Christian Doctors Urge Govt. Support for Adult Stem Cell Study
by Mary Rettig and Jenni Parker
August 9, 2004
(AgapePress) - The Christian Medical Association recently sent a letter to Congress speaking out against embryonic stem cell research (ESCR), and asking the U.S. legislature and the White House to support adult stem cell research, which actually holds promise for improving and saving human lives. While speakers at the Democratic National Convention were promoting ESCR and so-called "therapeutic" human cloning, the members of the CMA were appealing to the nation's lawmakers to invest in ethical research that is already yielding successful therapies for patients.
Dr. David Stevens is Executive Director of the Christian Medical Association, the nation's largest faith-based organization of doctors. He was one of more than 2000 doctors nationwide who signed a July 30 letter to Congress urging the President of the U.S. and Congress to invest in adult stem cell research, rather than in ESCR.
Stevens feels the exploitation of human embryos for their supposed medical and scientific benefits must be opposed for several reasons. Besides the fact that ESCR results in the destruction of the embryos, he warns that cloning human beings for stem cells -- the practice Ron Reagan Jr. urged in his recent convention speech -- would produce abnormal embryonic stem cells. He also notes that this research would inevitably result in the exploitation of women in order to acquire to the millions of human eggs needed for human cloning.
"Ron Jr.'s speech was 'political science' of the worst sort," Stevens says. On the other hand, he points out, adult stem cell research can be accomplished without these ethical problems, and it is already yielding encouraging results.
For instance, the pro-life doctor notes, "A patient out in California had a 90 percent decrease in his Parkinson symptoms after his own brain stem cells were harvested, grown in culture in a laboratory, and transplanted back into his brain." And this is not an isolated success. He goes on to describe how, in Germany, patients "have received their own bone marrow stem cells, directly injected into an artery of the heart after they've had a heart attack, and that has caused repair of the damaged heart muscle."
Stevens notes that adult stem cell research has also yielded encouraging results in stroke patients, and investigators are looking at many more possible applications in the laboratory. All over the nation and the world, in research on adult stem cells, he says "they're looking very promising," and investigators anticipate that adult stem cell research will play a part in many medical breakthroughs "including curing diabetes."
Putting people ahead of profits
According to the CMA spokesman, the doctors speaking out in favor of adult stem cell research have a vested interest in it, simply because they care daily for patients who desperately need cures that could arise from regenerative medicine. At the same time, he adds, these doctors "have the motivation, knowledge and experience to analyze stem cell research without the inherent bias of fund-seeking firms and researchers who have hyped embryonic stem cell research far beyond scientific integrity."
The bottom line, Stevens asserts, is that Christian doctors want the quickest, most ethical, and most economical way to find real cures for real patients. He says adult stem cells are giving results now and providing cost-effective treatments, while embryonic stem cells are "prohibitively expensive" and, at best, any possible help from them is probably 10 to 15 years away.
Since few private investors will risk funding the quest for the "miracle cures" that ESCR may or may not provide, Stevens says scientists who are after fame and wealth are using outrageous promises and gullible celebrities to help them pick the public's pocket. Rather than be led by the false claims of ESCR proponents' "junk science," the doctor says the government should put taxpayers' money into ethical research that will bring about the most affordable cures for patients in the quickest time.
