Senator Criticizes Stem Cell Research

One of the nation’s leading critics of embryonic stem cell research plugged his position that the ethical issues raised by such research outweigh any potential medical advances at the Harvard Law School (HLS) Friday.

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., addressed an audience of hundreds at the HLS Society for Law, Life, and Religion spring symposium, which this year is focusing on the ethics of cloning and stem cell research.

Brownback, who co-authored the Human Cloning Prohibition Act, has been an outspoken critic of embryonic stem cell research because it requires the use of a living human embryo.

His speech focused on the ethical problems of creating human life in the form of a human embryo only to destroy it. He said that human life should be respected from the very earliest stage.

While Brownback said he thought the issue should be debated, he emphasized that in a world of finite resources the government should only fund “ethical and promising research.” He said that adult stem cell research meets that criteria because they have led to treatment in “at least 58 illnesses” and don’t require the destruction of an embryo, while embryonic stem cell research has yet to develop a treatment and does require an embryo to be destroyed.

Brownback, who has called for larger intervention in Sudan, told the audience that the “genocide” happening in Darfur and destructive human research are both part of the debate about the “sanctity and beauty of human life.”

At the beginning of his address, he congratulated and thanked the members of the Harvard community who had contributed to raising awareness about Darfur.

After the talk, Brownback told The Crimson that he met with University President Lawrence H. Summers, thanking him for Harvard’s decision to divest and saying the move was a “very good, right statement.”

Brownback’s keynote address was preceded by a debate between two scientists involved in cellular biology; Dr. Kevin C. Eggan, a junior fellow in Harvard’s Society of Fellows, and Dr. David A. Prentice of Indiana State University and the Family Research Council.

Eggan spoke of the need to continue human embryonic stem cell research. He said adult stem cells have more limited research potential because unlike embryonic stem cells, they are unable to form every cell in the human body. He said that the possible benefit to the millions of people afflicted with diseases like diabetes and Parkinson’s outweighed the limited ethical concerns involved.

Prentice said evidence suggests that embryonic stem cells may not be as useful as initially thought, while adult stem cells are showing capabilities beyond previous expectations. He also cited the success of adult stem cell research in comparison with embryonic stem cell research.