Catholics fund stem cell research
Aug 06, 2005
THE Catholic Church will fund a $100,000 grant for research on stem cells, further signalling its guarded support for some experimentation with some types of human cells.
(The Courier-Mail, July 26, 2005) Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell announced the grant yesterday.
He said research on adult cells had potential to lead to life-saving treatments.
The church remains opposed to research on cells harvested from human embryos, but has given in-principle support to the use of adult cells.
In the US last week, scientists reported new evidence of the effectiveness of treating congestive heart failure with a patient's own stem cells.
They said there was evidence of improved blood-flow, blood-vessel formation and even new tissue growth.
The scientific community had argued that legalising the use of embryos for research would open the way to find cures for disease such as Parkinson's disease, diabetes and genetic conditions such as cystic fibrosis.
Cardinal Pell said breakthroughs in adult stem cell research were exciting and impressive.
"The achievements to date in this area far surpass anything that has been attained in the area of embryonic stem cell research," Cardinal Pell said.
"The Catholic Church always supports good science working from a good ethical foundation, and the Archdiocese of Sydney is delighted to be able to collaborate with researchers making inroads in this vitally important area."
Federal Parliament passed laws allowing surplus IVF embryos to be used for stem cell research in late 2002 but the church has maintained its opposition to the use of embryonic stem cells.
It describes the use of surplus human embryos for scientific inquiry constitutes wanton destruction of life.
The latest grant is the second made available by the Sydney Archdiocese to further research into adult stem cells, and applications have been invited from Australian-based researchers.
In 2002, a research team at Griffith University received a $50,000 grant for their work on developing therapies to use stem cells extracted from patients' nasal lining.
Earlier this year, Cardinal Pell referred to Rome a breakthrough by Griffith University's Alan Mackay-Sim that succeeded in growing adult stem cells harvested from the nose.
The cells appeared to be able to deliver everything that embryonic stem cell research promises but without the side-effects.
At the time, Professor Mackay-Sim said the easily harvested and grown olfactory stem cells were capable of being turned into any kind of cell in the body, without the problems of rejection or tumours forming, which can happen in one in five cases when embryonic stem cells are injected into the body.
Catholics fund stem cell research