, stating on their website, “Human development begins when a sperm fertilizes an egg and creates a single cell…”)

How then does the person who has a committed faith based on the teachings of the Bible ignore what is almost certainly an avenue of research holding great promise for advances in medical science? As a scientist and a Christian, I find myself wrestling over this dilemma, especially in light of losing my mother to Alzheimer’s only two years ago and my uncle to Parkinson’s disease.

But further study into the issue reveals additional truths not discussed in detail during the sound-bite free-for-alls on the cable news shows.

Embryos are not the only source for stem cells. The truth is that stem cells are also available from adults.

Again, the NIH website plainly states: “Research on human adult stem cells suggests that these multipotent cells have great potential for use in both research and in the development of cell therapies.”

Although presently, research indicates that stem cells are less plentiful in both type and number from adult tissue than from embryos, even this situation is changing and “discoveries in this area of research are increasing. For example, until recently, it was thought that stem cells were not present in the adult nervous system, but, in recent years, neuronal stem cells have been isolated from the rat and mouse nervous systems.”

It is odd that we as a society are concerned with the disabling diseases and the preservation of the lives of those we can see while at the same time, engaged in a culture of death on both a microscopic level and behind the closed doors of the nation’s abortion clinics.

Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa commenting on the issue stated: "The bottom line is: Are these little human embryos — tiny as they are — people or property? Are we going to create a class of human beings just for research, experimentation, harvesting and destruction or are we going to view them as life?"

Related article: Medical field looking for cures, but at what cost?