Gayle Atteberry, March 30, 2009

President Obama's recent decision to fund embryonic stem cell research with millions of taxpayer dollars is deadly for human embryos and completely unnecessary.

Embryonic stem cell research has a proven 100 percent failure rate.

Ten years of extensive research with embryonic stem cells in America and worldwide has produced not one human cure. Development of tumors in test animals has negated any progress made in animal trials.

A report in the February 2009 issue of PLoS Medicine reports that five years ago an Israeli boy was injected with embryonic stem cells to treat a fatal neuromuscular disease. Within four years, multiple tumors developed in his brain and spinal cord that doctors say were caused by the fetal cells.

In contrast, adult stem cells have brought research breakthroughs and even cures for more than 70 different ailments. Reports in medical journals this year detail progress using adult stem cells to treat diseases of major concern:

-UCLA researchers reported that in a five-year study they "have documented the first successful adult neural stem cell transplantation to reverse the effects of Parkinson's disease" (February 2009, Bentham Open Stem Cell Journal).

-Researchers at Northwestern University transplanted adult stem cells into early-phase multiple sclerosis patients. After three years, 17 of the 21 patients improved (February 2009 Lancet).

-Adult stem cells have been used for years to repair heart damage. Researchers in England, Germany and at the University of Utah are currently making progress with adult stem cells that may eliminate the need for heart transplants.

-iPS cells, or adult cells that have been reprogrammed back to an embryonic stage, negate the need to destroy embryos to obtain embryonic stem cells. These embryonic-like cells are easier and cheaper to produce and do not have the problem of patient rejection.

Writing for U.S. News, Bernadine Healy, former leader of the National Institutes of Health, says, "Even for strong backers of embryonic stem cell research, (Obama's decision) is no longer as self-evident as it was, because there is markedly diminished need for expanding these cell lines for either patient therapy or basic research."

Meanwhile, Oregon legislators are pushing through a bill requiring Oregon taxpayers to fund unsuccessful embryonic stem cell research (HB2598 ). In addition, this bill requires taxpayers to fund human cloning research.

Researchers know there are not enough human embryos available. More embryos will be needed and researches want to "make" more through "somatic cell nuclear transfer," or in common words, cloning.

Both Obama's plan and HB2598 ban human cloning for the purpose of giving birth to a baby. However, under both plans, a human being can be cloned and grown for experimentation reasons up until birth.

Taxpayers are being asked to fund experimentation that has a proven history of failure. Every failed experiment will cost more human lives and waste more tax dollars.

Citizens should demand their tax dollars be directed to ethical research that continues to unlock cures to many of our most dreaded diseases.