Health

Stem Cell Research: Hopes and Reality

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 31, 2002 / 8:43 AM EST / CBS

What does embryonic stem cell research entail? What is the hope? Where does the research currently stand? CBS News medical correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin explains.

For Shelby Oppenheimer it's not about politics or ethics. It's a matter of life and death.

"No one can tell me how much time I have," says Oppenheimer.

Shelby has Lou Gehrig's disease. Her nervous system is dying, gradually robbing her of basic functions.

"My ability to cut my food, my ability to comb my daughter's hair . . . those skills are lost," she says.

Eventually, she'll be unable to walk, talk, and breathe. But scientists like John Gearhart believe embryonic stem cell research could help people like Shelby.

"To me it's absolutely essential that we move in this area as quickly as possible," says Dr. Gearhart, of Johns Hopkins University.

To move quickly, Gearhart is counting on President Bush to allow federal funding for research.

"People will die needlessly if there's a delay in getting federal funding in this area," says Gearhart.

Stem cells can be harvested from a variety of places: adult bone marrow and blood, placentas and umbilical cords--even cadavers. But it's the cells taken from frozen embryos that scientists say hold the most promise

Embryonic stem cells have a unique and mind-boggling skill: Because they are brand-new "blank slates" taken from an embryo just days old, they have the capacity to reproduce indefinitely into so-called stem cell "lines."

These cells can then, in theory, be grown into any cell type in the body--repairing damaged nerves, tissue, and organs.

It's worked in laboratory mice with spinal cord injuries but remains untested in people.

Opponents of the research say using embryos is exploiting human life.

"Basically it comes down to looking out for the interest of a segment of the human population that doesn't have much of a voice of it's own, and that is for early human beings in development," says Father Kevin Fitzgerald of Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics.

The other sources of stem cells, especially adult, have been offered up as less controversial but equally promising alternatives. But they too remain untested and their potential unknown.

The consensus among scientists is that embryonic stem cell research will go forward no matter what the president decides, but they say approaching this brave new world without federal funding also means no government oversight and no control.