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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2008 /  Stanford prof explains pro-life stem-cell alternative

by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published April 4, 2008

Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic William Hurlbut, M.D., of Stanford University talks about an alternative to embryonic stem-cell research to students at the Wayne State University School of Medicine March 24.

Detroit — What if the same kind of cells needed for embryonic stem-cell research could be obtained without killing human embryos?

A Stanford University professor's idea for obtaining cells with the potential of becoming any human organ from a source other than embryos could both give research advocates what they want and answer the concerns of the Catholic Church.

William Hurlbut, M.D., explained his concept of Altered Nuclear Transfer March 24 to an audience of mostly medical students at the Wayne State University School of Medicine.

Hurlbut, a bioethicist at the California university's Neuroscience Institute and member of the President's Council on Bioethics, also discussed the moral and ethical issues involved in the controversy during his presentation, co-sponsored by the WSU Medical Students for Life and the Student Society for Stem-Cell Research.

Pro-life groups fighting proposals for government funding of embryonic stem-cell research have principally pointed to the alternative of using adult stem cells, which have so far yielded much better results than embryonic stem cells and without the moral difficulties.

But advocates of the use of stem cells from embryos have continued to push for changes in government policy at both the federal and state levels. In fact, Michigan voters may face a referendum on the issue this fall.

Catholic teaching sees life as a continuum from conception to natural death, and therefore opposes embryonic stem-cell research because it requires the killing of a human embryo — just as the Church also opposes aborting an unborn child or murdering a child or adult after birth.

As Hurlbut put it, "With the act of conception, a new life is initiated with a distinct genetic endowment that organizes and guides the growth of a unique and unrepeatable human being."

He told his audience there is no valid scientific justification for establishing some later point — such as the often-suggested 14-day post-conception limit — for saying the embryo has somehow reached an "accrued moral status" that it did not previously possess.

As he has said elsewhere, "With regard to fundamental biological meaning (and moral significance), the act of fertilization is a leap from zero to everything."

So, even though an embryo is still a microscopic entity when it is in its "blastocyst" stage — at the time scientists consider ideal for "harvesting" its inner-cell mass — and bears no resemblance to the developed human form, that tiny embryo contains within itself all the information needed to propel its development into a full-grown person.

So, since scientists who want to do embryonic stem-cell research are not out to kill human embryos as their primary objective, but only to obtain the inner cell mass, Hurlbut came up with an idea for producing those same kinds of cells outside a human embryo.

And since the Church teaches that a new person is formed at conception — when the egg from the mother is united with the sperm from the father — he starts his process before this happens, by using an unfertilized egg donated by a woman.

The nucleus of a cell from an adult male — it could be, for example, a skin cell — then is transferred, replacing the original nucleus of the egg. The "altered" part of ANT is for the alteration that is done to either the egg or the nucleus transferred into it to make sure that what is produced by the transfer cannot possibly develop into a human embryo.

In scientific language, the process produces pluripotent stem cells — that is, ones with the potential of becoming any of the many different cells of the human body — but without any of them being totipotent; that is, containing the organizing principle to guide their development into a human being.

This product of ANT is similar to the naturally occurring phenomenon of teratomas — benign tumors that sometimes develop on the uterus, and which can grow into various body parts.

Such tumors have, for example, grown into fully developed adult molars attached to a woman's uterus. But whatever they might become, these tumors have never been considered to be persons by any religious tradition, Hurlbut pointed out.

Andy Berkowski, one of the co-chairs of WSU Medical Students for Life, who helped put some of Hurlbut's scientific terminology into layman's terms for the purpose of this story, emphasized that the product of ANT is not some kind of "damaged or disabled embryo," and that it never had the capability of developing into a human being.

Several medical researchers have picked up on Hurlbut's idea — first presented in December 2004 — and has achieved some success in experiments on mice.

Research by Rudolf Jaenisch of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has proved the scientific feasibility of ANT. Further research by Hans Schuller of the Max Planck Institute in Germany also supports the concept.

When Hurlbut discussed the moral and ethical aspects of the issues involving embryonic stem-cell research, he needed no interpreter. He told how he had not formed an opinion on the issue before his appointment to the President's Council of Bioethics, but came to have "huge respect for Catholic moral philosophy," though he is not himself a Catholic.

"I was increasingly driven to the pro-life position," he said of his experience with the council.

(It was the council that advised President George W. Bush before his decision on federal funding for stem-cell research, although the president's decision to allow funds for existing — but not future — stem-cell lines was not what the council recommended; it had recommended a moratorium until a consensus could be reached.)

Hurlbut's ANT concept has been well-received by Catholics involved in the debate. For example, Archbishop William Levada, who has since succeeded the pope as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote a letter commending ANT to Bush as worthy of further study.

But Hurlbut has also found himself the subject of much animosity, whereas he had been used to receiving the respect typically accorded physicians.

"I've been screamed at, and I'm wounded from this, personally. But I think it's so important that I think it's worth it," he said.

More information is available at www.alterednucleartransfer.com. 

 

 The Science of Stem Cells: Finding Cures and Protecting Life

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• Stem Cells: Awaiting a vote, Catholics urged to take action
• Escanaba woman gets new lease on life via adult stem-cell transplant