Review and Comment on the News
February 10, 2006
The National Institutes of Health and pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Affymetrix are joining forces to form the Genetic Association Information Network. The goal is to identify key combinations of genetic variations that might indicate whether a person is at an increased risk of conditions such as heart disease, cancer, or Alzheimer’s. In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services is seeking funding from Congress for a project to study the interaction of genes and environment.
“This is not just an academic exercise by a bunch of nerdy gene hunters,” says Francis Collins, head of the National Human Genome Research Institute. “This is an effort that will transform medicine.”
As this kind of research moves forward, we as a society will need to address the concern that genetic information that identifies increased susceptibility to disease not be used in a discriminatory way (insurance, employment, etc.).
The Mississippi House has passed legislation to ban embryonic stem cell research 108-4. The bill now moves to the Mississippi Senate. Interestingly, the AP story on the bill’s passage contains the following:
Information distributed by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International says there is “widespread confusion” about somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT, also called “therapeutic cloning.” The foundation says the procedure involves removing the nucleus of an unfertilized egg and replacing it with the nucleus of an adult cell.
The foundation said the procedure is “a fundamentally different procedure from reproductive cloning, as was used by scientists in 1996 to create Dolly the sheep.”
Well . . . yes and no. Yes, there is widespread confusion, but only because of statements such as this one. No, these are not fundamentally different procedures. They are not, in fact, different procedures at all. There is only one cloning procedure, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). The fundamental difference is what is done with the embryo that results from this procedure. It is either destroyed in an attempt to harvest stem cells (cloning for biomedical research) or it is transferred into a uterus for gestation (cloning for reproductive purposes).
60 Minutes this Sunday will delve into the ethics of embryonic stem cell research with a report by Lesley Stahl. Robert George and Art Caplan will each have a say. Tune in or set your TiVo.
