Ethical stem cell use gets green light

By DEBORAH GYAPONG

OTTAWA (CCN) – The Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute has welcomed news that amniotic fluid is proving to be a source of stem cells, which could put an end to the unethical use of embryos as a source.

“From the articles, it looks like a huge advance,” said Moira McQueen, the Institute’s director, in a telephone interview from Toronto. “I do think it is very important to stress that there is an alternative to embryonic stem cells.”

“The whole idea that Catholics are against stem cell research is ridiculous,” she said, but “moral issues are more important than anything else,” and they have to be kept in mind when the killing of embryos to extract stem cells is considered.

In early January, doctors at North Carolina’s Wake Forest University and Harvard Medical School released findings from experiments with stem cells isolated.

Cells are neither embryonic nor adult

from the fluid surrounding the fetus in the womb in an online version of the Nature Biotechnology Journal. The Globe and Mail, the CBC, and other news outlets reported on the findings Jan. 8.

“They’re neither embryonic stem cells, nor adult stem cells ... they’re somewhere in the middle,” said Dr. Anthony Atala, the report’s senior author, according to the Globe.

Though the cells were first isolated seven years ago, it has taken seven years of research to prove they were in fact stem cells. The doctors reported they were able to grow six different cell types from the stem cells, and to produce bone and implant human neural cells that survived implantation in laboratory mice.

McQueen cautioned that the research is in its early stages, but that the cells show even greater promise than embryonic stem cells, which have been shown to produce tumours when implanted or necessitate the use of anti-rejection drugs.

Embryonic stem cell research has not done all that well, she said, even before one gets into the moral issues. There have been advances in adult stem cell research, but these seldom get much attention.

“It has always struck me as strange any time there’s been a success with adult stem cells, it’s hardly mentioned in the media,” she said, “but if there’s even the possibility of success with embryonic stem cells, (and it hasn’t happened yet) those are the ones that are held up as the way we should be going.”

“I don’t find that very scientific at all.”

McQueen wonders why researchers treat embryonic stem cells as a kind of “Holy Grail” when they remain difficult to obtain, cause destruction of the embryo, and cause rejection when implanted.

Dr. Rene Leiva, an Ottawa family doctor and member of Canadian Physicians for Life, noted that the fluid producing the amniotic stem cells was collected before the baby is born.

“There is always the small risk you can produce complications, even with a sterile technique,” he said. There’s “always a risk of inducing a miscarriage.”

He said that collecting the fluid for the sake of collecting stem cells might cause unnecessary risk to the baby, but using the stem cells from fluid collected for medical reasons such as genetic testing would be “completely moral.”

McQueen noted that the researchers are looking into whether these stem cells can also be found in amniotic fluid in the placenta, and if they could be isolated after birth, avoiding potential harm to the infant.