Wednesday, June 20, 2001
o PINION
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Debate on stem cell
research continues
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Kittens, Cats,
■,\ Occasional :>
■ thers
(U-WIRE) — Freezers at
jin vitro fertilization clinics, full
WANTED Hof frozen surplus embryos,
teem with the potential for life.
Yet without a uterus into which
they can he implanted, these
embryos will never develop
into human beings.
According to the Journal of
the American Medical Associ
ation, there are roughly
100,000 such frozen embryos
at these clinics with no hope of
■■■becoming people.
Yet diese tiny potential lives
:an thrive in another way —
Brazos v| with the consent of the pro
genitors, scientists can culture
spare embryo to grow until it
^ becomes a hollow sphere of
:ells called a blastocyst, rough-
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scorning a prates iy four days after fertilization.
Crown Acaoe-v HScientists can then harvest cells
rom the blastocyst known as
jluripotent stem cells, which
re capable of forming virtual
ly every 7 kind of cell found in
he human body.
These miraculous little cells
an be coaxed into developing
into cells and tissues to treat a
myriad of diseases, conditions
ind disabilities including
^ whrte/gtaj^B^kfoson’s and Alzheimer’s
i (979)268-158: Biseases, spinal cord injury,
jppies, akc, tr ■troke, burns, heart disease, di
abetes, osteoarthritis and
rheumatoid arthritis, according
Bo the National Institutes of
2alth (NIH).
For a patient with chronic
|ieart disease, stem cells could
be used to grow new heart
ruscle. For a patient with
Izheimer’s, neural stem cells
tould be harnessed to stimulate
growth in the brain. In fact, sci-
itntists have performed these
kinds of transplants on mice
Irid rats with astounding suc-
Itess. For treating leukemia, the
therapeutic impact of stem cells
has already been realized in hu-
inans, helping thousands of pa
tients who cannot find a
Inatching donor for bone mar
row transplants.
I “There is almost no realm of
medicine that might not he
louched by this innovation,”
Ihe NIH report.
ed, 3bdrm/2bthajg| Despite these promising
Bnedical developments, debate
fages within the Bush admims-
“Ira non over whether to axe fed
eral funding for research in
volving human embryonic
item cells altogether.
I In late April, the Depart
ment of Health and Human
Services ordered the institutes
to postpone decisions regard-
big grants for human embry-
bnic stem cell research while
the government clarifies its
funding policy. Thus, while
stem cell research proceeds
overseas in countries includ-
big Israel, Australia and the
United Kingdom, and in pri
vately funded projects in the
■Jnited States, the federal
granting process has come to
a halt, leaving researchers in
tile lurch.
I For that reason, actor and
quadriplegic Christopher
Reeve filed a suit against the
overnment in May for causing
iirreparable harm” by delaying
research grants. Reeve’s spinal
lord injury is among the dis
abilities that might be treated
by techniques arising from
w JL item cell research.
■ I he existing NIH guide
lines for funding stem cell re
search, which were established
in August 2000, do merit re
view. Every year since 1996,
Congress has approved a law
111 at prohibits using federal
money to finance research in
which an embryo is destroyed.
Yet embryos are destroyed
Rhen their stem cells are har-
ested.
Under the Clinton adminis-
ation, federally funded re-
Search involving human em-
L) Jryonic stem cells proceeded
rough a kind of loophole —
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federally funded research could
use, but not harvest, embryon
ic stem cells. In other words,
federally funded research proj
ects were purchasing die requi
site cells from private compa
nies rather than harvesting the
cells themselves.
Uneasy with the source of
embryonic stem cells, many
right-to-life advocates would
like to see researchers using cell
lines that were derived from
adult stem cells alone, or, more
moderately, from adults and fe
tal tissue from therapeutic
abortions. Although very re
cent medical developments
suggest that adult stem cells
may have more potential than
was previously believed, most
scientists would argue that they
do not have die same potential
as embryonic stem cells.
As George Q. Daley, M.D.,
Ph.D., Whitehead Fellow and
assistant professor at Harvard
Medical School said, “1 think it
is fair to say that no practition
er in the field today believes
that embryonic stem cells and
any defined adult stem cell are
equivalent in their potential.”
Adult stem cells do not have
the same capacity to proliferate
as embryonic stem cells, do not
exist in all tissues of the body,
are often only found in small
quantities, and are difficult to
isolate and purify. Additionally,
adult stem cells may show neg
ative impacts of aging, such as
more DNA abnormalities.
Embryonic germ cells,
which are taken from fetal tis
sues after therapeutic abor
tions, thus posing less of an
ethical dilemma than do em
bryonic stem cells, are also be
lieved to have only limited use
fulness in scientific research.
Whereas embryonic stem cells
appear to be immortal, scien
tists have not been able to cul
ture these germ cell lines for
more than 21 days.
If these other types of stem
cells prove as potent for med
ical advances as embryonic
stem cells, it would be a boon,
relieving us of at least one
moral quandary. But it is too
early to tell.
“I want to argue against the
idea that we can, at this stage of
knowledge, express a prefer
ence for embryonic stem cells
or adult stem cells,” said Daley
at a briefing to policy makers in
Washington. “It is in the great
est public interest to move for
ward on both fronts.”
Kevin Fitzgerald, Ph.D., Je
suit priest, molecular biologist
and ethicist at Loyola Univer
sity Medical Center in Chica
go, offered a refreshing per
spective in a recent issue of the
Journal of the American Med
ical Association: “One of the
things that intrigues me, not
just in stem cell research but in
the new genetic, molecular and
cellular technologies, is that of
ten we view these things in the
context of running a race
against disease.
This metaphor brings to
mind the following questions:
What kind of race are we run
ning? What kind of race do we
want to run? Will there be win
ners and losers, and who might
they be?”
The moral quandary of stem
cell research is not as simple as
whether or not a frozen em
bryo has moral status or
whether it has a right to life.
On the other side are the
sufferers, not only Christo
pher Reeve and Michael J.
Fox, who suffers from Parkin
son’s disease, but our own
neighbors, co-workers and
loved ones. We are forced to
pit the ethics of creation
against the ethics of healing.
Rebecca Meyer
Daily Californian
U. of California - Berkeley
THE BATTALION
Give us birth control
Health care for both sexes must he provided
T he first court ruling
dealing with gender
equity in prescrip
tion drug coverage was
given last week in Seat
tle, when a federal judge
ruled the Bartell Drug
Company discriminated
against women by ex
cluding prescription contraceptives from
its health care plan.
The lawsuit said Bartell violated the
Pregnancy Discrimination Act by refus
ing to cover contraceptives while paying
for all the basic health care needs of male
employees. While this ruling’does not
solve all womens’ insurance problems, it
does set a valuable precedent that will
help many female employees stand up for
their rights.
Birth control is more than a pill women
take to keep from getting pregnant. It is
also affordable preventive medicine for a
large company.
According to a 1998 study by the Alan
Guttmacher Institute, the cost of adding
contraceptive coverage to a company
health care-plan is approximately $1.43 per
employee per month.
Prescription contraceptives are an effec
tive way to prevent unwanted pregnancies,
which keeps employers from having to
deal with medical leaves for an abortion or
birth. Surely it is worth $1.43 a month not
to have to work with these complex, and
certainly more expensive, medical prob
lems.
In December, the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission ruled that “Em
ployers who offer insurance coverage for
preventive health care, like drugs to lower
blood pressure or cholesterol, must also
cover prescription contraceptives,” ac
cording to the New York Times.
This makes sense, considering that the
hormones in oral contraceptives have been
proven to help prevent and treat other
common female health problems. The
American Academy of Family Physicians
(AAFP) endorses the use of oral contra
ceptives for many conditions, including
acne, benign breast cysts, severe menstrual
cramps, functional ovarian cysts, abnormal
uterine bleeding, PMS and for the preven
tion of ovarian and endometrial cancer.
Women who use oral contraceptives get
these types of cancer at around half the
rate of non-users, according to the AAFP.
If all major preventive health care needs
are covered for men, it is only reasonable
•• ,'e<n
that women receive the same treatment.
“Male and female employees have dif
ferent sex-based disability and health care
needs,” said Judge Robert S. Lasnik, who
ruled on the Bartell case.
Only women can get pregnant or give
birth, and only women suffer from many
of the health problems that birth control
can help prevent. Providing women with
prescription contraceptives through com^-' *
pany health care is fair and economical. * ?
Therefore, more companies should start
providing both sexes with adequate
health care before further litigation is
necessary.
Jessica Crutcher is a junior •
journalism major.
Mail Call
Alternative educa
tion programs are
actually helpful
In response to J.J. Trevino's
June 7 8 column.
J.J. Trevino's June 1 8 opinion
piece about the hiring of non-
certified or emergency certi
fied teachers was way off the
mark. While there have been
people hired as teachers who
have turned out to be bad
seeds, that is the fault of the
particular school district, not a
fault in the practice of hiring
non-certified teachers.
Schools have to put teach
ers in the classroom. Unfor
tunately, most people do not
view teaching as a choice pro
fession. It is a fall-back plan for
this age of high-pay technolo
gy careers. Having an uncerti
fied teacher leading a class
room is much better than
having one teacher in front of
a class of 60 or 70 high school
ers because a school is under
staffed. All of the teachers a
school hires, certified or not,
have at least a bachelor's de
gree. Many districts require a
degree to even become a sub
stitute. If certification is such a
huge concern, let's look at a
university faculty. How many
of our faculty members have
gone through any kind of
teacher certification program?
Outside of the College of Edu
cation, I am sure very few.
The alternative certification
programs which Trevino at
tacks are very good ideas.
Trevino says it is a bad idea to
put a teacher-in-training in
front of a class.
What do you think student
teaching is? Everyone who is in
any kind of certification pro
gram goes through it, and
how can we train teachers if
they don't get any classroom
teaching experience in that
training?
Teaching training and certi
fication are very important, but
we also need to attract more
people to this noble profession
through more funding. Then
maybe more people would be
willing to go through the rig
ors of teacher certification,
therefore increasing the quali
ty of our schools.
Judd Bristo
Class of '0 7
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