Minister ignores ethical problem with stem cells

I WAS very surprised to hear Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister Michael Martin’s views on conducting embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) in Ireland in his interview on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland (June 29).

Mr Martin declared that if future work showed that ESCR produced cures for diseases, then he would be “open” to considering such research in Ireland.

The reason for the debate on ESCR is ethics, not the efficacy of this research.

ESCR may produce cures for diseases, just as research using adult stem cells may also do.

But adult stem cell research is free of ethical problems.

On the other hand, in order to carry out ESCR we must kill human embryos. This is the ethical problem. ESCR must be unacceptable to anyone who believes it is wrong deliberately to kill a human embryo. Mr Martin made no reference to ethics, the only reason we are having a debate on ESCR.

It is not permissible for scientists to carry out research that is unethical, even if otherwise the research is likely to produce useful results.

Also, in the case of ESCR, it is not at all clear that this approach is superior to adult stem cell research.

Furthermore, it is highly likely that whatever benefits might result from ESCR would be attainable also from adult stem cells, even if the latter approach takes somewhat longer to achieve equivalent results.

Prof William Reville

Department of Biochemistry

University College Cork