catholicsphere

The Church no longer only supports the use of adult stem-cell in researching therapies involving stem-cells. Stem-cells that are near pluripotent, meaning they have the potential to form various types of cells, have been found in amniotic fluid.. In mice, these cells have been used to grow both brain cells and bone cells.

A Vatican official also said that the research is a welcome advance, particularly because it “allowed for the stem cells to be harvested without any threat to the life of the donor.”

Of course, the Church has never opposed stem-cell research. Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care, “pointed out that the Church is not opposed to stem-cell research, but to the harvesting in which human embryos are destroyed in order to obtain stem cells. The use of amniotic fluid involves no such destruction of human life.”

Unfortunately, not everyone in the scientific community is thrilled. One of the scientists involved in the research discovery reported that the research encountered resistance in the scientific community because it did not use embryonic stem cells. Apparently there are some who just want to be able to terminate a life to save a life.

As things work in the scientific community, this will have to reviewed by peers … but it looks very promising. I believe the Church’s opposition to embryonic stem-cell research has been a good thing, such that scientists have continued to work to find viable alternatives. Without such opposition, this might not have come for a very long time because it might have kept researchers from working on it with such diligence.

[tags]stem cell, faith, catholic, vatican, science, amniotic fluid, pluripotent, catholicsphere[/tags]