Victoria, B.C., December 8, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On Nov. 1, the National Post published an article summarizing a study in the journal Nature that found “that adult stem cells may not be the panacea that the bioconservative movement had hoped”.
The article cast considerable doubt on whether adult stem cells are as superior to embryonic stem cells for developing effective treatments as many claim they are. The author strongly implies that the support for proven and ethical adult stem cell research is more of a political position that a scientific one. He states “The continuing struggle over stem cell research highlights the dangers of politicizing biomedical science”. Victoria, B.C. Biotechnology Professor Dr. Clement Persaud responded with a letter to the National Post which was unfortunately not published. In the letter Dr. Persaud stated, The report of cell fusion in this article is a concern, not a catastrophe.” Persaud concludes that “The core issue still remains and it is this, in the face of the very promising results with an ethical alternative, and the associated reduced costs, our research funds should be chasing the potential of adult stem cells for humans to self-cure. There is no need for destruction of embryos to obtain stem cells when there is a viable alternative. As someone has said, we can have the medical gain without the ethical pain.” * See the complete Persaud letter and link to the original article on the Nature study and another article on the study in today’s LifeSite Special Report at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/dec/031208a.html