Obama victory delights stem-cell researchers

Advocates of stem-cell research are counting the days until the swearing-in of President-elect Barack Obama. Although President George Bush has strictly limited stem-cell research from cell lines derived from human embryos, Obama has long favored such research and is likely to put a quick end to the federal ban that limits funding of research.

In a 2007 news release supporting legislation to loosen restrictions on stem-cell research, Obama said:

"I am frustrated ... that we are preventing the advancement of important science that could potentially impact millions of suffering Americans ... My hope, and the hope of so many in this country, is to provide our researchers with the means to explore the uses of embryonic stem cells so that we can begin to turn the tide on the devastating diseases affecting our nation and our world."

The Vancouver Sun reported today that researchers attending a stem-cell conference in Canada were elated with Obama's win. Dr. Clayton Smith, an American researcher who moved to British Columbia five years ago to perform stem-cell research, told the Sun: "Watching the election last night was a singular event, like watching the Berlin Wall fall."

USA Today reported that people attending the annual fundraiser benefiting the Michael J. Fox Foundation in New York Wednesday night were giddy over Obama's win. "In all fairness, Sen. McCain has been supportive of our foundation in the past and supportive of research. But I think this administration will really embrace it," said Fox, who has Parkinson's disease. Researchers are hopeful that stem-cell research could eventually yield a successful treatment for the disease.

Stem-cell researchers had a good night Tuesday in various states as well. Michigan voters passed Proposition 2, allowing new embryonic stem-cell lines to be derived from embryos that have been created for fertility treatment purposes. The embryos affected by the amendment would otherwise be discarded unless donated with informed consent. And voters in Colorado rejected Amendment 48, which would have declared a fertilized egg a person with legal rights. The amendment, if passed, could have resulted in a ban on abortions, stem-cell research and some reproductive health services.

The federal ban on stem-cell research has left the United States well behind other countries in the scientific pursuit of stem-cell knowledge and products. Today, for example, Japanese researchers reported they had created, for the first time, functioning human brain tissue from stem cells taken from human embryos. The study is published online in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

-- Shari Roan

Photo: Functional human brain tissue made from stem cells is shown from the laboratory of Japanese scientist Yoshiki Sasai. Credit: Yoshiki Sasai/AFP/Getty Images

Comments

[jessica]

i think that we should up the stem cell research. i think its stupid that its been stopped and slowed down. i really hope obama will put it in further research and make sure it gets down to business. i have diabetes and got diagnosed november 11, 2002. it sucks so much. when i got diagnosed they said in around 5 years they would have a cure, and they havent. no wonder, i never knew that bush was slowing down the research. that is so stupid. people like me are suffering for his thoughts and beliefs. i try to take care of my self but it is so hard. i would do anything to have a cure for it and live a normal life.

[Janey]

It's all well and good that stem cells have the potential to cure diseases, etc, but the world is entering murky ethical waters, here, and I don't trust all of humanity to handle this technology in an ethical way. Where do we draw the line? At what point do we start building genetically engineered humans? Who has the moral authority to make such decisions? It's a slippery slope, and I'd rather see science trying to solve problems in a way that didn't involve messing with human life...

And a fertilized egg/embryo is a human life. It will live and grow to be an adult human being, as long as it is allowed to... as long as it isn't killed at some point along the way. I know this is an unpopular position, but it is a rational one nonetheless.

[Jane]

I believe it's fair that those who don't approve of stem cell research simply not use the results. If they develop Parkinson's, cancer, diabetes or any other ailment that can be cured by a protocol which arose from stem cell research, they can simply "just say no".

It's unfortunate that we're not facing the same outcry in response to GMOs in our food supply. Here we do not have a choice to avoid GMOs unless it is to eat completely Organic foods, and even then who knows?

I should think that God would be just as annoyed at our perverting the genetic makeup of plants and animals for profit as much as using stem cells for research in curing illness.

[Babs]

Creating life and destroying it are things we shouldn't mess with, tho' it is so tempting when people are suffering. I do not think it is ethical to make tiny humans and 'discard' them. "A person's a person no matter how small!"