Cell Research: Welcome Controls

It’s welcome news that the federal government will soon begin sponsoring research on cells isolated from human embryos. That’s because millions with serious diseases could benefit from medical discoveries that spring from the new research. Last week, the National Institutes of Health issued guidelines designed to safeguard stem cell research from abuse.

Stem cells show great promise for treating many devastating human diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s, heart ailments and perhaps even Alzheimer’s. Stem cells can evolve into any type of cell, including brain cells, bone or muscle.

Under the proposed rules, researchers who receive federal funds would have to obtain the stem cells from privately funded researchers.

In practice, the cells come from excess human embryos created in fertility clinics. Clinics that perform in vitro fertilization often produce more embryos than are actually implanted in wombs. Currently, donors have the choice of having their unused embryos destroyed or donating them to research. The new guidelines specify that donors must give informed consent to the ultimate use of embryos.

The fact that this research, highly promising though it is, uses organisms that could develop into humans has stalled federal funding and generated fierce opposition. Yet the ethical dilemmas spawned by creating human embryos in a test tube are real enough already–for example, many unused embryos are now being destroyed or harvested for privately funded research. Further breakthroughs in this medical area against diseases now considered incurable will only exacerbate questions about the ethical use of test-tube embryos.

The health institutes’ draft rules take effect after a 60-day public comment period, just begun. Congress could overturn the guidelines by legislation, but that is unlikely. So the ethical questions probably will multiply along with medical advances.