CBN.com - WASHINGTON — A pro-life member of Congress claims he has found the answer to the stem cell research controversy. Maryland Republican Roscoe Bartlett says his proposal could eliminate the ethical dilemma.
Instead of extracting the hundred or so stem cells in a human embryo which destroys the embryo, Bartlett proposes removing one or two, then re-freezing the living embryo intact.
In a dear colleague letter released to Congress, Bartlett states that researchers at the National Institutes of Health told him: "It is feasible to remove cell material from embryos... without killing the embryos."
Ideas like that could find support on Capitol Hill.
"If there are ways to accommodate research and science and allow them unfettered opportunity to continue to make progress in finding cures for disease, then I'm for it," said Sen. Tom Daschle.
The NIH is reluctant to discuss Bartlett's plan, saying only the procedure "may be theoretically possible."
But a congressional aide also at the meeting says NIH researchers said the process would be "difficult in practice" and "inefficient."
Dr. David Prentice opposes the plan because he says it poses significant risk to the embryo. Prentice researches adult stem cells at Indiana University and is co-founder of "Do No Harm," a group opposing embryonic research.
"It's quite different than you or I donating blood,” Prentice said. “The embryos, 50 percent of them, are destroyed or killed by the freezing and thawing process, not just being in the freezer, but the process itself. On top of that, now you have to stick the embryo with the needle to remove one of more cells. That's not an insignificant risk to the embryo either."
Prentice also said the process would probably prohibit surviving embryos from being given birth. "At later stages, you might damage the ability for it to be implanted, and [if the cells are extracted] at an even later stage, you're past the point where the embryo could be implanted in the uterus, so you would be condemning it to death anyway."
