Ethics of stem cell research to be queried

The Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children is to hold hearings in the autumn into the ethics of potential medical breakthroughs based on new developments in embryonic stem cell research.

The move comes in the wake of major developments in this area in recent days, with researchers in South Korea creating stem cells that were tailored to match patients, while in the UK scientists in Newcastle successfully cloned a human embryo.

The chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, John Maloney of Fianna Fáil, said last night that the ethics and legality of embryonic stem cell research would be examined as part of an overall series of hearings on the recent report of the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction.

The report maintained that embryos should only enjoy legal protection after implantation. Such a development, which would likely involve a constitutional referendum, could leave the way open for the disposal of surplus embryos, their donation or use for research under certain circumstances.

Mr Maloney said that the committee would advertise for submissions on stem cell research and other issues in the report and would hold hearings in the autumn.

Scientists and medical specialists around the world have claimed that the stem cell breakthrough in South Korea, which was reported in the journal Science, could eventually lead to patients with conditions such as diabetes or Parkinson's disease eventually receiving genetically identical insulin-producing cells or brain tissue without fear of rejection.

Consultant neurologist to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, Dr Orla Hardiman told The Irish Times last night that theoretically the breakthroughs in stem cell research could be used in the development of treatments for degenerative conditions such as motor neurone disease.

She said that the advances were "very encouraging". However, she maintained that it was still very early stages and that many obstacles and potential legal difficulties remained to be overcome.

The scientific director of the Irish Council for Bioethics, Dr Siobhán O'Sullivan said that there were major ethical issues involved in the new scientific developments on stem cells.

It was ethically controversial because the embryo was created specifically to serve the needs of the patient and then destroyed.

Dr O'Sullivan cautioned that it could be 10 years down the road before treatments based on these stem cell research breakthroughs became available, although clinical trials could begin earlier.

She maintained that because research was more advanced in the UK than elsewhere in Europe it was possible that a British hospital could be first in this part of the world to offer any such treatment that might emerge. "If Ireland decided not to partake in such techniques would it be acceptable to offer patients here therapies derived from them?"

The Pro-Life Campaign last week expressed its opposition to "destruction of vulnerable human lives through research on human embryos". Pro-life groups support research into adult stem cells as a means of treating certain diseases.