Stem-cell research for life

It was May 16, last year, at a little after 4 p.m. That was when we got the word that my daughter Kate, now 11, had diabetes.

As any of the millions of parents of children with juvenile diabetes can tell you, the daily routines needed to keep Kate’s blood-sugar levels on target can easily dominate family life. Whatever we do, and wherever we go, we account for it. And once Kate is old enough to take charge of her daily blood-testing and injections, she’ll continue it for the rest of her life.

Even then, she faces uncertain health in the future. Suffice it to say that diabetes lives up to its billing as a diagnosis you don’t want. Science has produced good treatments for it, but we can neither cure it, nor reliably stave off its many complications.

But about a year ago, we received wonderful news about breakthrough medical research on human stem cells – research that could speed the search for a cure. Unfortunately, politics is getting in the way of research, and my husband and I are concerned and, frankly, angry that a very promising avenue of research may be ignored.

Here’s what’s going on. Stem cells are unique cells in the human body that can grow into any of the body’s other cell types, including blood, brain, heart tissue, nerve, or bone. Scientists hope that by learning to manipulate stem cells in the laboratory, they will within Kate’s lifetime be able to grow cells that can replace or repair damaged cells in the body. That could mean treatments, or even cures, for diabetes, Alzheimer’s, cancer, ALS, Parkinson’s, heart disease, spinal cord injuries and more.

The most promising source of stem cells – and this is where the politics comes into play – is fertilized human eggs. Fortunately, the phenomenal growth of in vitro fertilization over the past 20 years has created an ample supply of excess fertilized eggs. Fertility clinics typically extract and fertilize in the lab many more eggs than are eventually used. These excess eggs are either destroyed or frozen for decades and then, in all likelihood destroyed. Stem cells can also be derived from adults, but researchers report that adult stem cells are nowhere near as promising, because they don’t reproduce as well or live as long.

Last summer, the National Institutes of Health announced it would fund stem-cell research, subject to specific guidelines. Mindful of the ethical and moral problems of creating a new market for fertilized eggs, NIH directed that researchers use only excess eggs from private fertility clinics – about 100,000 are thought to be available. That was three months after my daughter’s diagnosis, so you can imagine our joy at the news that the federal government would throw its weight, and its money, into the research.

Unfortunately, some in the right-to-life movement are pressing the new administration to reverse course, arguing that research should be limited to adult stem cells only. Many of the movement’s own leaders disagree – Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Gordon Smith, R-Ore., as well as former Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., have all urged the Bush administration to press ahead with stem cell research using excess eggs from fertility clinics. Maine’s own Susan Collins recently expressed that same view in a letter to the President, writing that “it would be tragic to waste this opportunity to pursue research that can potentially help millions of people in need.” I thought of Kate when I read the letter, and can’t thank Sen. Collins enough.

In the next few weeks, President Bush is expected to decide whether to permit federal funding for stem cell research under the NIH guidelines, or to restrict research to adult stem cells. I’m a teacher, not a politician, so I won’t claim to know what it will be like for the president to deal with the issue, pressured as he will be by some of his political allies to curtail research.

But I’m a parent, just as he is, and I have to believe that if he looks at it through that lens – if he contemplates what his decision means for the millions of parents out there who are hoping that stem cell research will lead to a healthier and longer life for their children – he’ll have to do the right thing.

I’m counting on him.

Karen Farrell of Limestone is an English instructor at Northern Maine Technical College.