News Briefs
News Briefs
ACS endorses stem-cell research proposals
Society cites extraordinary promise’
Dependent upon appropriate restrictions and oversight, the Atlanta-based American Cancer Society (ACS) decided to endorse and support research proposals involving stem-cell research. The 80-year-old organization announced its decision in late 1999. Acknowledging that stem-cell research holds "extraordinary promise in eradicating cancer," the organization states the decision to endorse such funding was not made lightly or with disregard for the concerns of others. Stem-cell research, officials at the ACS say, has the potential of unraveling the mystery of how cancer cells develop.
Opens vast field of research
Additional areas where stem cell research could provide insight include these:
1. developing and testing new cancer drugs;
2. treating chemotherapy side effects in cancer patients;
3. repairing damaged tissue;
4. improving the odds against rejection following organ transplantation;
5. assisting in gene therapy studies.
To be considered by the ACS for funding, however, grant proposals must meet existing ACS review standards. Additionally, the proposal will have to comply with proposed guidelines by the National Institutes of Health, which guarantee federal oversight of stem-cell research. The guidelines also provide informed consent standards for donors and prohibit payments or incentives for the creation of human embryos for specific research purposes.
New institute formed to distribute stem cells
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation in Madison (WARF) announced in February it has established a private, nonprofit subsidiary with the main goal of distributing stem cells to qualified scientists. Embryonic stem cell research was first conducted in 1998 by a team of scientists from Univer sity of Wisconsin at Madison. The patents used to govern the use and technology of the cells are held by WARF.
The primary mission of the new WiCell Research Institute is to supply cells for academic and non-academic research. The institute’s director will be James Thomson, the biologist whose lab first isolated human embryonic stem cells. The lab has received more than 100 requests for cells, and at least a dozen companies have approached WARF about stem-cell technology.
The National Institutes of Health guidelines on stem-cell research, when implemented, likely will accelerate the demand for cells because they will permit the use of federal money for the first time to conduct human stem-cell research.
Suicide how-to video aired in Oregon
A how-to video on drugs to take to commit suicide was broadcast in Oregon last month, angering assisted-suicide foes and right-to-die advocates alike.
The video was created by Derek Humphry, the British journalist who wrote a book on suicide for terminally ill patients, Final Exit. The video, he says, can be shown to terminally ill patients and their families. It is available for purchase at Amazon.com, he says.
The decision to air the video on a local cable program was intended to serve the public’s needs, but critics call it reckless. "There is undoubtedly a hunger for this type of information," counters Humphry, who lives in Oregon. "This is something 60% to 70% of the public supports."
Advocates of the state’s Death with Dignity Act fear the video will cause people to act irresponsibly. "It can give people the means to act on impulsiveness," says Barbara Coombs Lee, executive director of the Portland-based Compassion in Dying Federation. Humphry does not support a medical model of assisted suicide like her group does, she adds.
The video includes instructions on buying items in hardware stores, getting prescription drugs, and mixing the drugs. The cable channels that broadcast the video included warnings about the program’s contents.
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