Senate should act on stem cell research

It’s been less than seven years since biologists at the University of Wisconsin established the first embryonic stem cell lines. Those years have been filled with stormy debate over the ethical boundaries that should restrict science’s pursuit of the disease-fighting promise offered by embryonic stem cell research.

Olympia has become one of the arenas for that debate as the Legislature struggles with a proposal to regulate embryonic stem cell research in Washington. The controversy is understandable. The procedures involved are close enough to the concept of human cloning to raise concerns about Frankenstein science. But the House of Representatives has passed a measure which sets clear safeguards to prevent that kind of recklessness by outlawing cloning and prohibiting the sale of embryos.

If the Senate follows the House’s lead and Gov. Christine Gregoire signs the measure into law, there will be cause for celebration among patients afflicted with a wide range of baffling diseases and conditions: Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes, arthritis, cancer, strokes and spinal cord injuries to name some.

Admittedly, embryonic stem cell research is unproven at this point. All successful research was at one time.

About a quarter-century before the breakthrough at the University of Wisconsin, scientists at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson cancer research center pioneered stem cell therapy, relying on adult stem cells. Adult stem cell research already has demonstrated the potential for helping a diseased body manufacture healthy cells to replace defective ones. But adult stem cells are harder to reproduce in large numbers than embryonic stem cells. Unlike embryonic cells, which can be used to produce any type of cell in the body, adult cells can replicate only cells from within the same organ.

Washington is one of many states exploring this issue. Debates are under way in legislatures from California to Massachusetts. The Illinois Senate has approved a referendum that would ask state voters next year to approve $1 billion in bonds to create the Illinois Regenerative Medicine Institute.

The bill now before Washington lawmakers is not so ambitious. It would establish a state advisory committee to come up with guidelines for embryonic stem cell research by Jan. 1. It spells out in exacting detail the information that researchers must provide to donors, and it outlaws any financial incentives that would induce people to provide cells. The source of cells would be embryos left over from in vitro fertilization practices – embryos that come from currently acceptable practices and are normally discarded when no longer needed for their initial purpose.

The Fred Hutchinson center has been demonstrating for years that adult stem cell therapy can be used to improve lives and relieve suffering. Embryonic stem cells may prove to be even more effective.

Washington state has a distinguished history with respect to health care research involving stem cells. With proper legislative action, it can have a distinguished future as well.