By Lacey Holmes
The debate rages about the ethics of human cloning and stem cell research because of a recent bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.
It would allow funding for new lines of stem cells to be used for research. It must still be voted on in the Senate and then be signed by the president to become law.
This recent debate coincides with the publishing of results from South Korean scientists. They revealed that stem cell cloning is possible even if the patient is not perfectly healthy.
?Their doing this says, ?OK, we can finally do what everybody?s been predicting now for 20 years?,? said Duane Jeffery, an integrative biology professor. ?It?s really just one step along a process that we?ve been frankly expecting sooner or later for quite a while.?
The patient-specific stem cells the Korean scientists cloned show it may be possible to eventually use these stem cells to treat diabetes, Parkinson?s disease and other degenerative diseases.
Jeffery said this step in stem cell research by the Korean Scientists is not surprising. The ethics behind this type of stem cell research will probably not change.
?It?s not a new idea.? Jeffery said. ?It?s just a matter that now it?s done and so we?ve got to think about it from there.?
This new research may cause a slowdown in research because of ethical dilemmas, but Rachel Williams, a molecular biology major, from Alpine, said it will not stop science.
?It seems to me that in the development of sciences, everything continues to move forward,? Williams said. ?There have been stopping points where people have stopped and asked ?Is this moral?? ?Is this correct?? things like that, but everything has continued to move forward.?
While the sciences move forward, the U.S. government may soon follow. The pressure of this breakthrough will change the research funding, Jeffery said.
?Korea will give real impetuous to pressures in the United States to go for this, there?s no question,? Jeffery said. ?We?ve already been losing some of our scientists to England, particularly. There will be the arguments, we don?t want a brain drain going the other way.?
The possibility of more stem cell research in the United States, spurred by this scientific breakthrough, may lead to an evaluation of moral responsibility, Williams said.
?I think that successes like these are going to bring a new awareness of the moral responsibilities that come along with stem cell research,? Williams said. ?I don?t think it?s going to stop it . I think that it will probably encourage it.?
Students at BYU have differing opinions, but Paul Fawson, a junior, from Fairfield, Calif., majoring in exercise science, said the main issue is the morality of using embryos for research.
?I don?t care what they do to help cure these diseases as long as they?re not killing the embryos.? Fawson said. ?Why not? It saves thousands of lives.?