“Breakthrough” from Advanced Cell Technology Just a Play for Federal Money
        Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) in Worcester published an article in a scholarly journal Wednesday that claimed to have overcome the ethical objections many have to research on embryonic stem cells, by developing a process of harvesting cells in a manner that won’t harm the human embryo. However many other scientists are already saying that ACT is disingenuous with their claim.
        C. Ben Mitchell , Associate Professor of Bioethics at Trinity International University, Chicago, says that their claim to have developed a new way to derive embryonic stem cells without harming embryos is just “ethical smoke and mirrors.”
        ACT purported that they had let an embryo grow to the 8- to 10- cell stage, extracted cells, and cultivated some of those cells into stem cell lines, without destroying the embryo.
        According to the New York Times, Michael West and Robert Lanza of ACT are touting this claim as the reason to lift the federal financing ban from stem cell research. In an interview, Lanza said: “There is no rational reason left to oppose this research.”
        However, some U.S. Senators are not convinced. Brian Hart, a spokesman for Senator Sam Brownback, Kansas, an opponent of federal financing for embryonic stem cell research, said Brownback’s moral objection remained. “You are creating a twin and then killing that twin,” Hart said.
        The method of extracting cells from the embryo used by ACT is similar to the procedure used for preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), which has ethical problems of its own. The long-term effects of removing a cell or cells from an early embryo are unknown; it is likely some embryos will not even survive the procedure.  In addition, it is widely believed that a single cell of a very early embryo may be capable of becoming a new embryo itself.
        Last May, when discussing the use of this technique to derive stem cells, the President’s Council on Bioethics unanimously agreed: “We find this proposal to be ethically unacceptable in humans . . . we should not impose risks on living embryos destined to become children for the sake of getting stem cells for research.”
        Many scientists involved in this new discipline maintain that stem cell research does not require the destruction of human embryos. To date, there are over 70 therapies benefiting human patients, and more than 500 clinical trials underway, using stem cells from non-controversial sources such as bone marrow and umbilical cord blood, otherwise known as “adult” stem cells.
        “Why scientists do not invest more time, energy, and resources in researching these non-controversial sources probably has more to do with economics than anything else,” says Mitchell. “Follow the money.”
        The stock market appears to be doing that. Most of the gains on stock value that ACT obtained on Thursday from their announcement was lost on Friday when the stock dropped from $1.60 to 90c.