PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact: Nathan Bupp
Phone: (716) 636-4869 x 218
E-mail: nbupp@centerforinquiry.net
Center for Inquiry Warns that Moral and Political Debate on Stem Cell Research is Not Over
November 21, 2007
Amherst, New York (November 21, 2007)-The Center for Inquiry (CFI), a nonprofit think tank and leading advocate of funding for embryonic stem cell research, welcomes yesterday's announcement that human somatic cells have been reprogrammed to have the characteristics of embryonic stem cells.
"This breakthrough confirms yet again the important advances in medical science that can be achieved through genetic research," said Dr. Paul Kurtz, chairman of CFI.
However, Kurtz also laments the fact that some opponents of research involving human embryos are falsely asserting that this breakthrough somehow moots the controversy over research involving stem cells derived from such embryos.
"First, it is premature to state that this new technique will produce stem cells that can generate usable replacement tissue," Kurtz said. "More importantly, if we are going to make significant progress in developing therapies in the near future, researchers have to be able to utilize stem cells derived from all available methods, as most in the scientific community agree. Abandoning research on stem cells derived from existing embryos would be scientifically and morally irresponsible."
The notion that stem cells derived through somatic cell reprogramming raise no moral issues, whereas stem cells derived from existing embryos do present moral concerns, "simply demonstrates the incoherence of the claim that deriving stem cells from embryos is morally wrong," said Dr. Ronald A. Lindsay, author of CFI's position paper on stem cell research.
"The argument that human embryonic stem cell research is morally wrong is based principally on the alleged ‘potential' of the embryo to become a human person," Lindsay said. "In other words, an acorn can become a tree, so we need to protect the acorn. But overlooked in all the excitement yesterday is the fact that if you can induce a skin cell to become an embryonic stem cell, in principle you could also create an embryo using similar methodology."
Lindsay notes that researchers at the Whitehead Institute already have been successful in creating a mouse embryo derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, or reprogrammed body cells, which indicates that all cells have the "potential" to become embryos.
"I'm happy to hear that some opponents of research involving existing embryos will not oppose this new methodology, even though logically their double standard makes no sense," Lindsay said. "I suppose it just shows that some acorns are better than others."
Kurtz stressed that while the new development on the stem cell front is indeed encouraging, it should not be embraced wholesale at the expense of other areas of promising research.
"The Bush Administration's policy banning embryonic stem cell research on alleged moral grounds constitutes undue censorship of science and should be rescinded," he said. "Unless it is, the United States may very likely fall behind in this vital area of research."
The Center for Inquiry/Transnational, a nonprofit, educational, advocacy, and scientific-research think tank based in Amherst, New York, is also home to the Council for Secular Humanism, founded in 1980; the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly CSICOP), founded in 1976; and the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health. The Center for Inquiry's research and educational projects focus on three broad areas: religion, ethics, and society; paranormal and fringe-science claims; and medicine and health. The Center's Web site is www.centerforinquiry.net .
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