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Embryonic Stem Cell Research: "Bait & Switch" for Human Cloning
Capitol Hill Staff
May 26, 2005
- HR810 does not provide the desired type or number of embryonic stem cell lines demanded by the research community.
- RAND has estimated that of the currently frozen embryos only 275 could become viable stem cell lines. These will not be genetically diverse, since minorities are poorly represented among IVF clients.
- Stem cells from IVF embryos will cause serious immune rejection problems if transplanted into patients. Researchers argue that to avoid immune rejection, we need to clone people to make stem cells that are genetically identical to the patient receiving the stem cell transplant.
- "The best way to be able to actually maybe get a therapeutic use out of this research [embryonic stem cell research], actually cure cancer, cure Parkinson's, cure Alzheimer's, cure juvenile diabetes, the actual way to do that…is to actually put the stem cells into the body, and that is exactly what is being done here. Cells from a person's body are being used, through somatic cell nuclear transfer, to be able to create the potentiality of curing these horrific diseases." Rep. Peter Deutsch, 107th Congress, debate on cloning.
- States that have funded embryonic stem cell research have also funded human cloning (e.g. California and New Jersey).
- Governor Mitt Romney faces intense opposition from the scientific community in Massachusetts for opposing human cloning for research, even though he supports the use of IVF embryos for embryonic stem cell research. His attempts to meet the scientists "half-way" have completely failed.
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