Return to Holy Family Catholic Church Home Page
Stem Cell Research Questions
The following notes regarding Stem Cell Research Questions came from Father Barr's March 14th 2005 meeting with the Anne Arundel County Priests and Deacons.
Two types of stem cells:
- Embryonic stem cells - obtained from killing embryos that are seven to ten days old. The embryos are created either through in vitro fertilization or through cloning.
- Adult, also called "non-embryonic," stem cells: this includes embryonic cells from umbilical cord blood and one's own body cells. Numerous tissues in the body, such as bone marrow, blood, liver, brain, heart, and fat, contain or can produce adult stem cells.
Adult stem cell research has been successful in treating leukemia, cancer, heart disease, spinal cord injury, Parkinson's, and other diseases. Medical breakthroughs using adult stem cells are being published with great frequency.
A falsehood is the claim that only embryonic stem cells can produce any cell in the body. While it is true that stem cells taken from embryos can grow into every tissue (heart, lung, liver, etc.), one problem with embryonic stem cells is that they often produce tumors. This research has been going on for twenty years with animals and for five years with human embryos. Yet no one has been cured of any disease. Not even a mouse has been successfully treated with embryonic stem cells. Additionally, now it is known that adult stem cells can also produce essentially every tissue in the human body.
One of the rationales for endorsing embryonic stem cell research is, "These embryos are going to die anyway." Why not "dispose of" (i.e., kill) them and "use them for some good?" The response is three-fold. First, we are all going to die eventually, but that doesn't give someone the right to kill us. Second, an evil means doesn't justify a good end, and destroying innocent nascent human life is evil. Third, the notion that these embryos will be destroyed anyway is a false premise. The embryos can be stored indefinitely until they are implanted in a woman's uterus to give a childless couple the baby they've always wanted.
The embryonic stem cell lines we all ready have were produced from destroyed embryos.
The question of human cloning. Human cloning starts with unfertilized eggs which are surgically harvested from women who have been given dangerous superovulatory drugs. Clinics pay from $1,000.00 to $3,000.00 to harvest these. We believe this will target poor women and college age women who are in financial need.
The process: The lab removes the DNA (nucleus) from the unfertilized egg. Then a cell, called a "somatic cell," is taken from the person to be cloned. The DNA, or nucleus, is removed from that somatic cell and transferred into the unfertilized egg. Thus, the technical name for cloning is "somatic cell nuclear transfer." Cell division is stimulated using electricity, resulting in a living human embryo, a cloned human embryo. This is a form of asexual reproduction.
Somatic cell nuclear transfer, or cloning, always starts with the same step: the creation of a cloned human embryo. Once the embryo has been created, the act of cloning has occurred. The process is sometime obscured by the use of the terms "reproductive cloning" and "therapeutic cloning." But these processes occur after the act of cloning has already occurred.
- Reproductive cloning: the cloned embryo is implanted in a woman's uterus.
- Therapeutic cloning: kill the cloned embryo and harvest the embryonic stem cells.
A common problem with tissue transplants is that the recipient's body rejects the tissue from a donor. This also occurs with embryonic stem cells, even those obtained through cloning - the stem cells are rejected. But when adult stem cells are taken from the patient's own body and used to treat him/her, there is no rejection.
If the embryo is only seven to ten days old, how can we say it is human life that needs to be protected? The Law of Biogenetics says that what is not human now cannot become human at a later time. Since human embryos become humans, a human embryo is human. If a human embryo is not human, then what is it? A fish, a turtle? Science tells us that human embryos are human, because we are human and we all started out as embryos. Those who say a human embryo is not human simply do not understand the science.
Return to Holy Family Catholic Church Home Page