Madam, - I was very surprised to hear Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment Micheál Martin's views on conducting embryonic stem cell research in Ireland in his radio interview this morning (June 30th) on RTÉ's Morning Ireland. Mr Martin declared that if future work shows that stem cell research produces cures for diseases then he would be "open" to considering such research in Ireland.
The reason for the debate on embryonic stem cell research is ethics, not the efficacy of this research.
Such research may produce cures for diseases, just as research using adult stem cells may also do. But adult stem cell research is free of ethical problems.
On the other hand, in order to carry out embryonic stem cell research we must kill human embryos. This is the ethical problem. This research must be unacceptable to anyone who believes it is wrong to deliberately kill a human embryo.
Mr Martin made no reference to ethics, the only reason we are having a debate on embryonic stem cell research.
It is not permissible for scientists to carry out research that is unethical, even if otherwise the research is likely to produce useful results.
Also, in the case of embryonic stem cell research, it is not at all clear that this approach is superior to adult stem cell research.
Furthermore, it is highly likely that whatever benefits might result from embryonic stem cell research, these same benefits are also attainable from adult stem cells, even if the latter approach takes somewhat longer to achieve equivalent results. - Yours, etc,
Prof WILLIAM REVILLE, Department of Biochemistry, University College, Cork.