Research on stem cells is one of the most promising lines of scientific inquiry, but it is also one of the most controversial. Embryonic stem cells are valuable because they have the ability to develop into any part of the body, be it bone, muscle, or organ. But the embryo is destroyed in the process of retrieving them, and federal law has until recently barred the use of government funds for research on them. As a result, researchers have done limited work on embryonic stem cells, using private money. For example, Geron Corp., of Menlo Park, Calif., has sponsored embryonic-stem-cell work at the University of California at San Francisco and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. President Bush in August issued new guidelines to allow federal financing for some embryonic-stem-cell research. The federal restrictions do not, however, directly affect the many university researchers who are working with stem cells from living human beings. In those cases, the stem cell therapy has already begun to specialize -- evolving, say, into a blood stem cell that could become either a red or white blood cell, but probably not a muscle. While the debate rages over the ethics of research on embryonic stem cells, scientists like Mr. Huard and Dr. Chancellor, using adult stem cells, have been racing to find ways to use them as tools for repairing bones, organs, and tissue, and for treating diseases such as muscular dystrophy, diabetes, and Parkinson's.
The fierce debate over federal funding for research on stein cells has focused on some profound questions, such as what are the moral tradeoffs in destroying human embryos. A less-lofty factor, however, is also shaping the debate: the pecuniary interests of the physicians and scientists performing the research...............
