Experts discuss stem cell research in La Jolla
By: BRADLEY J. FIKES - Staff Writer | ∞
LA JOLLA -- Embryonic stem cell science is picking up steam, making moral questions about how to do the research and who gets the benefits an urgent matter.
That's the message speakers delivered Friday at a conference in La Jolla on the ethics of stem cell research.
The conference featured scientific and ethical experts who urged people to think about how this research should be turned into treatments. They spoke to an audience of more than 100 people at the Salk Institute, active in the county's growing community of stem cell research.
Qualms about the concept of using embryonic stem cells have been largely resolved, they said, pointing to the growing number of programs such as California's $3 billion stem cell research effort. Now the public has to consider questions that are far less familiar than such well-debated subjects as what rights to give a human embryo. Among them are:
"Issues we seemed to have a lot of time to deal with, we have to deal with right now," said speaker David Magnus, director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics.
Geron, a biotechnology company in Menlo Park, has already asked for permission to begin clinical trials of using human embryonic stem cells to treat people with spinal cord injuries, Magnus said. Animal tests have looked very promising, he said. But this would be the first test of embryonic stem cells in humans, he said, so it's a milestone that will set a precedent for future trials.
Keynote speaker Laurie Zoloth of Northwestern University said religion gives science values to guide it, namely that the research should be focused on healing as well as helping the poor.
"What religion offers science at its core is justice," Zoloth said. That goal should be higher than making money, she said.
The question of whether killing an embryo is taking a human life should not be part of the debate, she said.
"It's a surrogate debate for abortion. Some questions are just not resolvable," said Zoloth, director of the Center for Bioethics, Science and Society at Northwestern.
The biggest moral issue now is how to fairly treat women who donate their egg cells for stem cell research, said Diane Beeson, a scholar at the Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future at Chicago-Kent College of Law/Illinois Institute of Technology.
Beeson called for a moratorium on collecting egg cells for stem cell research. Women can't give informed consent for this risky procedure, because the issue hasn't been studied enough, she said.
Lawrence S. Goldstein, director of the stem cell program at UC San Diego, said he's worried that the public is getting the wrong idea about the biggest benefit from stem cell research. That is likely to be improved models to test drugs before putting them into human trials.
Animals are poor substitutes for humans in testing, Goldstein said, so drugs that work in animals usually flop in humans -- the failure rate is 90 percent. If that rate could be lowered to 85 percent or 80 percent, he said, "it would transform the way drugs are developed, and I think that's a fairly achievable outcome."
Goldstein also said more attention needs to be paid to weighing risks against benefits when stem cell therapies are directly tried in humans. A level of risk that would be fair for someone who has a progressive, fatal disease might not be appropriate for someone with a disease like Type I diabetes, who can lead a fairly normal life with treatments available today.
-- Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at (760) 739-6641 or bfikes@nctimes.com.
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keep religion out wrote on Apr 7, 2007 12:30 PM:This is strictly a scientific enterprise. I see no value added by bring in religion since there is no universal religious doctrine in this country or the world. If religious people want to debate stem cell research among themselves, fine. They can decide whether they want to avail themselves of the benefits of the research. For the rest of us, we look forward to the results and benefits to all mankind.
GFN wrote on Apr 7, 2007 8:01 PM:Just do it! Help the real living people.
Confused wrote on May 20, 2007 4:06 PM:Though stem cell research is of benefit to some, i believe it is partially wrong. Maybe if it were helping both the donor and the person receiving the cells it would be less controversial. This is a really touching issue.
No37 wrote on Sep 25, 2007 6:22 AM:I think that steam cell research is very intersting and well thought out. Personaly, I think that its benifits a lot of people. One day it might save someone you know or even you. Thats what i see, and what is from my personal veiw.
charlotte wrote on Dec 18, 2007 6:43 AM:i think you should go ahead with it, and make people better again!!!!
andrew p wrote on Aug 24, 2008 12:31 PM:We dont have to use the fetus...all you have to do is wait untill after the woman has the baby and use the umbilical cord and the placenta, they have plenty of embryonic cells.
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