Archives

On-line

VOL. 13, NO. 17

Stem cells raise questions about ethics, healing

By Julie K. Buzbee, United Methodist News Service

Barb Edwards considers herself pro life, but not in the way one might expect.

Im pro life my childs life, she said. Cells are sitting in dishes doing nothing and they could help my son. She referred to extra embryos at fertility centers that are no longer needed after a couple conceives a child through in vitro fertilization.

The cells in question are at the forefront of an international political and ethical debate about embryonic stem cell research. Barb and Mike Edwards, members of Francis Street First United Methodist Church in St. Joseph, Mo., are convinced that such studies could help her son, Alex Schriner, 19, who was paralyzed from the chest down after a car accident Sept. 11, 1999.

Stem cells are the cells that make other cells in the body, and are found in embryos, fetuses, cord blood cells and adult tissues. Cells are constantly replaced throughout a persons life. Many of the adult stem cells that replace other cells have been found in bone marrow.

The United Methodist Church has no formal position on research involving human stem cells. However, the denominations Board of Church and Society supports a ban on embryonic stem cell research based on the churchs stated opposition to any procedure that creates waste embryos.

The Edwardses are clear about where they stand.

Experimentation with blastocysts has shown that they are capable of growing into almost any kind of tissue alive, Mike Edwards said. A blastocyst doesnt even have a gender, it doesnt breathe, it doesnt have brain function.

The process of extracting stem cells from the blastocyst and growing them into new cells has been called therapeutic cloning.

Jaydee Hanson, assistant general secretary for public witness and advocacy of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, doesnt like the term therapeutic cloning.

I would say that there is no therapeutic cloning, said Hanson, who testified before Congress last year on stem cell issues. They should call it cloning of human embryos for research purposes.

Its the potential for human life that those cells possess that causes concern, said William Scott III, chairman of the Bioethics Task Force of the church board. Scott, a chemistry professor at the University of Mississippi, is a United Methodist lay leader affiliated with the church and society board since 1984.

He leads an 11-member task force that has been charged with developing a recommendation for churchwide policy about stem cell research. The 2000 General Conference, the denominations highest legislative assembly, passed a resolution opposing human cloning, defining the practice as the intentional production of genetically identical humans.

The task force is developing a consensus on the potential of life issue. There seems to be this notion that prior to conception there is no new life form, at conception there is a potential life form, Scott said. Thats basically what our position is now.

Celia Kozlowski, member of Bethesda UMC, has studied stem cell research at length and strongly favors research continuing. She gathered 50 signatures from her congregation on a petition.

The most obvious way to respect life is to heal ... with our best medical techniques, she said. Heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, cancer, Alzheimers, Parkinsons these diseases take a huge toll in suffering and loss. To put a 5-day-old clump of cells on a moral par with the lives of millions of people seems highly unconsidered ... and biblically uninformed.

The petition was Kozlowskis response to action taken by Jim Winkler, top staff executive of the Board of Church and Society. In a letter dated July 17, 2001, he wrote to President George Bush, also a United Methodist, asking him to keep an extended moratorium on human embryo stem cell research.

Bush later announced that federal funding for research on embryonic stem cells would be limited to 64 lines that the president said already existed.

The presidents decision is one of caution; it provides a space to explore the potential of embryonic stem cell research without destroying human embryos. At the same time, he promised $250 million for adult and other non-embryonic stem cell research, a decision that we support, Winkler has said in United Methodist publications.

Hanson also gave the president good marks for his decision and his Aug. 9, 2001, speech about stem cell research. Bush helped educate people about the issue, Hanson said.

In the speech, Bush talked about the value of human life. I also believe human life is a sacred gift from our Creator. I worry about a culture that devalues life, and believe as your president I have an important obligation to foster and encourage respect for life in America, he said.