Mo. leaders debate pros and cons of adult stem cell research; Voters to decide Constitutional Amendment

Aleading supporter of efforts to amend Missouri’s constitution to protect embryonic stem cell research is accusing opponents of overstating the benefits of adult stem cell treatments.

In a recent issue of Science magazine, William Neaves, president and CEO of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, takes aim at statements by the Washington-based Family Research Council suggesting that more than 65 illnesses can be treated by adult and cord blood stem cells.

Only nine illnesses on the research council’s widely circulated list have approved adult stem cell treatments, Neaves said.

“This is a prime example of the old aphorism that if a lie is repeated long enough, and disseminated often enough, people begin to accept it as a truth,” he said in a recent interview.

Also signing the letter, which was published in the July 28 edition of Science, were Steven Teit-elbaum, a pathology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, and Shane Smith, science director of the Children’s Neurobiological Solutions Foundation in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Neaves said the rebuttal was prompted by comments from Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., during congressional debate over federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

Brownback requested that the Congressional Record list 69 different human illnesses “being treated by” adult and cord blood stem cells. After approval by both the House and Senate, President Bush vetoed a bill that also would have eased restrictions on acquiring research embryos.

Most of the diseases cited in the list compiled by the research council’s David Prentice, who is a Brownback adviser, rely upon limited clinical trials or observations from patients and doctors, rather than approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Neaves said.

But Prentice, a visiting professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Clinical Bioethics, said the embryonic stem cell supporters are misrepresenting his statements. He has asked Science to publish a rebuttal.

“We’ve never said these are generally available treatments or cures or fully tested through the FDA,” he told The Associated Press. “There is peer-reviewed evidence that adult stem cell treatments can help patients and are doing so.”

Embryonic stem cell research, by contrast, has yet to benefit a single patient with Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries, strokes or other ailments targeted by both procedures, Prentice said.

“We’re talking about potential treatments in the future with embryonic stem cell research versus what we’re actually seeing now,” he said.

The Nov. 7 stem cell initiative will ask Missouri voters whether to amend the state constitution to guarantee that all federally allowed stem cell research and treatments can occur in the state.

Included in that would be embryonic stem cell research and a type of cloning procedure that opponents contend, like abortion, results in the destruction of human life at its earliest stages.

The measure is a response by a coalition of medical researchers, patient advocates and business leaders who acted after some state lawmakers repeatedly tried without success to ban a certain type of embryonic stem cell research.

The Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures has raised more than $16 million toward the initiative’s passage-nearly all from the founders of the Stowers Institute. The research center performs both embryonic and adult stem cell research.

Opponents of the ballot measure within Missouri are distorting the actual benefits of adult stem cell re-search, said Neaves.

A pamphlet distributed by Missourians Against Human Cloning, “Ten Facts You Should Know About Stem Cells and Human Cloning,” states that adult stem cells from umbilical cord blood, placenta, bone marrow and other sources “has proven to be very successful.”

Source: AP