ENDEAVOUR FORUM NEWSLETTER No. 109, FEBRUARY 2003

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The culture of death proponents often insult Christians by telling us we have fallen for the false promises of "pie in the sky", i.e. happiness in heaven, instead of seeking "progressive" solutions to their problems here on earth. However, the proponents of embryo stem cell extraction have fallen for far less than pie in the sky, because they believe that cures for many chronic diseases will be achieved through human embryo vivisection, when all the available evidence shows that practical results applicable to human illnesses are being achieved through stem cells derived from ethical sources: adult stem cells and stem cells obtained from placentas and cord blood.

Last November in the week prior to the Australian Senate debating the Embryo Research Bill, the following new information became available on treatments using ethically derived stem cells - this is in addition to all the applications we had already heard of.

l. ORTHOPAEDIC: Doctors Group Hails Adult Stem Cell Research Breakthroughs - Rosemont, Illinois:

Speaking at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) Orthopaedics Update 2002 Web conference, Joseph Iannotti, MD, Chairman of the Cleveland Clinic Department of Orthopaedic Surgery explained, "Adult stem cells have not only proven to be effective in bone healing today, they hold great promise for the future of orthopaedics - especially in the areas of reconstructing all types of tissues, as well as improving the healing of diseased tissues."

Dr. Iannotti explained that mesenchymal stem cells are the type of cells that depending on the maturation process can become bone, cartilage, muscle, marrow, tendon/ligament and connective tissue. These cells are harvested from bone marrow in the pelvis via a syringe. Approximately 100 milliliters of bone marrow fluid when processed will yield 1 tablespoon containing 800 million cells of which 40,000 are mesanchymal stem cells.

"Stem cell therapy can be especially effective when there is a non-union situation," said Iannotti. "For example, a young man whose leg had still not healed fully after a year of treatment showed vast improvement just 3 months after undergoing an adult stem cell therapy."

In addition to non-unions (bone fractures that do not heal), adult stem cells are currently being used to treat a variety of clinical conditions including large segmental defects, bone fractures or wounds that have severe scarring, infections, or avascular tissue with a poor blood supply, and the effects of irradiation and chemotherapy.

2. BRAIN CANCER: Scientists in Los Angeles have used adult stem cells to treat brain cancer in mice. Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center extracted neural stem cells from the bone marrow, modified them using gene therapy so that they produced a cancer-killing protein, and then injected them back into the mice. It is thought that neural stem cells are able to track cancer cells as they move around the brain, thus killing all cancerous cells and making it less likely that tumours will recur. The average survival time in the treated mice was 50% longer than in untreated mice. The researchers hope that the therapy will be ready for testing on humans within 18 months. [BBC News online, 20 October] Adult stem cell technology provides an ethical and more promising alternative to the use of stem cells extracted from embryos and to so-called therapeutic cloning.

3. PLACENTAS: Louisiana State U Hospitals Begin Adult Stem Cell Campaign: Women giving birth at Baton Rouge's Earl K. Long Medical Center and other LSU charity hospitals soon could be donating placentas for disease-fighting stem-cell research technology. LSU Health Services Division has signed a contract with Anthrogenesis Corp., a New Jersey company pioneering technology to recover large quantities of stem cells from placentas after a birth. The LSU hospitals are the first to participate in the company's new Louisiana Stem Cell Repository. Anthrogenesis hopes to expand into other hospitals that deliver a lot of babies.

Initially, Earl K. Long and the Medical Center of Louisiana in New Orleans will be involved in the voluntary donation of placentas. "This is a way of joining forces to try to get more of a biomedical presence in the state of Louisiana in a cutting-edge way," said Dr. Michael Butler, chief medical officer of the LSU hospital system.

The technology "extends the miracle of birth and makes it a miracle of life," said pro-life Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA), who played the lead role in bringing the company to the state. "We are beyond research with a product that can be used in the medical field," Baker said. Baker said there is no ethical dilemma involving abortion with this type of stem-cell research because it uses placentas after live births, not abortions.

Placentas were routinely discarded after a birth, but are now seen as a valuable source of stem cells. "The type of research we are doing is favorable with the president and the Vatican because it does not involve fetuses," said Pam Shaver, managing director for the company's subsidiary, Louisiana Stem Cell Repository. Anthrogenesis has a patent pending on technology for extracting stem cells from placentas. Anthrogenesis is involved in treatment for diseases such as sickle-cell anemia, Lou Gehrig's disease, lupus and other blood disorders, and cancer, according to information provided by the company.

4. UMBILICAL CORDS: A team of American researchers has developed a technique for multiplying umbilical cord stem cells in the laboratory. Stem cells from the umbilical cord are already used in the treatment of leukaemia, but doctors have previously only been able to extract enough stem cells to treat a child. Now scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle have managed to multiple the most primitive type of stem cells by as much as a hundred times. Ken Campbell of the UK's Leukaemia Research Fund commented: "This demonstration is a significant step towards possibly expanding the use of blood stem cells for treatment of an adult." [NewScientist.com, 22 October] The use of stem cells from umbilical cord blood is an ethical alternative to the destructive extraction of stem cells from embryos and to so-called therapeutic cloning.

5. BABY SAVES MOTHER: The Montreal Gazette reported on 26 October 2002 that a newborn baby’s cord blood stopped her mother’s leukaemia. In what might be a world first, doctors at Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal transfused a woman suffering from leukaemia with the umbilical-cord blood of her baby daughter.

Seven months later, 27-year-old Patrizia Durante is in complete remission and credits her daughter with saving her life. "I gave my daughter life, and then she gave mine back," Mrs. Durante said cradling 13-month-old Victoria. "It's a miracle. She was meant to be born to save me."

Umbilical-cord blood is usually banked for later use by the child should she develop a life-threatening illness such as leukaemia. Dr. Pierre Laneuville, director of haematology at the McGill University Health Centre, said he believes the offspring-to-parent transplant is the first of its kind in the world. Mrs. Durante's case highlights the growing interest by doctors in using umbilical cord blood as an effective alternative to bone-marrow transplants. "We're elated," Dr. Laneuville said. "This is the best case scenario we could possibly have imagined.... From a doctor's point of view, the chances are she's cured."

Umbilical cord blood is rich in haemopoietic stem cells -- the kind of cells that can rebuild a blood system damaged by heavy doses of chemotherapy. In Mrs. Durante's case, the stem cells regenerated her blood system and destroyed the residual cancer cells in her body. "We are now in an era where we are realizing scientifically and medically that we have sources of stem cells that can become other tissues and can be used therapeutically," Dr. Laneuville said. "And the most accessible source and the one we're throwing in the garbage all the time are these cord cells."

Mrs. Durante, a Laval financial advisor, learned she was suffering from acute myloid leukaemia when she was 26 weeks pregnant with Victoria, her first child. "It was terrifying," she recalled. "I was afraid for the baby. I was afraid of dying and not being there for my daughter. It was very stressful and difficult for my family." She underwent moderate doses of chemotherapy while pregnant, but did not respond to the drugs, so her doctors decided to induce labour so they could switch to high doses without risking harm to the baby. On Sept. 2, 2001, Victoria was born two months premature, weighing three-and-a-half pounds. She was placed in an incubator while her mother renewed her chemotherapy.

At the time, doctors were looking for a suitable donor for a bone-marrow transplant, even though Victoria's umbilical-cord blood had been frozen in liquid nitrogen. But by last March, Mrs. Durante was severely ill and she could not wait any longer for a bone-marrow transplant.

Dr. Laneuville decided to infuse her with Victoria's cord blood, although the procedure was risky because Durante's body might have rejected the blood. Ideally, individuals should be infused with their own banked cord blood. Victoria's blood, however, was only a half-match, carrying her mother's genes as well as her father's. "But in this case, the incompatibility -- that is, the genes that the baby's dad contributed -- theoretically could have been very beneficial in this transplant," Dr. Laneuville said.

"Part of the blood cells include the immune system. There was the possibility that the immune system of the baby may identify the leukaemia as foreign and attack. That's something that's beneficial." The baby's cord blood did exactly that to her mother's leukaemia. The stem cells also flooded Mrs. Durante's bloodstream and stuck to her bone marrow -- the part of the body that manufactures the blood -- and began rebuilding her blood system. "So what is circulating in her veins now is actually her baby's blood," he said. "She has her baby's blood system in her at the present time." Dr. Laneuville said "mismatched" cord blood might be effective in controlling Mrs. Durante's type of cancer, but stressed cord blood transplants should be used only as a last resort.

Scientists are also studying whether stem cells derived from cord blood can repair damaged heart and brain tissue. Preliminary results from animal studies are promising. Doctors are now carrying out clinical trials on humans in the United States and Europe to determine whether such stem cells can repair damaged heart muscle. Dr. Laneuville urged authorities to set up a public cord blood bank for research and therapeutic purposes.

6. DONATED BONE MARROW: British scientists have developed a new technique to facilitate the treatment of cancer patients with ethically derived stem cells. A team at Cancer Research UK has genetically engineered stem cells from donated bone marrow so that they are resistant to chemotherapy.

A spokesman for the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child commented: "Almost every day there is further news of the therapeutic potential of ethically derived stem cells. This great body of evidence serves to repudiate entirely the claims of British parliamentarians last year that the authorisation of so-called therapeutic cloning was essential to develop stem cell technology."

The Australian Government has a serious responsibility not to misuse taxpayers' money (which unlike the assumptions of some of those in power, is not limitless) on unsuccessful, death-dealing experiments on human embryos. Such funding necessarily takes away money from areas that are showing success, i.e. treatments from ethically derived stemcells. Instead of giving millions to Trounson & Co, funds should be available to store stem cells derived from cord blood and placentas of every baby born in Australia from now on. The situation at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne where in December last year donations of cord blood have been rejected because of shortage of funds cannot be allowed to continue.

In the USA, Embryonic Stem Cell Research Companies are struggling to survive. In the latest blow to the already staggering field of embryonic stem cell research, a pioneering scientist is quitting Advanced Cell Technology and abandoning his work trying to clone human embryos. Jose Cibelli is joining the faculty of Michigan State University, where he will set up a $1 million animal biotechnology lab. For Cibelli, 39, it means giving up the experiments to which he's devoted the last five years of his life, since it's illegal in Michigan to create and destroy human embryos for research purposes.

This comes as a pleasant surprise to pro-life advocates -- as ACT had been leading the way in promoting the unethical research involving the destruction of human embryos.

Money and manpower is draining from the field following President Bush's vow 15 months ago to refuse taxpayer funding to any new embryonic stem cell research. On the other hand, the effectiveness and profitability of adult stem cell research continues to build and faces no opposition from pro-life advocates.

Private funding is nearly nonexistent for embryonic stem cell research and federal monies can only support research on existing stem cell lines. Obtaining the cells themselves remains exceedingly difficult even for top researchers because of political and intellectual property disputes or the poor quality of the cells. Of the 78 stem cell colonies worldwide the Bush administration has said are eligible for federally funded research, only about a dozen are in good enough shape to experiment on. Even fewer - perhaps four lines - are being shared and sent to other researchers.

The seven National Institutes of Health-approved lines in India, for instance, can't be shipped because of that country's laws. Geron Inc., which has seven lines at its Menlo Park, Calif. headquarters, won't ship any of its lines unless researchers agree to sign over any discoveries to the company.

For now, researchers generally have but two suppliers to call on, the University of California, San Francisco or the University of Wisconsin. Both are overwhelmed by demand, slowing distribution. All of this has investors shunning stem cell companies like the plague. "It's going to take some time before this very important area of research makes it through the political obstacle course," said Steven Burrill, a biotech venture capitalist.

Advanced Cell, based in Worcester, Mass., temporarily suspended Cibelli’s human cloning efforts for lack of money, and also sold its cattle-cloning subsidiary, Cyagra LLC, to raise cash. Geron, the industry leader, laid off a third of its work force and cut research spending to bolster its lagging stock price.

PPL Therapeutics (based in Edinburgh Scotland), which helped clone Dolly the sheep, recently announced its stem cell program had "no value" and shuttered it after finding no buyers.

To conserve cash, tiny CyThera Inc., which holds nine of the 78 government-approved stem cell lines, shares a fax machine with a neighbor and leases excess space in its San Diego labs to other companies. CyThera's cells, which have been stored in a company freezer, could be scientifically worthless, having never been sufficiently examined. An ownership fight over the cells, which were first isolated by researcher Jeanne Loring of Arcos Bioscience, was finally resolved in August. "No research has been done on them," said chief scientific officer E. Edward Baetge of CyThera, which purchased Arcos. "It's still not clear that any viable stem cell lines are going to come out of it."

At Advanced Cell, which is still determined to clone human embryos to harvest stem cells, chief executive Michael West said he lost at least one potential investor in the political fallout over human cloning. Organizers closed an influential stem cell conference in San Diego to the media last month for fear of bad publicity.

Let us hope and pray that no Australian taxpayers’ money goes to bail out these companies. Write to Prime Minister John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello that as these overseas companies are struggling, it would be foolish to invest Australian money in embryonic stem cell research. During the stem cell debate in Parliament, I have sent two emails and posted two letters to every member of the House of Representatives and every Senator. Now it is up to you readers of our Newsletter to keep lobbying Mr. Howard and Mr. Costello. We are especially grateful to Senator Ron Boswell, National Party, Queensland, for following the money trail and exposing the misrepresentations by Alan Trounson, who claimed a rat was cured with embryonic stem cells when fetal cells had been used - and the rat was still dragging its feet.

Member Organisation, World Council for Life and Family

NGO in Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC of the UN