"Lead Into Gold:" Stem Cell Counter Attack

If anyone thought that the pro human cloners would fold up their tents and steal away after the news was released that patient-specific, pluripotent stem cells had been derived from normal skin cells, they just didn’t understand how fervently some scientists and their camp followers want to clone human life—and how hopeful some are that the stem cell issue can be the vehicle that wins the culture war. Case in point: Science Live’s Christopher Wanjek. who bemoans the breakthrough because it could “stifle” science. From his column:

Great news, maybe. Never has such a breakthrough been so worrisome to scientists. The discovery, albeit promising, might stifle stem cell research or send it down a dead-end path, for it is now harder than ever to secure funding to study the best source of embryonic stem cells—that is, embryos.

The controversy issue isn’t scientific, it is ethical. If methods of deriving pluripotent cells can be obtained in ways all can accept, it should be cause for celebration and funding. And it shouldn’t stop with iPSCs—all potential alternatives should be explored.

The two teams weren’t motivated by ethical reasons to look for an alternative method to produce pluripotent cells. Thomson, after all, is a pioneer of using human embryos and helped launch the research field in 1998. Rather, these scientists wanted a simpler approach, for human embryos are expensive and difficult to manipulate.

Not necessarily so. Thomson said that he had real reservations about ESCR and said that anyone who didn’t should think twice. Specifically Thomson stated:

“If human embryonic stem cell research does not make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, you have not thought about it enough,” he said. “I thought long and hard about whether I would do it.”

But back to Wanjek:

As a result of their discovery, lifting the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research will be more challenging than ever, because politicians and the public who supports them are under the false belief that something better has come along. And it hasn’t...

This is highly debatable. Human SCNT hasn’t worked yet. ES cells can’t be used safely in humans because of tumors—which could also be problem for the new stem cells. And effort must still go into the iPSC approach.

Still, the great breakthrough has slowed the Oklahoma Land Race mentality to promote human cloning into merely a mad dash. But the promoters of “unfettered science” in Senator Specter’s unfortunate term, are still adamant: They want their blank check; your money as they crush your ethical concerns underfoot.

The current federal funding freeze has already hurt U.S. research. Japan is basking in glory, and Yamanaka might win a Nobel Prize if the new technique works. America’s Thomson essentially borrowed Yamanaka’s technique, and his work has been supported largely with private funding.

Wrong: Thomson’s iPSC study was federally funded.

A brave presidential candidate will see the new results in Cell and Science, connect that to a breakthrough announced two weeks ago in Nature on monkey [cloned] embryonic stem cells, and then promise to increase funding for all kinds of embryonic stem cells to usher in an era of regenerative medicine.

That kind of a blank check mentality that promotes human cloning will no longer sell. Any embryonic stem cell research needed to perfect the iPSC approach can be done with approved lines. It will be more efficient and cheaper than cloning. I think this breakthrough defangs the issue for 2008 unless something else unexpected happens.

James Thomson said the stem cell wars are over. Not yet. There are a lot of powerful folk who don’t want there to be any limits. However, I do think this could be Gettysburg or Midway: the war remains but the tide may have actually turned.