Questions and Answers Concerning the
Stem Cell Debate
Q. Is an embryo a human being, or simply a form of non-human biological life?
A. Various advocates of embryonic stem cell research have attempted to de-humanize
embryos in the first two weeks of life by labeling them “pre-embryos.” However, this
baseless term has not been accepted by the National Institutes of Health’s Human
Embryo Research Panel, the National Bioethics Advisory Commission or Congress. It
has also been rejected by modern embryological science books.
Q. What is a stem cell?
A. Stem cells are cells that can divide indefinitely in culture, manufacturing other cells
like red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and skin cells that perform designated
tasks for the human body. It was the traditional belief of scientists that stem cells could
only be procured from embryos. However, recent biological advances have provided
cogent evidence that there is an increasingly bountiful resource of stem cells which can
be found in the bodies of adults and other non-embryonic life forms.
Q. What are embryonic stem cells?
A. Embryonic stem cells are taken from human embryos usually during the first week of
life. Thus far, these stem cells cannot be extracted from embryos without destroying
embryonic life. When scientists remove inner cell mass stem cells from inside the
blastocyst, (the multi-celled embryo on the fourth or fifth day of development), the
embryo dies. The blastocyst is more developed and complicated than the zygote. During
the blastocyst phase the embryo makes hormones controlling pregnancy and begins to
interact with uterine wall blood vessels. After discarding the dead embryo, scientists
attempt to “coax” the embryonic cells in an effort to transform them into different types
of tissue, such as nerve cells or skin cells. The number of embryonic stem cells multiplies
indefinitely, and scientists hope that cells harvested from embryos may be used in the
future to treat disease for suffering patients.
Q. Have embryonic stem cells effectively treated disease or healed ill patients?
A. NO PERSON HAS EVER BENEFITED MEDICALLY FROM EMBRYONIC STEM
CELLS. According to Marcus Grompe, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Molecular and
Medical Genetics, Oregon Health Sciences University, “There is no evidence of
therapeutic benefit from embryonic stem cells.” In fact, experiments performed on
diabetic mice in March of 2000 at the University of Florida suggested that embryonic
stem cells may be harmful to patients. Embryonic stem cells failed to save the mice, who
died after receiving the transplanted cells. Arthur Caplan and Glenn McGee of the
University of Pennsylvania reported that in one study 15% of subjects afflicted with
Parkinson’s saw their condition deteriorate after undergoing injections of fetal tissue
cells, which created an overabundance of dopamine (the major chemical lacking in
Parkinson’s victims).
Q. Have non-embryonic stem cells successfully treated disease or healed ill patients?
A. NON-EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS HAVE HELPED HUNDREDS OF
THOUSANDS OF SICK PATIENTS. In sharp contrast to the utter inability of
embryonic stem cells to reverse diabetes, researchers at the University of Florida
announced in March 2000 that adult pancreatic stem cells saved the lives of diabetic
mice. Also, fifteen people suffering from Juvenile Diabetes were cured with adult
pancreatic islet cells, while a paraplegic woman regained the ability to move her toes and
legs after receiving adult immune-system cells. Further, two children born without
immune systems recovered from their condition after bone barrow stem cell transplants,
and several individuals afflicted with blindness experienced an improvement in eye sight
following surgery on the cornea with corneal stem cells. Adult stem cells are currently
being utilized in clinical trials to aid patients with a variety of sicknesses, including
Breast Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, Stroke, Type I diabetes, Anemia, multiple sclerosis,
lupus, as well as juvenile and other forms of rheumatoid arthritis.
Q. Aren’t embryos going to be thrown away in many cases? Why not use those
embryos for potentially life-saving research since they’re going to eventually be
destroyed anyway?
A. To begin with, it is always unethical to end one life for the purpose of saving another
because this is cannibalism. All life is sacred from conception (fertilization) to natural
death, and therefore should be treated with the equal respect that it deserves.
Furthermore, this argument rests upon the assumption that frozen embryos have to be
discarded by parents who no longer want or need them. Throwing out “excess” embryos
is not an absolute medical necessity. On the contrary, mothers and fathers of extra
embryos now have the option of preserving them for future pregnancies or for other
couples trying to have children. For example, the New England Journal of Medicine
reported on July 5, 2001 that 59% of patients who originally intended to throw out excess
embryos ultimately decided to keep them for other couples or further pregnancies. Also,
many of the same scientists who say “the embryos are going to be discarded anyway” are
creating new embryos for deadly research instead of operating on existing ones.
Q. Don’t most Americans support stem cell research?
A. Yes, but the overwhelming majority prefer adult stem cell research to stem cell
experimentation on human embryos. A multi-issue poll by International Communications
Research from June 1-5, 2001 showed that 70% of Americans were against government
funding for embryonic stem cell research. In fact, ICR learned in a June 8, 2001 survey
that U.S. citizens favored adult stem cells research over embryonic stem cell harvesting
67% to 18%.
Q. What is cloning?
A. Cloning is achieved through a process known as somatic cell nuclear transfer that
forms the embryo of a given species. In this process, a nucleus is taken from one
organism and is used to create an embryo which would develop into a genetically
identical individual.
Q. Could humans be cloned?
A. Humans could be cloned by using a human nucleus in the process of somatic nuclear
transfer. This produces a human embryo completely similar to the person from whom the
nucleus was taken.
Q. What does human cloning have to do with embryonic stem cell research?
A. Many scientists want to clone human embryos for the purpose of instituting “embryo
farms” that would provide an innumerable pool of embryonic stem cells for
experimentation. A June 2001 International Communications Research survey showed
86% of the American public agreeing that human embryos should not be brought into
existence for the sole purpose of being destroyed in research.