A: Hardly a week goes by that people don't ask me, "Have you ever talked with Christopher Reeve? I saw him the other day on television and ..." People are curious about where I stand regarding the paralyzed actor's hope for a cure through what he calls therapeutic cloning. After all, I'm disabled. Don't I want a cure? I would love to walk. But 35 years of quadriplegia since a diving accident in 1967 has honed my perspective. I look at the broader implications of medical research as a double-edged sword.
A: Some today are aggressively promoting research using stem cells derived from human embryos that are clones or frozen discards from fertility clinics. But I want people to know that not all Americans with disabilities believe in using human embryos. ...
You are not wrong! This is the answer, but no human being would be killed in the process, so it won't be used.
Democrats demand that human life be sacrificed. That their demonic "right" to kill human life be protected and promoted.
Cord Blood Stem-Cell Research Working
by Keith Peters, Washington, D.C., correspondent
Science involving stem cells doesn't have to take a life to be successful.
A growing body of research is showing the value of umbilical cord blood stem cells in the treatment of disease—an alternative to destroying human embryos in the name of science.
The face of that success was on Capitol Hill yesterday—in the form of 4-year-old Joseph Davis, Jr. He had sickle-cell anemia, and doctors did not hold out much hope for him. But his mother and father had been informed of the value of banking umbilical cord blood stem cells, and when their second child was born, they were able to take those stem cells and transplant them into young Joseph.
Today, he's healthy and lively and cured of sickle-cell anemia.
"Not going to the doctor no more and looking at him saying he's healed from the disease" is a great feeling, his mother, Darlene Davis, said. "No more medication, no nothing. And I'm at peace now."
Dr. Paul Billings, of the University of California at Berkeley, said this is but one powerful example of the benefits of cord blood stem-cell therapy.
"You will have a sample readily available of the best stem-cell therapeutic for a disorder that might occur in you, or a sibling or your mother or father or other close relative," he said.
Billings said people need to know that there are banks and storage places for cord-blood stem cells.
"There are people dying, waiting for transplants, who could be saved and treated and beginning to live happy and healthier lives—if they'd only known that they could store stem cells for free," Billings said.
Every year, more 3.9 million potentially life-saving umbilical cords are simply discarded.
Sadly, only 1,000 clients are enrolled in the designated transplant program. That's shockingly low considering that 70 diseases are proven to be treatable through cord blood stem cells. Dr. Billings said that contrasts with what he calls the "pie-in-the-sky" hopes coming from supporters of embryonic stem-cell research.
Stem cell research is a new frontier in medical science. The current public debate primarily involves embryonic stem cell research. This debate will continue as government, science and society grapple with the ethical and moral questions raised by using human embryos for experimentation. While this topic is complex, it is important to understand the basic concepts of stem cell research and the potential danger that allowing research on human embryos poses to all of us.
Unborn Baby's Umbilical Cord Stopped Mother's Leukemia
Montreal, Canada (Montreal Gazette 10.26.2002)-- In what might be a world first, doctors at Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal transfused a woman suffering from leukemia with the umbilical-cord blood of her baby daughter.
Seven months later, 27-year-old Patrizia Durante is in complete remission and credits her daughter with saving her life.
"I gave my daughter life, and then she gave mine back," Ms. Durante said yesterday, cradling 13-month-old Victoria. "It's a miracle. She was meant to be born to save me."
Umbilical-cord blood is usually banked for later use by the child should she develop a life-threatening illness such as leukemia. Dr. Pierre Laneuville, director of hematology at the McGill University Health Center, said he believes the offspring-to-parent transplant is the first of its kind in the world.
Ms. Durante's case highlights the growing interest by doctors in using umbilical cord blood as an effective alternative to bone-marrow transplants. "We're elated," Dr. Laneuville said. "This is the best-case scenario we could possibly have imagined.... From a doctor's point of view, the chances are she's cured."
Umbilical cord blood is rich in hemopoietic stem cells -- the kind of cells that can rebuild a blood system damaged by heavy doses of chemotherapy. In Ms. Durante's case, the stem cells regenerated her blood system and destroyed the residual cancer cells in her body.
"We are now in an era where we are realizing scientifically and medically that we have sources of stem cells that can become other tissues and can be used therapeutically," Dr. Laneuville said. "And the most accessible source and the one we're throwing in the garbage all the time are these cord cells."
Durante, a Laval financial advisor, learned she was suffering from acute myloid leukemia when she was 26 weeks pregnant with Victoria, her first child.
"It was terrifying," she recalled. "I was afraid for the baby. I was afraid of dying and not being there for my daughter. It was very stressful and difficult for my family."
Durante underwent moderate doses of chemotherapy while pregnant. She did not respond to the drugs, so her doctors decided to induce labor so they could switch to high doses without risking harm to the baby. On Sept. 2, 2001, Victoria was born two months premature, weighing three-and-a-half pounds. She was placed in an incubator while her mother renewed her chemotherapy.
At the time, doctors were looking for a suitable donor for a bone-marrow transplant, even though Victoria's umbilical-cord blood had been frozen in liquid nitrogen. But by last March, Ms. Durante was severely ill and she could not wait any longer for a bone-marrow transplant.
Dr. Laneuville decided to infuse her with Victoria's cord blood, although the procedure was risky because Durante's body might have rejected the blood.
Ideally, individuals should be infused with their own banked cord blood. Victoria's blood, however, was only a half-match, carrying her mother's genes as well as her father's.
"But in this case, the incompatibility -- that is, the genes that the baby's dad contributed -- theoretically could have been very beneficial in this transplant," Dr. Laneuville said.
"Part of the blood cells include the immune system. There was the possibility that the immune system of the baby may identify the leukemia as foreign and attack. That's something that's beneficial."
The baby's cord blood did exactly that to her mother's leukemia. The stem cells also flooded Ms. Durante's bloodstream and stuck to her bone marrow -- the part of the body that manufactures the blood -- and began rebuilding her blood system.
"So what is circulating in her veins now is actually her baby's blood," he said. "She has her baby's blood system in her at the present time."
Dr. Laneuville said "mismatched" cord blood might be effective in controlling Ms. Durante's type of cancer, but stressed cord blood transplants should be used only as a last resort.
Scientists are also studying whether stem cells derived from cord blood can repair damaged heart and brain tissue. Preliminary results from animal studies are promising. Doctors are now carrying out clinical trials on humans in the United States and Europe to determine whether such stem cells can repair damaged heart muscle.
Unlike embryonic stem cells -- which have sparked a huge ethical debate -- stem cells from cord blood are free of any moral considerations.
Dr. Laneuville urged authorities to set up a public cord blood bank for research and therapeutic purposes
Stem-cell recipient celebrates second birthday
COVINGTON, Ky. (CNS) -- As the debate about embryonic stem-cell research rages on, Anne Rugari wants the world to know about the miraculous research that saved her baby's life without ending the lives of other babies.
Thanks to stem cells obtained from the umbilical cords of newborns, little Gina Rugari was thriving as she celebrated her second birthday Dec. 23. Gina was born with a disease known as Krabbe leukodystrophy, a rare, degenerative enzyme disorder of the central and peripheral nervous system.
Children who inherit the disease lack an important enzyme that is a component of the white matter of the brain, called myelin. This enzyme deficiency produces toxins in the brain, causing myelin loss and neurological symptoms.
The disease is not usually evident until three to six months after birth, when the baby begins to show signs such as extreme irritability and developmental delay or regression. Later symptoms include seizures and unexplainable fevers. Eventually, after progressive deterioration including blindness and deafness, the baby dies before age 2.
Anne and Phil Rugari had a son, Nick, in 1986. Typical of babies born with Krabbe, he developed symptoms and died at age 1. In January 1999, when their other son, Philip, was a sophomore at Covington Catholic High School, he decided to do a biology research paper on the rare disease that had claimed the life of his little brother.
When Anne was pregnant with Gina, she declined prenatal testing but had the baby tested immediately after birth. Gina had the disease, but thanks to the research Philip had done, the Rugaris knew about an experimental cord blood stem-cell transplant that had been performed at Duke University in 1996.
Four days of intense testing at Duke proved that Gina was a good candidate for the transplant, but if her body rejected it, she would die. It was a huge risk with only a 50/50 chance of success, but two other babies had received the transplant by this time, and they had survived.
The family knew that without the procedure Gina would live only about a year, and that she would be very sick during that year. The difficult decision had to be made immediately.
Anne said that Philip was the strongest, insisting that they should do the procedure and that Gina would live. "The Rock," as they began to call him, encouraged his parents every step of the way, as they struggled and cried at the end of each day of grueling testing and treatment.
They decided to proceed, and a match was found. The stem cells from the newborn infant's umbilical cord blood would carry the enzyme Gina was missing. She underwent nine days of chemotherapy to wipe out her immune system so the new cord blood could be infused on day 10, followed by a waiting period to see if her body would accept the new cells. Thankfully, it did.
Anne and Gina stayed at Duke for the next five months, the first three in isolation, since her immune system was immobilized.
At home now, Gina is doing well. She is developmentally behind, possibly because of the chemotherapy or the early days of carrying the disease. Doctors believe she will catch up in time, and she shows no signs of the disease.
More babies with Krabbe have survived since Gina's experience, and scientists are hopeful. Interestingly, only children who have lost an older sibling to the disease are saved, because transplants must take place very soon after birth, and typically there is no reason to test for the disease, which claims the lives of 50 to 60 children annually.
All of the progress on this disease has been made using umbilical cord blood. Duke performs 300 transplants a year for many kinds of metabolic and genetic diseases using cord blood stem cells, and they are experiencing great success. On the other hand, no permanent progress on any disease has been made using stem cells from human embryos.
Q. What is a stem cell?
A. A stem cell is a cell that has the potential to develop into different types of cells. Stem cells are the basic building blocks of the human body. In embryos, these master cells become the 200 or so distinct cell types in the body. In adults, stem cells replenish existing cells when they wear out or are destroyed.
Q. What are the sources of stem cells?
A. All of our bodies contain stem cells. For research, there are primarily two types of stem cells: embryonic and non-embryonic. Both types of stem cells are undifferentiated and developmentally flexible. Embryonic stem cells come from embryos. In order to collect these cells, the living, human embryo must be destroyed. Non-embryonic stem cells (also called adult stem cells) come from a variety of sources, including skin cells, bone marrow, placenta, umbilical cord blood, brain cells and body fat. No human lives are destroyed in harvesting adult cells.
Q. What is the potential for embryonic stem cell research?
A. Scientists first discovered they could isolate and harvest stem cells from human embryos in 1998. The versatility of these cells leads scientists to speculate that embryonic stem cells may be coaxed into becoming any number of cell types, thereby holding great promise for healing the human body — from possible cures for diabetes and heart disease to treatments for burns and spinal cord injuries. To date, scientists attempting to use embryonic stem cells in such research have failed to develop a successful animal or human model confirming their theory. This means there has been no demonstrated benefit to patients from embryonic stem cell research.
Q. What about non-embryonic and adult stem cell research?
A. Ongoing research using non-embryonic stem cell sources is very promising, even indicating that developed adult stem cells may be as “flexible” as embryonic ones and equally capable of converting into various cell types for healing the body. In recent years, many researchers have concluded that it was speculative to believe that embryonic stem cells are better than adult stem cells. A June 2001 National Institutes of Health report concluded that, “it is impossible to predict which stem cells...will best meet the needs of basic research and clinical applications.”
Excitement over adult stem cell research has increased dramatically because of successes in treating patients with these cells. Therapies using stem cells from sources such as bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, and the pancreas have proven successful in treating patients with various conditions.
For instance, in April 2002, a Los Angeles physician reported effectively treating the symptoms of a 59-year old male Parkinson’s patient using the patient’s own neuronal (brain) stem cells — reducing his symptoms by more than 80 percent.--- (Stem cells do their stuff for Parkinson's patient," New Scientist, April 13, 2002)
Adult stem cells are also used to remedy bone fractures or wounds with severe scarring and infections. In addition, researchers are optimistic about developments in clinical trials using adult stem cells to treat heart attack damage, as well as the potential for using adult stem cells in the development of tissue and cartilage for transplantation.
Tangible Therapies for Today
Diabetes – Eleven out of 15 Type 1 diabetes patients are "completely off insulin" after receiving adult pancreatic cell transplants. ---- (Cell grafts lend freedom to diabetics," Medical Post, June 19, 2001)
Diabetes – Researchers at Harvard Medical School used animal adult stem cells to grow new islet cells to combat diabetes. Researcher Denise Faustman recalled, "It was astonishing! We had reversed the disease without the need for transplants." Plans for human trials are underway. --(Adult stem cells effect a cure," Harvard University Gazette, July 19, 2001)
Heart Disease – German heart specialist Bodo Eckehard Strauer successfully treated a heart patient using stem cells from the man's bone marrow: "Even patients with the most seriously damaged hearts can be treated with their own stem cells instead of waiting and hoping on a transplant," Dr. Strauer explained.---(Stem cell therapy repairs a heart," Daily Telegraph (London), Aug. 25, 2001)
Heart Disease - "Four out of five seriously sick Brazilian heart-failure patients no longer needed a heart transplant after being treated with their own stem cells." (Stem cells used to repair heart tissue," MSNBC News, accessed on September 8, 2003 )
Sickle Cell Anemia – CBS' "60 Minutes II" reported on 15-year-old Keone Penn, who doctors at the University of Pittsburgh say was cured of sickle cell anemia by following intensive chemotherapy with an injection of stem cells from umbilical cord blood. According to the report, "the stem cells changed his entire blood system from type O to type B," giving Penn a clean bill of health.--("Holy Grail: Stem cells from umbilical cord blood used to save a boy's life"; Transcript of Nov. 28, 2001 program )
Acute Myloid Leukemia – Sixteen-year-old Nathan Salley is alive today, thanks to stem cells from umbilical cord blood. Nathan told a congressional subcommittee, "I am living proof that there are promising and useful alternatives to embryonic stem cell research. . .Embryonic stem cell research did not save me – cord blood research did." (Teenager testifies he's ‘living proof' of stem-cell option, Denver Post, July 22, 2001.)
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) – Thirty-six-year old Susan Stross is one of more than 20 MS patients whose conditions have remained steady or improved after receiving an adult stem cell transplant. The same results are reported with several hundred patients worldwide.--("High on the future: Already saving lives, stem cell research may soon be in full swing," Seattle Times, Aug. 20, 2001)
Parkinson's Disease – "Jefferson researchers have early evidence of bone marrow stem cells able to become brain cells." (Thomas Jefferson University news release, Nov. 12, 2001)
Improved Stroke Recovery – "Cells from human umbilical cord blood help rats recover from stroke faster, new study finds." (University of South Florida Health Sciences Center News Release, Nov. 8, 2001.)
Blood Stem Cell Transplant – "Transplantation: Surgical team uses standard stem cell procedure in unique way for kidney recipient."
Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma – Forty-year-old Mark Fulford was not a match for a conventional bone marrow transplant, so doctors turned to stem cells found in umbilical cord blood. "There are people alive now who wouldn't have been without this, and I'm living proof."
St. Louis Cord Blood Bank – "Everyone here gets a sense of accomplishment, recognizing that about 100 lives are saved each year by the (umbilical cord blood) products from this bank alone," said Director Michael Creer.
Promise for Tomorrow
Reports of "Ultimate Stem Cell" discoveries –
"A stem cell has been found in adults that can turn into every single tissue in the body. It might turn out to be the most important cell ever discovered."
Researchers at New York University School of Medicine announced, "There is a cell in the bone marrow that can serve as the stem cell for most, if not all, of the organs in the body. . . . This study provides the strongest evidence yet that the adult body harbors stem cells that are as flexible as embryonic stem cells."
McGill University researchers discover "stem cells deep in the skin of rats and humans that can become fat, muscle or even brain cells. . . . Scientists are driven by the hope of bringing science closer to treatments for spinal cord injuries, juvenile diabetes, heart disease and brain disorders — treatments made from patients' own cells."
These are stem cells from adult bone marrow that do not trigger rejection, "even after the cells differentiate into specialized tissues such as bone or fat." The "cells seem to go only to damaged areas . . . (turning) into heart muscle, blood vessels, and fibrous tissue."
For more information, see expert testimony given at the Hearing on Advances in Adult and Non-Embryonic Stem Cell Research before the U.S. Senate Committee on Science, Technology, and Space, Thursday, June 12 2003.
http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/witnesslist.cfm?id=809 Q. What is the argument against destroying human embryos for their stem cells?
A. Biologically, an embryo represents one of the earliest stages of human life. Human development progresses in a continuum, from the single cell to the embryonic stage, then a fetus, newborn, toddler, adolescent and adult. Embryos, whether created through in vitro fertilization, cloning or sexual intercourse, are fully human and deserve protection. The weakest and most vulnerable member of the human family — the embryo — should not be the subject of scientific experimentation. It is never morally or ethically justified to destroy one human in order to possibly save another. Advances in adult stem cell research provide both tangible hope for patients and an ethical avenue for developing the therapies they need.
Q. What is the legal status of embryonic stem cell research in the United States?
A. Since 1996, Congress has approved an annual provision to the Health and Human Services (HHS) appropriations bill specifically prohibiting federal funding of any "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death." This language is the basis for the ongoing federal ban on funding for research using human embryos. Congress must reauthorize this ban, dubbed the "Dickey Amendment," each year.
In August 2000, HHS, under President Clinton's leadership, published new guidelines for research using human embryos. These guidelines create a loophole that essentially claims if privately funded scientists destroy the embryos and extract their stem cells, government-funded scientists can conduct experiments with those stem cells without violating the federal ban.
On August 9, 2001, President Bush announced he would reject the Clinton Administration's guidelines and only allow federal dollars for research on approximately 60 existing embryonic stem cell lines already created in privately funded laboratories. The president outlined four conditions for the use of existing cell lines:
The embryos were destroyed and the cell lines were created before the August 9 speech
The embryos were among the "excess" frozen embryos stored in fertility clinics created through in vitro fertilization for reproductive purposes
The parents gave their consent for the embryo to be destroyed
The parents were not offered any financial incentive in return for donating the embryo
There is debate over whether or not the Bush policy violates the "Dickey Amendment" prohibiting the use of federal funds for embryonic stem cell research. Ethical questions are also raised by the use of federal tax dollars for research on existing stem cell lines that required the destruction of human embryos.
Q. How is the private sector involved in embryonic stem cell research?
A. Privately funded scientists continue to conduct human embryo research for stem cells. For example, research at the University of Wisconsin, where the first embryonic cells were harvested and cultured, was privately funded. President Bush's policy only affects federally funded research.
Thank you for the information. Maybe someday people will pay closer attention to these type of scientific findings and let the left know that there are therapies available that do not involve destroying embryos.
Thanks for the info. Maybe if the practice was made more common, the hospitals would implement procedures to facilitate the process.
May God bless you abundantly.
You're are so generous and inspiring.