Fiction over fact

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

Last month, the U.S. Senate passed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (H.R. 810) and Pres. Bush used his first veto on the bill. An override veto is expected to fail, since the House originally passed the bill 238-194, well short of the two-thirds majority needed to override.

However, it seems only a matter of time before expanded embryonic stem cell (ESC) research is legalized. Why?

In early July, Richard Doerflinger, deputy secretary of the pro-life secretariat of the U.S. Bishops' conference, addressed the National Right to Life Committee convention in Nashville. He said that, among supporters of ESC research, there are three common misconceptions:

• ESC research is more successful than adult stem cell research;

• ESC are easier to harvest; and

• ESC are more medically useful.

For years, supporters of ESC research - including Nancy Reagan and Gov. Jim Doyle - have presented these arguments. And they have been wrong.

To date, there are no successful treatments from ESC research. There are more than 70 successful treatments from adult stem cells: from treating cancer to anemia to heart damage.

While embryonic stem cells must be harvested from human embryos - which do not survive - adult stem cells can be harvested from various sources including blood, bone marrow and even fat (as in liposuction).

While embryonic stem cells are believed to be more adaptable - more "medically useful" - adult stem cells are proving to be far more adaptable than first thought. Studies dating to at least 2001 show how adult bone marrow cells can transform into blood, liver and even brain cells.

To date, all the arguments for ESC research are based on hopeful myths. Myths that, sadly, deny or ignore the proven benefits of adult stem cells.

Debate will continue. Researchers will continue to request expanded access to embryonic stem cells. Why? Clearly not for proven medical successes.

Some say it's about patience: we just need more time for those successes to appear. Others would cynically say it's about money - and ESC research is big business, especially for UW-Madison. Some might even, with mistaken compassion, say this research provides a use for the excess embryos in fertility clinics - numbering into the hundreds of thousands.

And maybe it's just that we like fiction more than fact. After all, look at the success of The Da Vinci Code.