doi: 10.1161/hc2901.096039
(Circulation. 2001;104:e9007.)
© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.
Circulation Newswriter
Private Researchers Raise Ante by Creating Blastocytes to Grow Stem Cells in Culture
When a group of Virginia fertility researchers created embryos specifically to harvest pluripotent stem cells, they inflamed the debate over stem cell research at the same time that they demonstrated the problems that result when there is no federal oversight of such work. In a report published in the journal Fertility and Sterility, researchers from the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine at the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk solicited the donation of the sperm and oocytes from consenting men and women, created blastocytes, and manipulated them to produce 3 cells lines, one of which may contain pluripotent stem cells (Fertil Steril. 2001;76:132–137).
According to the report, the Institute’s Ethics Committee in July 1997 considered the literature on the ethics involving embryos and the decisions of the American Fertility Society Ethics Committee and decided that "the creation of embryos for research purposes was justifiable and that it was our duty to provide humankind with the best understanding of early human development." At present, the cell lines cannot be used therapeutically, but the researchers said that they plan to resubmit their experimental plan to the ethics panel for possible therapeutic use in the future.
"Currently, there is a ban on the use of federal funds for human embryo research. However, recognizing the potential of human embryonic stem cell lines for the treatment of diseases, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) set up a medical panel to assist them in forming guidelines for the funding of human embryo research.