ATLANTA—Embryonic stem cell therapy is being trialed on humans for the first time in the US, sponsored by the Geron Corporation, despite strong opinions about the ethics of the treatment.
Clinics in other parts of the world, for example India, have been selling stem cell therapies for several years, often at great expense. However the current system is largely unregulated and lacking rigorous scientific research to prove the safety and effectiveness of therapies using human embryonic stem cells (hESCs).
Importantly, detractors consider the use of such cells to be tantamount to murder.
“Many Americans know that the ends don’t justify the means, and that it is never right to kill someone, no matter how small, for their body parts,” the Georgia Right to Life organization said in a statement.
The anonymous patient assisting with the research is at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, one of seven US facilities with the necessary expertise.
Dr David Apple, the Center’s medical director emeritus, is the principal investigator of the trial there. He said in a statement that the Center is ideal because of its “clinical expertise and the volume of patients referred here for rehabilitation care.”
To participate in the Geron-funded clinical trial, the patient must be aged 18 to 65 years with a spinal cord injury received during the past two weeks.
Geron president and CEO, Thomas B. Okarma, Ph.D., M.D., said in a statement: “When we started working with hESCs in 1999, many predicted that it would be a number of decades before a cell therapy would be approved for human clinical trials.”
It has only been 11 years.
The use of embryonic stem cells is controversial. The major objection is that embryos, which ultimately develop into human beings, are destroyed to harvest the cells.
In August, the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia issued an injunction barring the use of federal money for the research.
Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth said it was not legal for the government to support “research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.”
That injunction was temporarily lifted early in October.
Clinics in other parts of the world, for example India, have been selling stem cell therapies for several years, often at great expense. However the current system is largely unregulated and lacking rigorous scientific research to prove the safety and effectiveness of therapies using human embryonic stem cells (hESCs).
Importantly, detractors consider the use of such cells to be tantamount to murder.
“Many Americans know that the ends don’t justify the means, and that it is never right to kill someone, no matter how small, for their body parts,” the Georgia Right to Life organization said in a statement.
The anonymous patient assisting with the research is at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, one of seven US facilities with the necessary expertise.
Dr David Apple, the Center’s medical director emeritus, is the principal investigator of the trial there. He said in a statement that the Center is ideal because of its “clinical expertise and the volume of patients referred here for rehabilitation care.”
To participate in the Geron-funded clinical trial, the patient must be aged 18 to 65 years with a spinal cord injury received during the past two weeks.
Geron president and CEO, Thomas B. Okarma, Ph.D., M.D., said in a statement: “When we started working with hESCs in 1999, many predicted that it would be a number of decades before a cell therapy would be approved for human clinical trials.”
It has only been 11 years.
The use of embryonic stem cells is controversial. The major objection is that embryos, which ultimately develop into human beings, are destroyed to harvest the cells.
In August, the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia issued an injunction barring the use of federal money for the research.
Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth said it was not legal for the government to support “research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.”
That injunction was temporarily lifted early in October.
