skip to main content

Stem Cell Research Subject of Subcommittee Hearing

On March 7, the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources held a hearing entitled, “Human Cloning and Stem Cell Research After Seoul: Examining Exploitation, Fraud and Ethical Problems in the Research.”

In his opening remarks, Chair Mark Souder (R-IN) said that the incident in South Korea “revealed that cloning research widely acclaimed by proponents of human cloning and embryonic stem cell research was a fraud. The scandal also brought to light the disturbing fact that women were paid large sums of money, and female assistants were coerced, to ‘donate,’ if that is the word, their eggs for the stem cell and cloning research.” He added, “This scientific scandal is not an isolated incident of fabrication, without real application to U.S. research efforts. Rather, it highlights the serious, inherent potential problems with research [on] cloning and embryonic stem cell research, including but not limited to: exploitation, fraud, and coercion. The incident is a siren warning against proceeding in these research areas withoutmost cautiously examining the societal costs necessarily associated with it. It would be quite disingenuous to say otherwise.”

Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) disagreed. “Opponents of the research have been eager to portray the Korean scandal as proof that not only is this field of research uniquely prone to ethical pitfalls, but that the research itself is inherently bogus, offering nothing more than false hope to patients…I join the mainstream of the U.S. and international scientific community in drawing a different lesson. This research will go forward with or without U.S. funding and oversight, [but it] needs the oversight that broader U.S. funding would bring.” He argued that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) “is, without question, the entity best-equipped to ensure that embryonic stem cell research proceeds with scientific integrity and in a way that ensures that women who donate eggs are protected from coercion, exploitation, and undisclosed risk of adverse health effects.”

Dr. James Battey, director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders at the NIH and chair of the NIH Stem Cell Task Force, explained that in 2005, Dr. Woo Suk Hwang of South Korea claimed that he and his colleagues had derived 11 human embryonic stem cell lines from 185 embryos created by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), adding, “Subsequent review by Seoul National University led the Investigation Committee to conclude that the data presented in this 2005 paper was based on only two human embryonic stem cell lines, neither of which was derived from an embryo created by SCNT. They concluded that no disease-specific human embryonic stem cell lines derived from SCNT embryos are represented in this publication, nor is there any basis for believing the Koreans ever successfully created any such lines.” Pointing out that scientific fraud has occurred in other areas of science, Dr. Battey said that “while the stem cell research fraud in South Korea is unacceptable, it does not reflect on the potential of human embryonic stem cell research one way or the other. The vast majority of scientists are honest and hardworking in pursuing their research to benefit the human condition.”

Deputy Director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Richard Doerflinger said that since the first embryonic stem cell lines were derived in 1998, none had been used for human treatment, adding, “Attempts at ‘therapeutic cloning’ in animals have also been discouraging. In several studies, researchers achieved a therapeutic goal only by implanting the cloned embryo in an animal’s uterus and growing it to the fetal stage, then killing it for more developed fetal stem cells. Such ‘fetus farming’ is now seen by some researchers as the new paradigm for human ‘therapeutic cloning,’ and some state laws on cloning are drafted to allow such grotesque practices in humans. This would compound cloning’s exploitation of women as egg factories, by exploiting women as incubators for cloned fetal humans as well.” Mr. Doerflinger called for a complete ban on human cloning as well as legislation aimed a protecting egg donors.

Dr. Diane Beeson, a medical sociologist and professor at California State University, East Bay, stressed her support for embryonic stem cell research from embryos created for in vitro fertilization (IVF), but expressed concerns regarding SCNT. She explained that the extraction of multiple eggs needed for this procedure “involves both ovarian suppression and what is known as ‘ovarian hyperstimulation’ using powerful hormones in a woman’s body to manipulate it into producing many often a dozen or more eggs at a time rather than the normal one or two…Contrary to common assumptions, these procedures have not been adequately studied. For example, one drug commonly used in egg extraction, Lupron, has not been approved for this purpose, but rather is used off label. Another such drug, Antigon, has been approved for such use, but no data are available on its long-term safety.” Calling for a moratorium on SCNT, she stated, “Proposed regulations are particularly silent on the long-term threats to the health of egg providers, for which researchers must be held responsible. As a society we are at a turning point in our relationship to science. We are being asked to make women the servants of biotechnology, rather than insisting on a biotechnology that promotes the well-being of all people.”

The subcommittee also heard testimony from Dr. Debra Matthews, assistant director for science programs at the Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute at Johns Hopkins University, who criticized the Bush administration’s policy, which allowed federal funding for research on only those embryonic stem cell lines that had been derived before August 2001. “Newly derived lines from IVF embryos in excess of clinical need and from somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) allow scientists to address a whole set of questions unanswerable through the use of the approved lines. For example, embryos created through IVF in the course of reproductive services, which contain disease-causing genetic mutations and will therefore never be used to create a baby, can be used to derive stem cells that allow scientists to study how the genetic mutation causes disease, providing vital basic information that may help in the development of treatments for that disease. SCNT facilitates the study of conditions for which genetic mutations are not known, or do not apply, such as schizophrenia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), diabetes and stroke. In addition, SCNT opens the possibility in the (likely distant) future for disease treatments that use a patient’s own cells to treat their condition, reducing the likelihood of immune rejection and the need for adjunct immunosuppressive therapy.”