Loud minority mustn’t rule on stem cells
Published 9:00 pm Saturday, February 14, 2004
Same country, same week. In Georgia, the state schools superintendent fought to restore the word "evolution" to the biology curriculum. Religious fundamentalists had axed it out. They favor biblical explanations for man’s development over Darwin’s. In Minnesota, the state university announced it would launch an embryonic stem-cell research program. Taxpayers there ignored abortion foes who oppose such research because it requires the destruction of embryos.
Same country, but two planets when it comes to acceptance of modern biotechnology. Now that scientists in South Korea have actually cloned a human embryo, those two planets had better start aligning.
Many religious people manage to reconcile what they read in the Bible with 21st century science. But some cannot, resulting in questionable interpretations of what God would want. For example, we have anti-abortion people using advanced medical technology to keep a severely brain-damaged Terri Schiavo artificially alive in a Florida hospital room.
The success of Dr. Woo Suk Hwang and Dr. Shin Yong Moon in cloning a human embryo means the discussion must move beyond "What if?" The issue now is "how" stem-cell technology will be used. The South Koreans created the embryos for the purpose of extracting stem cells for medical research. The goal is to eventually clone a patient’s cells and use them to make replacement tissue to treat diseases. Cloned cells share the same DNA as the donor, which ensures that the donor’s body will accept the tissue.
The prospect of cloning humans rightly horrifies a lot of us. The South Korean scientists have detailed their cloning techniques in a recently published paper. Creeps in lab coats are bound to use that blueprint to clone humans. No responsible scientist would do so, but brilliant scientists can be criminally irresponsible. One need only look at the example of Dr. A.Q. Khan, father of the Pakistani atomic bomb, who sold nuclear secrets to rogue states for bags of cash.
Like atomic power, the genie of human cloning has fled the bottle, never to return. The technology can be used for good or evil. Catering to the religious right, the Bush administration has severely restricted funding for the good things cloning can do. The perverse result will be to deny the public the benefits of stem-cell research — that is, the development of fabulous treatments for diseases.
Worse than withholding money, bills are pending in the U.S. Senate to ban all work on embryonic stem cells, no matter who is paying for it. One recommends $1 million fines and 10-year jail sentences for scientists who conduct such research.
State governments, meanwhile, are charging past Washington with legislation supporting stem-cell research. California, Louisiana, New Jersey and Rhode Island are among the states that have made the research legal and protected.
Californians may soon have the opportunity to vote for a $300 million bond issue to fund stem-cell research. Backers of the proposal see passage as the ticket to attracting more biotech companies to California.
How far the federal government goes in stopping these activities remains to be seen. A good guess is that the American people will tell Washington to bug off — and the Feds won’t dare start manhandling their medical researchers. Most Americans support using stem cells from embryos — embryos never intended for procreation — to advance life-saving treatments.
The minority that can’t separate stem-cell research from the abortion issue will have a lot of fancy moral footwork to do. One imagines that when stem-cell research brings forth treatments for diabetes and Parkinson’s disease, the right-to-lifers will be first in line to receive them.
The poster person for stem-cell research has to be Ronald Reagan. As president, Reagan denounced legalized abortion (though he did little about it). Reagan is now dying from Alzheimer’s disease. To her credit, former first lady Nancy Reagan is now campaigning to fully fund stem-cell research that might someday cure Alzheimer’s and other ailments.
Are Washington politicians going to tell millions of American families that their loved ones must die because religious conservatives don’t approve of embryonic stem-cell research? I don’t think so. What we need is a national policy encouraging stem-cell research. The train has left the station, and the only question remaining is: Where do we want it to go?
Froma Harrop is a Providence Journal columnist. Contact her by writing to
