Life Issues Forum
March Madness on Cloning
by Richard M.
Doerflinger
March 15, 2002
In the public debate on human
cloning, March came in like a lion – not without some lyin' by proponents of
this practice.
The storm began with a March 5 Senate hearing, which
featured quadriplegic actor Christopher Reeve telling some real howlers. Mr.
Reeve cited examples of beneficial research that, he claimed, would be stopped
by a ban on cloning embryos for their stem cells. He also spoke dismissively
of progress toward treatment of spinal cord injury using non-embryonic cells.
In fact, the promising research he cited had nothing to do with cloning -- and
the most promising example he cited of a new spinal cord injury treatment uses
adult cells from patients' own bodies!
Reeve and other cloning
advocates are frustrated at advances in adult stem cell research, which may
show cloning to be unnecessary for medical progress. So they launched a new
frontal attack, using a twisted interpretation of two studies now posted to
the online edition of Nature.
The studies reportedly were
designed to learn more about the mechanism by which adult stem cells sometimes
"transdifferentiate" to form cells of many different types. For example,
researchers (including researchers funded by Christopher Reeve's foundation)
have found that adult bone marrow stem cells can produce useful nerve tissue
under certain circumstances. Human trials are being prepared for use of bone
marrow stem cells to help repair damaged heart muscle, which has already been
a success in animals.
The studies in Nature explored this
phenomenon, oddly enough, by mixing adult stem cells with
embryonic stem cells to promote transdifferentiation. Instead of
forming healthy cells of different types, the adult and embryonic cells tended
to "fuse" with each other to form tetraploid cells (having twice the usual
number of chromosomes). Such cells could be dangerous and even lead to tumor
formation.
The obvious conclusions of this study would seem to be: (1)
you'd better not mix adult and embryonic stem cells, and (2) this may be one
mechanism by which embryonic stem cells tend to form tumors when placed
into animals, since all animals (including humans) already contain adult stem
cells. Instead, the "spin" placed on the data (faithfully followed by
Associated Press and some other news outlets) was this: There is a terrible
problem with adult stem cells that may make them unfit for human use,
so we should rely on embryonic stem cells for treatments!
That
conclusion is absurd. Adult stem cells are working and "transdifferentiating"
in our bodies all the time without making tumors, so the new findings are more
plausibly attributed to the uncontrollable tendencies of embryonic stem cells.
We surely can't draw conclusions about the superiority of embryonic over adult
cells by finding problems in a mixture of both.
It seems,
though, that some reporters don't care about facts or logic. They and their
political allies care about promoting the cause of research cloning. They
don't particularly care if, in the process, they denigrate and suppress
research that could really help cure people with devastating diseases in our
lifetime. Here, as in other campaigns for the destruction of human life, truth
is the first casualty. Human casualties, embryonic and adult, will
follow.
_____________________
(Mr. Doerflinger is Deputy Director of
the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.)
__________________________________
Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities
United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops
3211 4th Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20017-1194 (202)
541-3070