Pro-Life Corner

Christopher Clukey
February 3, 2005

Ah, February! Winter is getting pretty old, but the turn of the calendar means one thing for sure: We’ve all received our W2s and 1099s, and that means we get to file our taxes!

Hmmm…probably not many of you are very enthusiastic about that, and I’m sure my wife (who does our taxes) will read this and ask, “What do you mean, ‘we,’ Kemo Sabe?” Okay, so tax time is painful. And I’m sorry I’m about to make it even less fun by telling you where some of your money might end up. But before I do that, let me throw a scenario at you.

Remember the AIDS drug cocktail? It took thousands of HIV-positive Americans off death row and gave them a reprieve of years, even decades. Imagine if the president had walked into those drug research labs, pointed at some mice that weren’t producing results and said, “I’ve got a feeling the medicine you’re using with this group is the one that will work eventually. So concentrate on them and throw taxpayer dollars at this until you get something.”

Doesn’t make any sense, does it? Well, my little parable isn’t far from what’s happening right now with embryonic stem cell research (ESCR).

Embryonic stem cells are obtained by letting a human embryo develop to a certain size, then harvesting cells that haven’t differentiated themselves into specific types. Theoretically, these cells could be coaxed into becoming any cell type: nerve cells, pancreatic cells, etc. After this harvesting, the embryo is destroyed. Such research is now being touted as the source for cures for a wide range of ailments, such as diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.

The potential and tragedy inherent in these treatments has led to some high political drama. ESCR advocates have loudly accused opponents of being blind to suffering, willing to choose a microscopic dot over living patients, or of being “flat earth” types who are simply against scientific progress. Opponents have been painting the ESCR researchers as modern day snake oil salesmen sacrificing human lives for fat research grants.

So, let’s put aside the politics. What does the science tell us?

James Kelly, a paraplegic and ESCR opponent who has publicly debated Christopher Reeve on this subject, wrote last October, “[Embryonic stem cells’] tendency toward uncontrollable growth and tumor formation has so far made them unfit for any trials in humans. Even in animal trials they have not been able to treat long-lasting or chronic injury.”

Meanwhile, the number of ailments with working treatments using adult stem cells—cells taken from non-embryo sources such as a patient’s own body, or umbilical cord blood—is at 56 and rising. The diseases covered run from brain and ovarian cancer to limb gangrene.

That’s 0 to 56, and the camp with the big score doesn’t have to clone or kill a single embryo to do it. Fifty-six medical breakthroughs, zero ethical dilemmas.

Last year when Christopher Reeve passed away, John Edwards said that when John Kerry became president, he would dramatically increase ESCR funding and people like Reeve would get out of their chairs and walk. Well, two years ago a paraplegic named Erica Nader received a stem cell treatment in her spinal column, cells taken from her own nose. And now, with leg braces, Erica is walking.

Well, it appears we’ve circled back to politics, but why is this even an issue? Perhaps it’s just a lack of proper economic perspective, the bioethical equivalent of the $600 government hammer. Perhaps it’s about knee-jerk political reactions: Many secularists think pro-lifers don’t care about anything older than the third trimester, and many pro-lifers hear “bio-ethics” and think of people like Jack Kevorkian. It could be about the power that legislators gain when they pass out money, or about helping the pro-choicers by making fetal research easier to do down the line.

Just keep this in mind: A pro-ESCR bill that would have opened the way to funding it with Illinois taxpayer dollars failed in our Senate last year--by only one vote. If we aren’t careful, by next tax time we may be paying for futility and death at premium prices.