The Stem Cell That Dare Not Speak Its Name

That would be adult. I may have used the hed above before, because I continue to be bemused by the Post's ability to write about stem-cell research as if embryonic work were the only game in town.

Today we have South Korean Panel Debunks Scientist's Stem Cell Claims by Anthony Faiola and Rick Weiss. The Post certainly hasn't neglected to report the fraud perpetrated by Hwang Woo Suk. The lede:

An academic panel investigating South Korean stem cell scientist Hwang Woo Suk concluded Tuesday that the embattled researcher's fraudulent experiments reach back further than previously known and encompass the most seminal of his so-called successes: the first creation of stem cells from cloned human embryos.

The new determination that the results of those experiments were largely falsified and that Hwang never obtained stem cells from cloned embryos discredits what had appeared to be one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs of the decade. The deception means that the highly touted field of embryonic stem cell research is years behind where scientists thought it was...

Is there another major field of stem-cell research with a track record of success? There is. Do you learn about it from the Post? You do not. Later Faiola and Weiss tell us:

Hwang's claim, published in a landmark 2004 paper in the journal Science, heralded the stunning prospect of human cloning and the promise of using stem cell therapy to treat incurable diseases.

Um, yeah, the promise is being fulfilled with adult stem cells, guys. More:

Until the growing questions about the research, Hwang and his team had been credited with putting South Korea at the center of the emerging international field of stem cell science. Their reported breakthroughs had been seen as offering new hope for patients with conditions including Parkinson's disease, diabetes and spinal cord injuries who could benefit from regenerative stem cell therapy.

I'm not sure if "old hopes" is the best counterpart to the abovementioned "new hopes," but there's been substantial progress in all these areas with adult stem cells.

With Parkinson's, as related by one Dennis Turner in testimony at a Senate hearing in the summer of 2004. Turner underwent experimental surgery using his own adult neural stem cells:

Soon after having the cells injected my Parkinson’s symptoms began to improve. My trembling grew less and less, until to all appearances it was gone, only slightly reappearing if I became upset. Dr. Levesque had me tested by a Neurologist, who said he wouldn’t have known I had Parkinson’s if he had met me on the street. I was once again able to use my right hand and arm normally, enjoying activities that I given up hope of ever doing.

Since being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease my condition had slowly, but continuously worsened. I can’t say with certainty what my condition would have become if Dr. Levesque had not used my own adult stem cells to treat me. But I have no doubt that because of this treatment I’ve enjoyed five years of quality life that I feared had passed me by....

With diabetes, as related by Michael Fumento:

Harvard researcher Dr. Denise Faustman thinks she can cure type 1 (or juvenile) diabetes. She's done it in mice and wants to try it on humans....

And with spinal cord injuries, also here courtesy of Fumento:

Those who work with the disabled talk guardedly about "a cure." Research showing partial regeneration of injured rodent spines from adult stem cells goes back a decade, and is now undergoing human testing. Others have used mature Schwann cells from the brain to regenerate animal spinal tissue...

All this, and you don't have to kill a human embryo. I love science.

I also love competent reporting. When it happens.

Comments

[Michael]

You linked to Fumento last time you were on this bandwagon, and he links to himself. If you're accusing the Post of bias in ignoring a valid branch of science it might help to cast your Counterpoint net a little wider.

Meanwhile, my father took twelve awful years to die from Parkinson's. If thawing out every unborn yuppiecicle in the nations fertility labs would lead to saving any future born person from a day of Parkinson's, I'll be happy to drive around unplugging the freezers.

[Christopher Fotos]

Michael, are you saying you don't believe what I'm saying about adult stem-cell research and therapies? You don't believe they exist?

I couldn't say anything to compensate for the suffering of your father, or you, or anyone else. But destroying one defensless life to save another is not something I can support.

The key to all my adult stem-cell hectoring is that it's not even necessary to do so. Adult stem-cell progress is much further along than ESC.

[Michael]

There are two tracks to this, the alleged WaPo reporting bias and the underlying issues. I'm not saying that I disbelieve you, that adult stem cell research doesn't exist. I'm suggesting that in the bias accusation you would engender more support if your ASC advocacy were, say, multiply sourced.

On the underlying issue we get back to the tired abortion debate. Slippery slopes and all that. If Roe were overturned tomorrow and 50 states banned abortion and all doctors vowed never to perform one, there would still be tens of thousands of human embryos on ice which will never become human beings.

If adult stem cell research makes the most sense as science from the researchers' perspective, then lots of it will happen. If it is just expedient because it appeases pro-life political sentiment, then promising as it may be it is not pure science, it's politicized science.

It is self-evident that many professional scientists would like to do research with embryonic stem cells. One presumes that they are not unaware of adult stem cells, nor hostile to their use, but believe that a viable avenue of research is worth pursuing.

Andrew Sullivan was on a tear a week or so ago about the % of fertilized eggs which failed to implant or otherwise thrive in the ordinary course of nature. I know from experience that miscarriages (they used to be called spontaneous abortions) are commonplace. As I keep saying, we have oodles of lab-created embryos which will never be used.

The pro-life fetish about "potential human life" gets in the way of rational debate. I think one could be firmly anti-abortion, find it legitimately morally objectionable, and nevertheless find dozens of ways for science to take a scientific course.

[Christopher Fotos]

If adult stem cell research makes the most sense as science from the researchers' perspective, then lots of it will happen

Lots of it is happening. Tons. Read those links, Mike, they branch out further than Fumento. He's just the top popular journalist on this issue, far as I can tell.

Sullivan is in intellectual collapse. Lots of people develop abnormalities and yet we don't feel justified in killing them. Even his premise doesn't make any sense.

As for the fate of frozen embyros, the Catholic Church has long opposed IVF partly because of the problems posed by suspended human beings. We could probably play familiar canned speeches on that one so I won't belabor the point.

One last thing: Scientists should not be the final word on whether research should be conducted. Science should be guided by morality. In the kind of society we've devised, we all have a role to play to determine what's permitted and what isn't. I don't want scientists to be dictators any more than they want me to be one. "Leave us alone, we're scientists" doesn't cut it with me.

[Rayilyn Brown]

PARKINSON'S DISEASE IS NOT BEING SUCCESSFULLY TREATED BY ADULT STEM CELLS. I HAVE HAD PARKINSON'S DISEASE FOR TEN YEARS AND I WOULD KNOW. ALSO, I CALLED DENNIS TURNER THIS WEEK AND HE IS WORSE THAN EVER. DR. LEVESQUE'S PHASE II OF THE STUDY IS STALLED. PLEASE STOP LYING AND TAKE PD OFF THE "CURES" LIST.

[Christopher Fotos/PostWatch]

Rayilyn, I'm very sorry to hear that you're suffering from Parkinson's.

However, there is nothing to correct or retract here. The item is about adult stem-cell progress vastly outpacing embryonic work. This is true. I do not speak here of a "cure" for Parkinson's. I say adult stem-cell technologies have achieved more, and are more promising, and I've read nothing, here or elsewhere, that says otherwise. I am equally sorry to hear of Dr. Turner's current condition, but all he claimed in his Senate testimony was that a treatment improved his condition for some time. This is more than any embryonic technology can claim.

I sincerely wish you the best.

[Joe Silvia]

It is now 2006 how are mr turners pd symtoms better, worse same .and are they retreatable What hope is there for a 56 yr old male diagnosed 5 yrs ago with little progress of the PD. I am doing my best to fight the good fight. I have good days and better days. What is going on with ASC currently?

,Joe Silvia

[Rayilyn Brown]

As of this date the Family Research Council posts a list includingDennis Turner with no update of his condition, plus a new player, Patricia Payne, who was going to participate in Levesque's Phase II in 2005. She feels ESCR is murder and her husband makes films for the Catholic church. So far my 3-24-06 contact with Turner still stands as the last we've heard about Phase II. Can I assume no response means no Phase II? Also there is a reference on the FRC post to 10 people in KY which has nothing to do with ASCs. Of course we with PD want ASCs to work, but LYING about them is not going to change reality.

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