Testimony of Daniel McConchie, Vice President of Americans United for Life

 

IS08-14 – Follow-up on enactment of HB 3126 The Advancement in Stem Cell Cures and Therapies Act – to encourage and foster stem cell research using only adult stem cells – Rep. Enns

 

Thank you very much for the opportunity to be able to address you today.

 

While we’ve seen remarkable advances in medical science over the past 50 years, the last ten years have been truly extraordinary. The once languishing area of stem cell research surged to life. Now, hardly a day goes by that there isn’t some new advance using adult stem cells to treat real people suffering from serious injury and once incurable diseases. Others, while not cured, have made such progress that their illness or injury no longer dominates their every day life, and they once again engage in life in a way they never thought possible.

 

For example, on July 1, 2003, Barry Goudie was treated with adult stem cells for multiple sclerosis, a disease he had been diagnosed with eight years earlier. He told a Capitol Hill briefing in July 2008, “I went back to work symptom free in September of 2003 [just two months later. As a] part of a five year study, I follow up yearly with [my doctor]. July of this year will mark my five year post transplant anniversary and I will celebrate five years of being free of any symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis. I look forward to continuing to live an active, productive MS-free lifestyle that includes my work as well as playing racquetball, golf and coaching hockey.

 

At the same briefing, Amy Daniels, a 41 year old mother of two, talked about her diagnosis with Systemic Scleroderma – an incurable disease that affects an estimated 300,000 Americans. It is an autoimmune disease that affects connective tissue in the body. Amy told attendees, “As the disease progresses, your organs can grow hard and thick. The skin on your face gets so taut that it can drastically affect your appearance. You can loose the ability to chew and to close your mouth. It can change the way you speak. The skin on your hands can get so tight that your fingers become fixed in a clawed position, completely useless. You can loose the ability to walk. The blood vessels can narrow, resulting in a loss of circulation. [It] can lead to painful sores that can take years to heal and often lead to amputations. The digestive tract can become inflamed, causing heartburn and eventually the inability to eat. The GI tract can become affected leading to malabsorption of nutrients, diarrhea and constipation. Your kidneys can fail. Muscles and joints can become inflamed and painful. The lungs become stiff, making it difficult and eventually impossible to breathe. Your heart can become scarred and weak, making it unable to efficiently pump.” After a stem cell transplant, Amy said, “I can tell you and show you the specific benefits [of the transplant]. I can cross my fingers. I can make a fist. I can pinch an inch. I can lift my arms over my head and drop my head back without any discomfort. I can whistle again…. I can open my mouth wide enough to yell at my children. I can button my own buttons and help my kids get dressed. I can fix their hair. I can help them bathe. I can go up a flight of stairs. I can chase my kids around the park. “I am back at work. 6 months after my transplant.... The most important change is that I now have hope.” While we can and should relish these stories of amazing success in medicine, we cannot forget that many people are still waiting for a breakthrough cure for their condition. And I am one of those people.

 

In June 2007, I was in a hit-and-run motorcycle accident in a northern Chicago suburb. A vehicle came into my lane and pushed me into oncoming traffic. As I lay in the middle of the U.S. Highway 45, I informed the paramedics that I couldn’t feel my legs. I was sent via helicopter to a level 1 trauma center in Wisconsin where I didn’t wake up for two weeks. When I did finally wake up, I was told that I had suffered an extensive spinal cord injury and was paralyzed from the waist down.

 

When my wife asked my neurosurgeon about the chances of me walking again, she was told, “It would be a miracle.” I, for one, believe that miracles do happen, and that often they come in the form of advances in medical technologies such as the work in stem cell research. However, medical technologies must be subject to rigorous ethical evaluation. We should not pursue just any means to medical cures regardless of the potential benefits.

 

So in the next couple of minutes, let me lay out the ethical limitations we should place on stem cell research, and outline for you why these limits are important in a just and moral society.

 

There are two primary sources of stem cells – embryonic stem cells come from living human embryos. Adult stem cells come from you and me. We all have these adult stem cells in our bodies helping to rebuild our cells on a continual basis.

 

So far, scientists have been able to help real people with adult stem cell research for 73 different diseases and injuries - treatments for conditions such as brain cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, Crone’s disease, Lupus, heart damage, Parkinson’s, Sickle cell anemia, and end-stage bladder disease. 73 diseases treated so far. So far, embryonic stem cell research has not helped a single living human patient. Zero.

 

But this doesn’t address the moral and ethical questions. Even if embryonic stem cell research were capable of helping real patients, the question is should we allow it? The answer is no if such research requires the destruction or damage to living human beings.

 

Currently embryonic stem cell research requires the destruction of a living human embryo. The way the research is done is that a new human life is created either by joining sperm and egg or by a cloning technique. Once created, the new embryo is allowed to live and grow for a few days until it reaches the blastocyst stage – a point where the embryo is few hundred cells in size. At that point, the embryo is broken apart so that the inner cell mass of embryonic stem cells can be harvested and used for research. This process necessarily destroys this nacent human life.

 

In my opinion, it should not be the policy of the state to even allow this horrific research to take place. Intentional destruction of human life in this manner is unnecessary and immoral. Additionally, alternatives have recently arisen that would harness the projected benefits of research on embryonic stem cells without requiring the destruction of human embryos. These new “induced pluripotent stem cells” (iPSCs), carry all of the flexibility sought by embryonic stem cell researchers with added benefits such as the ability to get them with the necessary genetic similarity to the patient to avoid immune rejection. Such benefit is not available in embryonic stem cell research without cloning human embryos to match the genetic makeup of the patient.

 

In a democratic society, there are always differences of opinion. While four states have banned destructive embryo research (Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, and Nebraska), Oklahoma has not. However, with Representative Enns bill, which we are here discussing today, Oklahoma is taking a step in the right direction by making it the policy of the state to specifically encourage adult stem cell research in contrast to that research that necessarily destroys human life. This puts the state on record as endorsing this most promising avenue of adult stem cell research that can be used ethically and to great patient benefit.

 

There is not a day that goes by when I don’t look forward to the time when I will be able to set this wheelchair aside, stand on my own two feet under my own power, shake your hand and thank you for helping make Oklahoma be a leader on this research. I encourage you during the next legislative session to make funding for adult stem cell research a priority in the state budget, and follow the lead of neighbors like Kansas by passing your own ban on destructive embryo research.

 

Thank you for your time and attention.