Adult stem cell research offers false hope
However, she has been misled if she believes embryonic stem cell research has provided any successful medical treatments whatsoever to date.
It has not.
In fact, following almost 30 years of research on human embryos, all this research has shown is failure and false hope; the kind of false hope that is particularly difficult for patients and families living with debilitating medical conditions.
That’s one of the reasons Youth Defence embarked on its publicity campaign. We’ve called on UCC to become a centre of excellence for ethical research on adult stem cells, which are usually taken from the patient’s own body.
To date more than 73 successful medical treatments have been developed using adult cells, including treatments for cancer and spinal cord injuries. The other reason of course is that embryonic stem cell research destroys human life. That’s always unethical whatever the result. But while embryo research is being hyped, ethical stem cell research is offering real hope. And now there’s the exciting news that British and Canadian scientists have found a way of reprogramming skin cells taken from adults, effectively winding the clock back on the cells until they were in an embryonic form.
The breakthrough, which avoids harming human embryos, has been hailed as a major step forward by scientists. It vindicates Youth Defence’s description of the UCC proposal to begin embryonic stem cell research as “unethical and scientifically indefensible”. Sir Ian Wilmut, who led the team that cloned Dolly the Sheep, also heads the team that made this breakthrough. Like many other leaders in this field, he is pursuing research that gives results — and that’s clearly not on human embryos.
Íde Nic Mhathuna
Youth Defence
Capel Street
Dublin 1
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