Posted on 02/12/2004 7:26:52 AM PST by Diamond
|
Stem Cells Mined From Human Embryo Clone
In Therapeutic Breakthrough, South Korean Researchers Cull Stem Cells From Cloned Human Embryo
The Associated Press |
|
WASHINGTON Feb. 11 — Researchers in South Korea for the first time have cloned a human embryo and then culled stem cells from it, marking an important step toward one day growing patients' own replacement tissue to treat diseases. The experiment is sure to revive controversy over human cloning, both in the United States and internationally. |
This is not cloning to make babies. Instead it's called therapeutic cloning, in which embryos that are the genetic twins of a particular patient are grown in a test-tube to supply master stem cells that can grow into any tissue without being rejected by that patient's immune system.
The technique offers the potential of breakthrough treatments for diabetes, Parkinson's and other diseases, but any therapy is years away from being tested in people.
Scientists have used therapeutic cloning to partially cure laboratory mice with an immune system disease. And they know how to cull stem cells from human embryos left over in fertility clinics, offering the potential of cell therapy but not patient-specific treatment.
But attempts at cloning a human embryo in the stem-cell quest have failed until now.
Scientists from Seoul National University report they succeeded thanks, they say, to using extremely fresh eggs donated by South Korean volunteers and finding a gentler way of handling the genetic material inside them.
The report appears in Friday's edition of the journal Science.
It's elegant work that provides long-anticipated proof that the technique is possible using human cells, said stem-cell researcher Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass.
"That's an important point to prove," he said.
Still, "it's not of practical use at this point," Jaenisch said, stressing that years of additional research are required.
For one thing, the cloning technique still doesn't work well: The Seoul team collected 242 eggs, from which they succeeded in cloning 30 blastocysts early-stage embryos containing a mere 100 cells. From those, they harvested just one colony of stem cells.
Still, it's likely to renew debate over whether all forms of human cloning should be banned. In Congress, the House last year voted to do that, but the Senate stalled over whether there should be an exception for research of this type.
Internationally, the United States is pushing for a United Nations ban of all human cloning, too. The U.N. General Assembly recently postponed a decision. There is almost universal support for a global ban of reproductive cloning, but Britain and a number of other countries want cloning for medical experiments left unhindered.
Cloning aside, Jaenisch lamented that most U.S. scientists won't be able to experiment with the Seoul researchers' new stem-cell line. Culling stem cells from embryos kills them, and President Bush has forbidden any federally funded research on stem cells from embryos destroyed after Aug. 9, 2001 making the South Koreans' recently developed line too new.
Laurie Zoloth, professor of medical humanities and bioethics at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, said the United States needs to pay close attention to such work.
"It is clearly time now that it is more tangible to set in place a process where we can have some kinds of experiments supported and some things banned," she said. "The kind of cloning to make human babies is impermissible. Clearly, the (South Korean researchers') intent is to do therapy. It's one tiny step closer to some medical use. It would be a wise thing to support."
Additional experiments by the Seoul team suggest its stem-cell colony can indeed generate numerous different types of body cells. It began to form muscle, bone and other tissues in test tubes and when implanted into mice.
The team's next step, now under way, is studying how to direct which tissues those cells form, said Dr. Woo Suk Hwang, lead author of the report.
Cordially,
Please elaborate. I'm not sure what you mean by the arguments on both sides, or to whom the "we" refers. Are you referring just to the S. Koreans?
Cordially,
If anyone wants on or off my ProLife Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.
Cordially,
It would be a start. So far there is nothing rational on that side at all.
I have been thinking about your response for about four days now, out of sheer surprise, simply because the premises upon which the aforesaid responses are based should seem to be self-evident to any rational person. I think the best way to answer is to say that the responses that you characterize as "aesthetics' are simply the logical conclusions that flow from certain moral presuppositions. The aforesaid responses are value judgments based on rational and moral propositions regarding the essential worth, dignity, and inalienable rights of human beings, and thus are of a different sort than, say, a subjective aesthetic value judgment regarding a piece of music.
If you wish to challenge the moral premises, or the logical conclusions that flow from such premises, please have at it.
Cordially,
There is a sizeable number of persons in the US, and vastly greater numbers outside that think little of these qualities. I am deadset against both abortion and human cloning, for neither aesthetic nor ethical reasons, but for religious reasons. However, for those who lack the concept of religious reasons in these questions, neither ethical nor aesthetic theory will provide much basis for judgement until some thought is given to development of these concepts. It is clear that our representatives won't give any thought to religious reasons in these matters, therefore they must be provided with ethical or even aesthetical reasons. Legal precedent is being established right now--to wait is to lose.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.