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KEELER-STEMCELL Jul-13-2005 (480 words) xxxn
Cardinal urges federal funds for umbilical cord stem-cell research
By Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The head of the U.S. bishops' pro-life committee has urged the Senate to support a bill funding research using stem cells from umbilical cord blood and to reject legislation that would fund embryonic stem-cell research, which destroys human embryos.
"Umbilical cord blood stem cells have successfully treated thousands of patients with dozens of diseases," said Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore in a July 11 letter to senators in support of a bill sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
The cardinal, chairman of the Committee for Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said stem cells obtained from umbilical cord blood have similar properties to embryonic ones.
"They grow rapidly in culture, producing enough cells to be clinically useful in both children and adults; they can treat patients who are not an exact genetic match, without being rejected as foreign tissue; and they seem able to produce a wide array of different type cells," he said.
"What is preventing far broader use of umbilical cord blood stem cells is not an ethical concern, or any lack of evidence of clinical benefits, but simply a lack of funding and access," said the cardinal.
In a separate July 11 letter, Cardinal Keeler opposed a bill introduced by Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, which would relax current restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research.
The cardinal called the Specter-Harkin bill "destructive and morally offensive."
He said the bill would roll back restrictions which limit federal funding to embryonic stem-cell lines in existence on Aug. 9, 2001.
The bill would encourage large-scale destruction of human embryos stored in fertility clinics by using them to extract stem cells for research, said Cardinal Keeler.
"Government has no business forcing taxpayers to become complicit in the direct destruction of human life at any stage," he said.
The cardinal added that therapeutic alternatives to embryonic stem cells are advancing rapidly, eroding any practical reason to expand funding for research with human embryos.
"Adult stem-cell (research) and other avenues posing no moral problem have advanced quickly toward human clinical trials to treat juvenile diabetes, corneal damage, Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury, sickle-cell anemia, cardiac damage and many other conditions," he said.
The cardinal advocated an end to the current limited funding of embryonic stem-cell research "so that taxpayers' resources can more effectively be marshaled for research now showing itself to be more ethically and medically sound."
In the letter praising the Hatch bill, Cardinal Keeler said that "scientists are now warning against 'false expectations' regarding embryonic stem cells, pointing out that clinical use of those cells might be 'three to five decades away.'"
In contrast, the Hatch bill "will begin saving more lives almost immediately" by helping establish a nationwide public cord blood bank, he said.
END
Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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