Soccer Dad: Stemming the tide

October 26, 2006

Stemming the tide

I'm going out on a limb here. Tomorrow's column by Charles Krauthammer will be a critique of the Michael J. Fox commercials being broadcast in favor of various Democratic candidates nationwide.

Despite the popularity of the term "stem cells" there are two types of stem cells. Those who are opposed to using embryonic stem cells object because it will inevitably lead to the destruction of embryos.

However there are also adult stem cells. I know of no objections to using them to treat disease and injury. In fact there are quite a few therapies already developed from adult stem cells as PostWatch notes. (Adult vs. ebryonic stem cells is one of the issues that PostWatch covers and explains the issue regularly.) As yet there are no effective treatments derived from embryonic stem cells.

It's also worth noting that none of the candidates who are being targeted are planning to outlaw embryonic stem cell research; they just are against using federal funds for that research.

I won't fault Michael J. Fox. He is suffering from a terrible disease and is hoping for a cure. What Charles Krauthammer, who suffers from a spinal injury will argue is that a lot of people are selling Michael J. Fox false hope.

Two years ago, as the presidential campaign came down to the wire, Democratic Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards claimed that if his ticket won, Christopher Reeve would be able to walk. Aside from the tastelessness of talking about Reeve who just died in this fashion, Krauthammer lashed into Edwards for spreading false hope

In my 25 years in Washington, I have never seen a more loathsome display of demagoguery. Hope is good. False hope is bad. Deliberately, for personal gain, raising false hope in the catastrophically afflicted is despicable.

Where does one begin to deconstruct this outrage?

First, the inability of the human spinal cord to regenerate is one of the great mysteries of biology. The answer is not remotely around the corner. It could take a generation to unravel. To imply, as Edwards did, that it is imminent if only you elect the right politicians is scandalous.

Second, if the cure for spinal cord injury comes, we have no idea where it will come from. There are many lines of inquiry. Stem cell research is just one of many possibilities, and a very speculative one at that. For 30 years I have heard promises of miracle cures for paralysis (including my own, suffered as a medical student). The last fad, fetal tissue transplants, was thought to be a sure thing. Nothing came of it.

Do we know what will cure Parkinson's or paralysis? No. Maybe some sort of therapy will be developed through stem cell research. Maybe not. But the notion that Jim Talent or Michael Steele is against stem cell research is mistaken. They support the stem cell research that has produced results already. And they doubt that government funds should be spent for the kind that has yielded no satisfactory results to date.

Also see Lawhawk.

Technorati tags: Stem Cells, Michael J. Fox.