New, Moral Approach to Stem Cell Research

You may have noticed the recent heated debate concerning embryonic stem cell research has been completely phased out of the mainstream media, whereas a few months ago it was constantly disputed. Strangely enough, this hushed silence coincided with a remarkable breakthrough in the field of stem cell research. Namely, last November, Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University and James Thompson at the University of Wisconsin, as well as a team at UCLA, all managed to manipulate human skin cells so that those cells would retrace their development to a "non-commitant" cell. In other words, those reprogrammed cells, called "induced pluripotent stem cells," can then take on a variety of tissue types. Like embryonic and adult stem cells, these reprogrammed skin cells can be used to regenerate heart tissue, brain cells, and could even treat spinal injuries.

Moreover, as the Investor's Business Daily reports, because these cells are reprogrammed skin cells, there is already a genetic match to the patient (who donated the skin cells to begin with) thereby eliminating most, if not all, chances of rejection. This is a vast improvement over embryonic stem cells, which are not genetic matches and have been proven to oftentimes cause harmful tumors and fail to provide beneficial results in most studies. Also, embryonic stem cells are extremely limited in supply, and require destroying human embryos, cloning, or using human eggs to produce them. This means that using embryonic stem cells is not cost-efficient, nor does it produce results in the overwhelming majority of cases. Furthermore, the heinous means of producing embryonic stem cells is completely unacceptable on moral grounds. These new induced pluripotent stem cells do not require the destruction of a human life to produce, will not cause malignant side-effects, and are easy to gather.

The question then remains: With such a promising future in these new adult stem cells, why hasn't there been any major media coverage? Why don't we rechannel funds from embryonic stem cell research to this superior, morally acceptable research into pluripotent adult stem cells? Ideology alone is the reason for the absolute silence among main-stream media outlets, as this new development has far-reaching effects in the scientific, moral, and even political realms.

There is a dangerous tendency among many pro-choice advocates to push for embryonic stem cell research in order to safe-guard abortion rights. The morally objectionable aspect of embryonic stem cell research is the fact that it requires the destruction of a human embryo in order for its stem cells to be gathered. The destruction of a human embryo is the same reason that abortion at any stage of pregnancy is unacceptable. Therefore, if the pro-life advocates successfully argued against embryonic stem cell research, they would effectively win the moral debate surrounding abortion too. For this reason the intolerant and fearful mainstream media and their supporters must continue to advocate for embryonic stem cell research for purely ideological reasons-they completely lack the scientific and moral backing for their position in light of this recent development in adult stem cell research.

It is about time the media and scientific community set aside politics and social agendas so that the objectively more beneficial approach can be pursued. This issue is just one of many where their silence speaks louder than words.