A U.S. Senate committee heard emotional testimonies Wednesday from advocates and opponents of the use of government money for embryonic stem-cell research.
Stem cells are the basis for every type of cell in the body, and many scientists say their powers of renewal are the only hope for victims of certain debilitating diseases and injuries. Stem cells taken from embryos have been shown to be the most powerful kind, but critics say using them is unethical and immoral.
The use of federal funds for stem cell research has been banned in the United States for four years.
Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) held the hearing to discuss legislation that would allow federal funds to be spent on research using embryonic, or pluripotent, stem cells.
Among those testifying at the crowded hearing in Washington were National Institutes of Health executives, cell biology experts, patients with incurable diseases, and Superman star Christopher Reeve, who was paralyzed in a horse-riding accident.
"While we prolong the stem-cell debate, millions continue to suffer. It's time to harness the power of government and go forward," said Reeve, the hearing's star witness.
Scientists have recently found evidence that they can make stem cells grow into specific tissue, including cells that produce insulin in the pancreas to treat diabetes, and nerve cells to repair severed spinal cords.
But in 1996, federal funding for the research was banned because of ethical and moral concerns in Congress. Several senators and researchers described their opposition to the research at the hearing.
"At the center of this debate is the question: Is the young human person or property?" asked Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas).
Brownback and his supporters believe that all embryonic cells are living human beings, and should not be used for scientific experiment.
Many pro-lifers and people with strong religious beliefs, however, condone stem-cell research because the embryonic cells that the bill would allow researchers to use in government studies are byproducts of in-vitro fertilization, and are presently discarded.
"As far as I'm concerned, it's no holds barred regarding what you should be able to do," said Senator Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island), who has a consistent pro-life voting record.
Reeve presented a letter advocating pluripotent stem-cell research signed by leaders of the Islamic, Jewish, and Roman Catholic faiths, saying that as theologians, they advocated using pluripotent stem cells for research.
Advocates said that stem-cell research is more likely to be ethically performed under the auspices of government, rather than in the private sector, which some suggest would be dangerously unsupervised.
Several private firms, such as Geron in Menlo Park, California, and Ariad Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have continued to experiment with stem cells.
"We need the federal guidelines. Private research is going on in this area but ... it's done privately and chaotically," said Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).
If regulated by the government, Harkin added, the research could achieve "the fulfillment of the promise better than with no supervision and no ethical controls."
Many of those who testified also said it's more ethical for researchers to use the embryonic material to possibly improve the lives of sick people, rather than throw it in the trash.
But others disagreed. Brownback went so far as to suggest embryonic stem-cell experimentation is akin to experiments done on concentration camp prisoners during World War II.
"The Nazis said these people will die anyway, why not experiment on them? This is strangely familiar: We're (using) live human embryos."
