In the latest installment from the "They Just Don't Get It" Department comes this Boston Globe story about Harvard scientists insisting that the recent breakthrough in creating embryonic-like stem cells without making or destroying human embryos isn't that big a deal. Indeed, these researchers are still contending that it is the cloning of human embryos that yet presents (as the Globe story asserts) "the key to developing effective treatments for an array of horrific diseases."The simple facts of the issue, however, are either muddled or ignored altogether by Harvard's "leading researchers" and by Colin Nickerson, the Globe reporter writing the story. Those facts are: 1) that the evidence thus far yields no reason for optimism that research utilizing embryonic stem cells is of the vaunted value continually claimed, and more important, 2) that a research philosophy which accepts the creation of human beings for the direct purpose of killing them is a "horrific" thing in itself, something that further erodes that sanctity of life ethic which is basic to a just and compassionate society.
I cite just a portion of the story below, marking in bold a few of the examples of its pro-cloning bias (such as suggesting the pivotal supporters of the recent advance are merely politicians and religious activists) and a couple of obviously unintended ironies.
...Recent weeks have seen spectacular breakthroughs in creating embryonic-like stem cells without making or destroying human embryos. Politicians, including President Bush, together with religious activists and some highly visible biologists have been quick to proclaim that the new technique for genetically "reprogramming" ordinary adult skin tissue into stem cells marks the moral high road to the future.
It is a route that bypasses thorny issues raised by the use of frozen or cloned human embryos, and is also technically simpler than cloning.
But researchers at Harvard, viewed by many as the world's leading center of stem cell research with some 750 lead scientists at 119 laboratories in the Boston area, are worried that a stampede to the new technique is a gamble that medicine can ill afford to make.
Although new reprogramming techniques are all but certain to yield giant advances in researching disease, they remain far too dangerous for actual treatment, the scientists say. The so-called induced pluripotent stem cells, or IPS, made by the process may never be safe for humans, making it vital to maintain the pace of research on more controversial fronts...
