A Call for Action:

It was one of those scenes you only see in movies; a thirty year old father suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease could not recognize his children. The oldest, age 10, asks his mother why his father did not remember his name. The youngest smiles at his dad with hopes of getting some sign of love but fails. The mother of the four boys can’t believe that the person she was supposed to spend the rest of her life with does not remember her. This is not a scene from a movie. The thirty year old man is my uncle; father of two children and husband to a lovely wife. His story has motivated me to support stem cell research. Unfortunately, potential scientific breakthroughs that could one day be the cure for Alzheimer’s are being halted.

Opposition to Stem Cell research arises from the belief that human embryos should not be used, because in the process scientists are killing a human being. The general public is not well informed of the facts that go along with the scientific research; they do not understand the source of the embryos that are being used, how they are being used, why they are being used, and the potential benefits that they provide that no other lineage of stem cells can provide. If a couple undergoes failed in-vitro fertilization the couple is given the option to discard the embryo or make it available for scientific research. Discarding the embryo seems unacceptably wasteful. Stem cell research only determines how the embryo is destroyed, not whether it is destroyed. The embryo in the failed in-vitro fertilization would otherwise end up in a garbage can.

Scientists are now able to create embryos. Embryos created in a lab do not have the ability to grow into a human being. There are natural limitations that prevent that embryo from developing into a human being. It seems unjustified to think about these subtle details when there are millions of human being dying from ill-fated diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, the list goes on and on.

The general population has the notion that those who suffer from these diseases are those in their late 60’s and 70’s. But, that is not the case, over 15% of those suffering from these diseases are in their early years of their lives. My uncle is only 30 years old and he can’t even recognize his own children. Yet, people still have the time to argue about what is the proper way of discarding an embryo because it might “one day” become a human being, where that “one day” would never come because it is impossible to create a human being out of a test tube.

Like every human being my uncle had goals in mind when he started his family. Little did he know that those goals he had in mind would never become reality because of this disease that today prevents him from recognizing his own face. It is quite disturbing to think that it could have been possible to cure my uncle if only these type of arguments were not made. It could have saved society a great amount of time, effort, money, and suffering. One quote from the “Do No Harm Organization” summarizes the kind of ideology that arises in the debates:

“That some individuals would be destroyed in the name of medical science constitutes a threat to us all. Recent statements claiming that human embryonic stem cell research is too promising to be slowed or prohibited underscores the sort of utopianism and hubris that could blind us the truth of what we are doing and the harm we could cause…”

The stated premise in the argument is that each embryo is the tiniest of human beings and that since a zygote is a tiny human being it has dignity, and thus deserves respect. I can say the same thing for a sperm that is being donated to a sperm bank: It has the potential of becoming an embryo, and that embryo is a tiny human being, and that tiniest of human being has dignity therefore that sperm should not be destroyed. This argument is even sometimes used by the catholic church to oppose control birth. But, there are individuals who oppose embryonic stem cell research and would think that the statement that I mentioned before is extremely silly or they themselves have donated sperm to sperm banks. It comes to a point where most of the arguments made by people are extremely ridiculous. In a New York Times article entitled “Clash on Use of Embryos in Germany Stirs Echoes of Nazi Era” the author points out that many citizens in Germany oppose stem cell research because it will be a second coming of the Holocaust and the use of slaves in the 19 th century. After reading the article and reading some of the absurd comments they make I still ask myself how does the use of cells in a tube that could never become human beings or that were going to be discarded in a garbage, compare to the use of human beings as slaves and the murder of millions of human beings? The main problem in these debates is the extreme examples that people give to support their arguments and the misunderstanding of therapeutic cloning versus reproductive cloning. In the New York Times article one of the politicians from Germany stated that, "Individual wishes are driving the possible mergence of eugenics, not the state, because people want children for whom they can be ambitious." This statement demonstrates that this politician really has no idea of the distinction between the two. He is being asked about embryonic stem cell research and he proposes that this can lead to eugenics. Eugenics being the selection of genes and qualities of a pre-born human being, eugenics can only be accomplished through reproductive cloning not therapeutic cloning. In the meantime there are over 10 million individuals worldwide suffering from Alzheimer’s. In October, an article in Nature reported that scientists in the United States have been able to recreate a combo between gene therapy and embryonic stem cells to fight genetic disorders and lately in mice they have restored eyesight of blind mice using embryonic stem cells. If with only the limited number of embryonic stem cells that they have scientists are making groundbreaking discoveries can you imagine what they can do with a large supply of these embryonic stem cells? The limited supply that they have now are continued to be contaminated by mouse DNA in their lab experiments and these stem cell lines will no longer function. The discoveries are boundless; Alzheimer’s Disease, AIDS, Parkinson’s Disease, Cancer and the other pandemics of this world will be a thing of the past instead of issues that face every household such as my uncle’s. Children around the world will be able to have both parents watch them grow up healthy and strong. Parents, mothers, husbands and wives will have the opportunity to enjoy life as it was meant to be enjoyed.

If only it was possible to put those same people that oppose promising scientific research in the position my uncle is in today with Alzheimer’s Disease or Parkinson’s. Would they still have the same beliefs? Would they still oppose something that has the ability to cure them from their misery? Wouldn’t they want their loved ones or themselves to livelong and healthy lives?

[1] Cohen, Roger. “ Clash on Use of Embryos in Germany Stirs Echoes of Nazi Era” The New York Times, May 30, 2001

[2] Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity. 1999. On Human Ethics and Stem Cell Research: An Appeal for Legally and Ethically Responsible Science and Public Policy. www.stemcellresearch.org