Washington Examiner - Helping Patients without Ending Lives

Op-Ed

By Jim Banks

Saving lives is the top priority in healthcare, and that goal must never come at the expense of others' lives. Our nation's founding principles recognize that all persons are of equal worth and dignity.

Despite the clear value of life, taxpayers are currently forced to fund life-ending research to the tune of $200 million every year. This is through an organization run by the government itself -- the National Institutes of Health. Not only is the research in question unethical, it is immensely wasteful, having produced zero results. When faced with the facts, the principles of both ethics and science stand against this effort.

This affront to the universal right to life is done through embryonic stem cell research. After nearly two decades of research, not one patient has successfully been treated. Yet numerous unborn persons have had their lives ended. This may not grab the headlines as often as abortion, but it is just as violent and alarming. Some argue the embryo is not a human, but this claim is both wrong and anti-scientific. It cannot escape the truth of biology and genetics that human life begins at conception.

Why does the NIH refuses to step away from unscientific, unethical ideology and put patients first? Unrealistic promises of successful treatment results are being continuously made and broken. The NIH is fully aware of this, as it still only funds embryonic research and no related treatments. This continues while there is a better option available that is both ethical and extremely successful -- adult stem cell research.

Nearly two million patients have been treated with adult stem cells. They have successfully helped those suffering from strokes, heart damage, lupus, leukemia, and numerous other conditions. In fact, there are nearly 100 conditions being treated by this groundbreaking method. In the United States alone, 20,000 patients are helped every year.

In addition to the astounding success of adult stem cell research, we have the Nobel Prize-winning option of induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs. These cells are initially regular adult cells, which are then made to have the exact same characteristics and flexibility as embryonic stem cells, but without the ethical baggage. Scientists consider them even better because they can be taken from the patients themselves, thus avoiding most immune rejection problems.

My bipartisan and bicameral bill, H.R. 2918, the Patients First Act, would ensure that taxpayers are no longer on the hook for the immorality and scientific failure of embryonic stem cell research. It would ensure that patients hold precedence above unethical and unsuccessful research. It does not cut funding to the NIH, which can instead use that same amount of money to increase its level for adult stem cell and iPSC research. We can then see more breakthroughs, more treatments and more lives improved.

Source