The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity
Responds to NAS Report
Chicago, Illinois -
April 28,2005 - The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity (CBHD),
responding to The National Academy of Sciences’ (NAS) Guidelines for
Embryonic Stem Cell Research, applauds the pursuit of “the highest
ethical, legal, and scientific standards,” but asserts that the
entire approach of the NAS report is fundamentally flawed.
Released on Tuesday, the document begins
with the assumption that harvesting stem cells from embryos produced
via “therapeutic cloning” is acceptable and attempts to lay out a
framework for how that activity can be done while observing “the
highest ethical, legal, and scientific standards.”
In contrast, CBHD believes that if stem cell research is to be
pursued according the highest ethical standards, then stem cell
research that does not destroy human beings at the embryonic
stage—i.e., adult stem cell research—is the better course to pursue.
Moreover, embryonic stem cells may never be required to achieve all
of the medical benefits stem cell treatments can provide as recent
studies have found that certain adult stem cells are unexpectedly
like embryonic stem cells in terms of their flexibility. CBHD urges
the NAS to focus more attention on the true ethical high road, adult
stem cell research.
CBHD maintains that by focusing resources and efforts exclusively on
adult stem cell research, it is possible to be passionately
committed to the well being of suffering patients without resorting
to pitting their lives against the lives of humans at the embryonic
stage of development. Every one of the many current therapeutic stem
cell successes have been achieved with adult stem cells rather than
embryonic stem cells—a point that is not clearly understood by many
people. The NAS report further contributes to the misconception that
embryonic stem cell research is primarily what is in view when stem
cell research is discussed or when successes are reported.
According to CBHD Senior Fellow Dr. C. Ben Mitchell, “The National
Academy of Sciences has given us another morally unconscionable
‘clone and kill’ policy. While we welcome better oversight, the
Academy's report represents permission to destroy human embryos for
research purposes. We've seen this before, and it is just an
unacceptable starting point for policy.”
CBHD President Dr. John Kilner emphasizes that “the NAS report’s
claim that it is observing the highest ethical standards is flatly
contradicted by the United Nations, which recently passed a
declaration banning human cloning. According to the U.N.
declaration, the research proposed in the NAS report (embryonic stem
cell research using nuclear transfer) is both unethical and
dangerous.”
“Moreover,” says Kilner, “the NAS report does a great disservice to
public debate on these matters. The global community is saying that
the research in view here is wrong. The authors of this report are
in effect saying that they want to do it anyway and no longer need
to justify doing so.”
For Interviews with Center Personnel
Contact Sarah Flashing, Director of Public
Relations, at 847-317-4097, or by email at
sflashing@cbhd.org
About The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity
The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity is a 501(c) 3 non-profit
think tank located in Chicago, Illinois. Its mission is to develop
reasoned perspectives on all of today's bioethical issues and to
disseminate them to health care professionals, academia, cultural and
church leaders, public policy makers, and the media in order to protect
human dignity. CBHD
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