Medical silence, money and stem cell research
It must always be repeated that such research involves the treatment of embryos as if they were non-persons and not entitled to the utmost protection for their wellbeing from conception to natural death.
In addition, why is there such widespread ignorance about the failure, so far, of such research to produce any useful results, and the contrasting tremendous progress in adult stem cell research?
Why is the medical profession so silent about this? For a profession which prides itself on keeping abreast of developments, why hasn’t someone opened a book and read the up-to-date literature?
Ethics apart, embryonic cells, removed from the regulating mechanism of normal development, are liable to revert to uncontrolled differentiation and drift towards totipotency or malignancy. Adult cells lines will yield any tissue and, in comparison, are much more
stable. The only reason for wanting to pursue embryonic research is for commercial gain. How many millions of taxpayers’ money will be poured into the coffers of these people and diverted from ethical cell research?
It is useful to recall the results of the treatment, some years ago, of a group of Parkinson’s patients who had embryonic cell implants into their brains. After initial euphoric reports, there was silence. It transpired that the procedure was a disaster.
A significant number developed uncontrolled involuntary movements, due to excess dopamine; others had intractable pain and the post mortem on one revealed his cerebral ventricles filled with a mixture of bone, cartilage hair and epidermal cells.
We have been bombarded with the emotional blackmail that the sick and disabled will continue to suffer if we do not support embryo research. Of course we all want to see all possible diseases cured, but surely not at the cost of human sacrifice?
There is little essential difference between this demand and that of Moloch, or the appalling Nazi experiments in the concentration camps. What about the never-again determination of the world after WW2?
The early human zygote is the son or daughter of the man and woman who begot it; it is what every infertile woman longs to have, it is Louise Brown when viewed by Steptoe and Edwards under the microscope: it is not the property of those who aim to harm it.
The only permissible way to deal with a human embryo is to ensure that it is delivered as a live baby from its mother’s womb.
There are many complex problems to be unravelled before the hypotheses of stem cells treatment become a reality. There is no imminent breakthrough on the horizon. Ethical research is the way forward. We have no right to abuse the embryo.
If we do so, a future generation will rightly heap vehement contempt on us.
Dr M E MacConaill,
Coryule,
Brahalish,
Durrus,
Co Cork.
