Canada needs therapeutic cloning

Human stem cell research: all viewpoints
human stem cell research and experimentation: all sides to the debate.

Canada needs therapeutic cloning

Peter A. Singer
National Post

May 24, 2005

On Thursday, South Korean scientists announced they had produced 11 new lines of human embryonic stem cells from patients -- nine from people with spinal injury, one from a child with diabetes and one from a child with an immune disease. The team used 185 eggs from 18 healthy women who donated them for the research, removed the DNA from those eggs and replaced it with the DNA from the patients. These egg cells containing the patients' DNA were then permitted to grow for six days, into a small clump of cells, from which the stem cell lines were produced.

This research, called "therapeutic cloning," brings Korean scientists a step closer to treating patients. In Canada, however, such research is illegal. It should not be. Canadians must rethink laws prohibiting therapeutic cloning or Canadians may end up sicker and poorer a decade from now.

Therapeutic cloning produces stem cells that are genetically identical to the patients who provided the DNA. The genetically identical stem cells can then be put back into the patient from whom they were created without causing rejection of the cells by the immune system of the patient. The Korean experiments were the first time this technique had been performed with DNA from patients.

The next step for these researchers will be to test the stem cell lines they have created in animals. If those tests are successful, they will take the step of introducing them into humans to see if the treatments are safe and efficacious. The key benefit of stem cells is that they can differentiate into any tissue in the body and so, if the research is successful, may be used to treat a wide variety of diseases.

The Korean experiment is not what most people have in mind when they hear the word "cloning" -- which conjures up mental images of carbon-copied people, Dolly the sheep and the Boys from Brazil. Such "reproductive cloning," however, has never been done with humans, may not be possible and is unethical and illegal in both Canada and South Korea.

Some Canadians object to therapeutic cloning because they believe life begins at conception and this technique destroys potential human life. These deeply held views should be respected. Certainly, those who hold this view are unlikely to participate in such research, or in its later clinical application, should the research prove successful.

It is important for others, though, to keep in mind that there are no sperm involved in therapeutic cloning and what is being destroyed is a six-day-old "embryo" that is a clump of a few dozen cells the size of the head of a pin.

What the Korean scientists did is legal in Korea (and the U.K., Singapore and the U.S. if no federal funds are used) and is illegal in Canada. What makes it illegal here is the creation of embryos -- when the patient's DNA is put into the donor egg and that cell is then stimulated to divide.

The irony is that in Canada we have some of the best stem cell researchers in the world, and they can do research on stem cells using spare embryos from in vitro fertilization clinics. But they likely will not be able to take that research from the laboratory bench to the patient's bedside because they cannot create stem cell lines, as did the Koreans, which are genetically identical to the patient and therefore will not be rejected by the patient's immune system.

The real losers may be Canadian patients. If therapeutic cloning works, Canadians will need to access and buy treatments developed elsewhere in the world. Five years from now, Canadian patients may be scrambling to be included in research trials in Korea. Ten years from now, Canadian patients may be trying to access stem cell technologies.

In the long run, though, it is likely that Canadian medicine will eventually catch up because Korea will be perfectly willing to sell stem cell technologies to Canada. However, we will not regain the opportunity to turn the talents of our best scientists into economic growth for our country in this emerging field.

As a small country and a trading nation, Canada needs to generate goods and services for people to buy around the world. At the moment, we mostly sell our natural resources. Because these are limited, we increasingly will also need to sell our knowledge. To put this in context, the market capitalization of the world's largest biotechnology company, Amgen, is more than twice that of Canada's largest company.

Imagine this hypothetical future scenario: this Korean team announces it has transplanted the stem cell lines back into those patients with spinal cord injuries, diabetes and immune disease, and some have shown clinical improvement. What would Canadian patients say?

Now is the time to revisit our laws on stem cell research, before Canadian researchers and patients are left even further behind.

Peter A. Singer is Professor of Medicine and Director of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics. The Joint Centre for Bioethics does not advocate positions on specific issues.
© National Post 2005

Human stem cell research: all viewpoints
human stem cell research and experimentation: all sides to the debate.