Ireland and Stem Cell Research

Pro Life Campaign and Family and Life host Stem Cell Experts in Dublin

Source: Pro Life Campaign

In an important visit to Ireland, co-hosted by the Pro-Life Campaign and Family and Life, Professor Robert George of Princeton University and Professor William Hurlbut of Stanford University were in Dublin last week meeting with politicians, academics and pro-life supporters to discuss the need for protection of human life at its earliest stages of development and to make the case for ethical stem cell research that does not involve the destruction of human embryos

Professors George and Hurlbut met with members of the Dáil and Seanad and addressed academics and students in the Royal College of Surgeons, DCU and UCD. On Friday evening, they addressed several hundred pro-life supporters in the Davenport Hotel where they outlined to the audience the scientific and philosophical arguments underpinning a respect for human lives from the moment of fertilisation. Professor William Hurlbut , a professor in Human Biology at Stanford University explained the application and potential of adult stem cells in particular the procedure by which pluripotent stem cells (adult stem cells with the capacity to differentiate into different germ layers) can be used in a way that emulates embryonic stem cells. The significance of this is that no embryonic human being need be used for research and at present non-controversial adult stem cell research is having more success at treating diseases. Professor Robert George who is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University picked through the popular arguments used to de-humanise the embryonic human being and explained why the embryonic human life is deserving of full protection of society and the law. The event was chaired by Senator Rónán Mullen.

The three-day visit of the Professors to Ireland was a great success and Professor George was interviewed on Today with Pat Kenny on the morning of Friday 5th March.

Ireland and Stem Cell Research

Killing Embryos in Stem Cell Research Unnecessary, Expert Says : 22nd Feb 10


Professor Tommie McCarthy of the Department of Biochemistry, University College Cork (UCC), has taken issue with Dr Dolores Dooley’s recent dismissal of adult and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) research as more effective and ethical alternatives to human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research.

Writing in "The Irish Times", he said a search of the world’s largest registry of clinical trials shows more than 1,900 current trials using adult stem cells, compared to only three hESC transplantation trials. Dr Dooley, who headed the recently disbanded Irish Council for Bioethics, had argued that hESCs are required as controls for adult stem cell research.

But Prof McCarthy said that was incorrect, because adult stem cell research has been in progress for decades without hESCs. Dr Dooley’s argument about hESCs as controls is purely relative because human iPSC research (which emanated from equivalent research in mice) will advance rapidly with or without hESCs.

“The justification that ‘all forms of stem-cell research need to continue and all are important’ is only academic, and academic endeavour, in my view, should never undermine the dignity of human life”, Prof McCarthy concluded.

The Irish Times. February 3.

Source: Family and Life