archived-news

It seems as if that a perfect storm is building against embryonic stem cell research - and Irish pro-life activists say that the evidence increasingly supports a ban on the controversial experiments which use and destroy human life.

This week, in a shock announcement, one of the leading U.S. biotech companies involved in embryonic stem cell research announced that it will cease research using human embryonic stem cells.

LifeSite News reported that since 1990 the California-based Geron corporation has led the industry doing research using stem cells developed from embryos, particularly for developing anti-cancer therapies and spinal cord research.

However, twenty years of failure to provide any useful therapies has meant investors are rapidly deserting embryonic stem cell research. Geron had always been a strong defender of continuing experiments on human life and had obtained approval under the Obama Presidency for the first clinical trial of a therapy using human embryonic stem cells .

But now Geron has said it is halting that trial - and its departure exposes the false hope offered to patients by proponents of experiments on human embryos. Niamh Uí Bhriain of the Life Institute told LifeSiteNews.com that the case against embryonic stem research was considerably strengthened by the news of Geron's departure from the field.

"The evidence is now incontrovertible: embryonic stem cell research destroys human life and offers no cures," she said.

She pointed out that Geron's announcement came just days after the Lancet reported that adult stem cells taken from a patient's own heart have been successfully used to repair damaged heart tissue, while an Australian research company, Mesoblast Ltd, also showed that patients with heart failure could reduce the risk by as much as 80 percent using an experimental adult stem-cell treatment.

Ms Uí Bhriain added, "It's clear that science and investors are abandoning embryonic stem cell research because ethical research is helping to treat patients right now."

The Life Institute have been working towards a ban on embryonic stem cell research in Ireland and Uí Bhriain said the Geron announcement and other developments would "certainly strengthen the pro-life case for such a ban."

The Institute also applauded the comments made by Pope Bendict VI at a stem cell conference held by the Vatican when he said that: "The destruction of even one human life can never be justified in terms of the benefit that it might conceivably bring to another."

The Vatican stem cell conference had brought together some of the most eminent stem cell researchers, with the goal of steering the stem cell field in the direction of focusing on research on adult stem cells.

LINKS

• Further information at: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-lauds-adult-stem-cell-research
• See the Lancet report here: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2811%2961590-0/abstract
• See more on the Mesoblast therapy here: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-16/heart-failure-risk-may-be-reduced-by-stem-cells-study-shows.html