Cellular Politics

"Scott Walker would ban stem cell research."
Barrett campaign TV ad

The truth is that Walker supports adult stem cell research, but not embryonic. (1) Does the difference matter? Is there a difference between penalizing drunken driving and penalizing driving?

All tissues contain adult stem cells, which can regenerate that type of tissue. For example, if your skin is cut, your skin stem cells will regenerate new skin and close the wound. But embryonic stem cells can generate any kind of tissue: skin, muscle, bone, nerve, etc. Although all current treatments use adult stem cells, researchers contend that "embryonic stems cells ...have a much greater development potential than adult stem cells." (2)

But how do researchers get embryonic stem cells? When an infertile couple choose in vitro fertilization, eggs removed from the wife are fertilized in a test tube (in vitro) and a large number of embryos are generated. Of these, one at a time are implanted in the wife's uterus until an implantation is successful and pregnancy ensues. The vast majority of embryos are never implanted, and are often donated to research labs. It is important to note that no embryos are ever removed from a pregnant woman for stem cell research, and a non-implanted embryo cannot develop into a fetus. (3) This is not abortion.

A single embryo can generate millions of stem cells, which have the potential to regenerate healthy tissues and organs in patients whose own organs have failed.

Like President George W Bush, Scott Walker has a moral problem with using stem cells from embryos, because the embryos are destroyed in the process. But unused embryos die or are destroyed anyway, since they cannot morph into a fetus without implantation. Tom Barrett, like President Obama, has no moral problem with using embryonic stem cell embryos. Given the substantial potential for life-saving treatments, I agree with Barrett on this issue.

But since the TV ad cited above gave the false impression that Walker opposed all stem cell research, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel rated the ad " FALSE." Unlike a remark at a debate or press conference, this misrepresentation of the opposing candidate' s actual position cannot be excused as a mistake: the author of the ad had plenty of time to check Walker's actual statements on the subject.

But this ad could easily have been made correct by merely changing the statement quoted above to read "Scott Walker would ban embryonic stem cell research, while Tom Barrett favors using all available stem cells. Since I am convinced that embryonic stem cells have great therapeutic potential, I think that Barrett is right and Walker is wrong."

Maybe the Barrett campaign staff does not consider Wisconsin voters smart enough to deal with the real difference between the candidates on the issue, so they opted for a simplistic distortion of the other guy's position. Although I contend that Barrett is right on the issue itself, he was wrong to use this ad.
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(1) "Stem cell ad lacks detail" in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 10, 2010,page 2A.

(2)"Stem cell information" on the website of the National Institute of Health.

(3) With today's technology. In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, all babies are "hatched" in government labs. The story takes place around the year 2500.