In his recent Washington Post column entitled “We need more stem-cell research, but there must be ethical limits,” Dr. Charles Krauthammer (M.D., Harvard, 1975) endorses the utilization of “discarded embryos”. However, he links that endorsement to a call for a “firm national ban on creating human embryos for any purpose other than the birth of a human baby.” He goes on to say that “we finally have a chance to enact this grand compromise…”
There are presently two main sources of human embryonic stem cells: excess embryos from infertility clinics (approximately 400,000), and the cell masses created using SCNT (somatic cell nuclear transfer). This is the technique at which Dr. Krauthammer is aiming his poison pen…a ban of SCNT. And the “grand compromise” he proposes to the Senate? I’m afraid that it is to vote “yes” to the Castle-DeGette bill (extending the utilization of excess embryos) while also voting “yes” to the Brownback bill (outlawing SCNT). A compromise?
No way! More like a tsunami for stem cell research in the United States…what little there is of it. SCNT is the essential technique for creating cell lines that identically match those of the patient. The recent breakthrough achieved by the Korean team headed by Dr. Woo Suk Hwang was the creation of stem cell lines from ten patients using SCNT. Six of these patients were children with spinal cord injuries.
Dr. Krauthammer implies that this proposed ban on SCNT represents a stand on the moral high ground. In fact, it’s illogical and inconsistent to endorse IVF embryo utilization and to oppose SCNT. As the mild-mannered, Harvard philosopher Louis Guenin points out in his article “The Morality of Unenabled Embryo Use: Arguments That Work and Arguments That Don’t” (Mayo Clin Proc, June 2004, vol 79), there is a moral justification for embryo use on which consensus can be built, namely, the right of the mother to decline transfer of the embryo into the womb. This is a permissible exercise of discretion. A decision by a mother (with the other parent) to decline transfer of the embryo into the womb entails that no possible person corresponds to the embryo, nor can one gain anything for any being by classifying the embryo as an actual person. From this follows a justification for using donated embryos. The justification is the same for excess IVF embryos as for products of SCNT.
In fact, it is morally wrong not to use the excess embryos as well as the SCNT-derived cell masses to heal the sick. It is a small clump of cells, not a person. According to the eminent Catholic theologian, Dr. Norman Ford, it cannot possess a soul at this stage. It has no brain or nerves, feels no sensation, no frustration, no fear, and no anxiety. It doesn’t cry itself to sleep at night, or wake up all hot and sweaty from nightmares. It doesn’t scream each time it has to have another shot, or another operation. But that little girl in the ICU, the one with the crushed spine… she’s a real person. And she could very well be made to walk again using cells derived from embryonic stem cells.
A lot has been said just recently about so-called “alternative sources” of stem cells. I’ve reviewed them all, even the latest contender, dedifferentiation. Sure, pursue them all. None of these techniques has ever yielded a stem cell to date. It’s a detour at best, and a ploy at worst. But go ahead and try them. Don’t, however, ban SCNT. Don’t waist the excess IVF embryos. And, for goodness sake, and the sake of the millions of people who may benefit from stem cell research, don’t have anything to do with Dr. Krauthammer’s “grand compromise” if it means banning SCNT (by voting for the Brownback bill).
I can’t help but think this is part of the overall political strategy dictated by the right-wing Christian theocracy, in good faith, of course. And if banning SCNT by playing the “grand compromise” is part of your master strategy, Senator Doctor Bill Frist (M.D., Harvard, 1978), then shame on you, too! Shame on you, anyway, for being in such an influential position, and acting so unresponsively to that little girl in the ICU.