More from Robby George on stem cells

Robby George sends in the following, in response to Tom's post yesterday, "Stem Cells Without Moral Corruption":

I'm grateful to Tom Berg for linking to, and extensively quoting from, the op ed piece on stem cells by Eric Cohen and myself that appeared in the Washington Post yesterday.   He ends with what he refers to as a "nit":  "I wonder if others who know more about this think that there also significant dangers of hype and pressure for results concerning the non-embryonic research."  The answer is yes, there is a potential danger here.  It is very important for those of us who are pressing for non-embryo-destructive methods of obtaining pluripotent stem cells to avoid this danger.  In our advocacy, we must tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  Recently the President's Council on Bioethics, on which I serve, issued a "white paper" on alternative sources of pluripotent stem cells.  The Council recommended pursuing research on several possible non-embryo-destructive sources.   I attached a statement (joined by Mary Ann Glendon and Alfonso Gomez-Lobo) that concluded with the following paragraph:

"One final point: the effort in which I am happy to join to find morally legitimate means of obtaining embryonic or embryonic-type stem cells should not be interpreted as indicating any acceptance of the hyping of the therapeutic promise of embryonic stem cell research that has marred the debate over the past four years. This promotion of exaggerated expectations dishonors science and shames those responsible for it by cruelly elevating the hopes of suffering people and members of their families. It should be condemned."

Even if scientists are able to perfect altered nuclear transfer or the epigenetic reprogramming of somatic cells to the pluripotent state, it is not at all clear that stem cell lines developed using these techniques will prove someday to be therapeutically useful.  The problems are the same problems that have frustrated the desire to put stem cells produced by destroying embryos to use therapeutically.