Gov't Recommends Embryo Research
By WILLIAM C. MANN, AP
WASHINGTON (AP), President Clinton's top advisory panel on medical
ethics is recommending government financing of limited forms of research on human embryos
to build on discoveries promising huge medical advances.
The National Bioethics Advisory Commission acknowledged the report was
likely to raise controversy but said the research's promise for the betterment of mankind
merits the recommendations. A draft report outlining reasons for the decision by the
National Bioethics Advisory Commission says Congress should rescind parts of its four-year
ban on spending federal money for embryonic research.
Instead, it recommends a regime of tightly controlled experiments to
obtain so-called ``stem cells'' from embryos left over from procedures at fertility
clinics. They would be used only with the consent of the parents for whom the embryos were
created. Stem cells have been shown in recent years to be building blocks for almost
all human tissue. Scientists say the cells' capability to grow into virtually any tissue
raises the possibility of growing spare body parts or correcting disorders such as
Parkinson's disease or diabetes.
``This research is allied with a noble cause, and any taint that might
attach from the source of the stem cells diminishes in proportion to the potential good
which the research may yield,'' the report says.
Janet Parshall, chief spokeswoman for the Family Research Council,
criticized the recommendation as ``a classic example of situational ethics.''
``I think it's the worst kind of utilitarianism .... to say we will
destroy these so those can live,'' she said. ``One would only hope that common sense and
compassion would rule the day rather than scientific advancement.''
Judy Brown, president of the American Life League, also attacked the
commission conclusion.
``There are not two classes of human beings,'' she said. ``The embryo
baby is no different than any other human being and should never be subjected to
destructive research.''
The bioethics panel's recommendation, being announced officially next
month, goes further than a proposal last month from a National Institutes of Health
advisory committee on financing research in stem cells, which are obtainable only from
human embryos or very early fetuses. The NIH rules would allow the institutes to finance
studies only on cell cultures grown in laboratories and not taken from embryos.
Embryos are destroyed in the process of harvesting stem cells, a reason
such research has raised emotional debate in Congress and elsewhere between people on both
sides of the abortion question. At least 75 members of Congress have said all stem-cell
research violates the money ban, which has been extended annually since its enactment in
1994.
Committee members reported wide agreement that women should not be
allowed to terminate a pregnancy to donate the fetal material for research. In discussing
a possible abortion, it said, the possibility of research on the aborted material should
not be brought up by the physician unless asked.
