Anti-abortion groups in the state support the recent stem cell breakthrough at UW-Madison, although disagreements may intensify on other aspects of the research.
Researchers at UW-Madison announced early last week a technique that can make human skin cells revert to a state similar to embryonic stem cells. Anti-abortion groups Wisconsin Right to Life and Pro-Life Wisconsin oppose embryonic stem cell research and government funding for it.
Matt Sande, director of legislation for PLW, said the new research appears “very promising” because it could stop the need to create or destroy embryos.
Sande said PLW is still opposed to stem cell research that involves using embryos.
“We remain wholly opposed to that as destruction of a human life,” Sande said. “We will always be opposed to that.”
UW-Madison biologist James Thomson, whose lab in which the new findings occurred and who conducted the first stem cell research in 1998, said in a statement that the new research did not mean stem cell research involving embryos should cease.
Thomson said more research is needed to see if the reverted skin cells are clinically different from embryonic stem cells.
Thomson said, however, in a press conference Wednesday, that some of the ethical concerns might soon end with the new findings.
“I believe that these new results, while they don’t eliminate the controversy, its probably the beginning of the end of that controversy,” Thomson said.
According to WRL Legislative Director Susan Armacost, the new research appears “very ethical.” Armacost said WRL is for stem cell research, but for methods that avoid destroying embryos.
Ed Fallone, president of the nonprofit group Wisconsin Stem Cell Now, said the new research may have “emboldened” religious and political groups to become more vocal on stem cell issues.
Fallone said Thomson and other researchers pursued non-embryonic stem cell research in response to the opposition from anti-abortion groups, and the findings may inadvertently encourage groups to act as “self-appointed watchdogs.”
According to Fallone, it is incorrect to interject religion into medical research, and that opposition to embryonic research is not based on what techniques are most effective.
