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June 22, 2007:
Nearly 50% of the patients being treated at
fertility clinics in the United States have said
that they would be somewhat or very likely to
donate their unused embryos for stem cell
research.
The findings of a new survey have been published
in the journal Science.
The new study was based on a survey of over 1,000
patients at nine fertility centres in the United
States which had created and frozen embryos as
part of fertility treatment.
Other options, such as having the embryos
destroyed or donating them to another infertile
couple, appeared less attractive to those
surveyed.
The results are in agreement with the sentiments
of the majority of the American public, the
researchers said.
Now, in case the US legislators permit wider use
of unused embryos for stem cell research, 10 times
as many embryos would be available for research
than previously estimated. President George W Bush
has already vetoed a controversial Bill that would
have eased federal restrictions on funding for
embryonic stem cell research.
Dr Anne Drapkin Lyerly, co-researcher of the
study, described the findings of the study as
“surprising and dramatic.” She is an associate
professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke
University and core faculty at Duke’s Trent Center
for Bioethics, Humanities and History of Medicine.
When asked what they thought they would do with
embryos, about 50% of infertility patients said
they would be likely to donate some or all of them
for stem cell research.
The other author of the study was Ruth Faden,
professor of biomedical ethics and director of the
Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.
If 25% of the 400,000 frozen embryos believed to
be stored in the United States are donated,
scientists would get 100,000 embryos (as against
11,000 previously estimated), resulting in 2,000
to 3,000 viable stem cell lines.
Besides, the authors say, the paper adds an
important dimension to the debates and
controversies surrounding stem cell research.
Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent – which means
that they have the ability to develop into
virtually any cell type in the body. Researchers
hope that these cells may one day yield treatments
or cures for diseases such as diabetes, liver
failure, spinal injury, stroke, Alzheimer’s
disease and heart disease.
However, harvesting stem cells involves destroying
a viable embryo, something which many oppose on
moral grounds.
Research into embryonic stem cell in the United
States has been severely restricted since August
2001, when President George W Bush placed limits
on federal funding of the field. Now, federal
funds can only be used to study stem cell lines
derived from embryos that had been destroyed
before that date.
BY OUR PHARMA CORRESPONDENT
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