LONDON, APRIL 5, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Catholic bioethicists welcomed a recent breakthrough in the treatment of heart disease using adult stem cells taken from bone marrow.
Researches from a London-area hospital, led by Sir Magdi Yacoub, have grown part of a human heart from adult stem cells offering hope for millions of cardiac patients. The new tissue could be used in place of artificial valves currently used in heart disease treatment.
The breakthrough treatment is welcomed by a statement released by the British and Irish bishops' Joint Bioethics Committee, an ad hoc committee representing the two episcopal conferences.
Father Paul Murray, secretary of the committee, said: "Sir Magdi and his team generated the heart tissue from stem cells found in bone marrow. The technique is ethical because the stem cells were taken from the patient's own bone marrow rather than from an embryo in the first few days of life."
BBC News reported on Monday one of the medical advantages of the new treatment: "In theory, if the valve was grown from the patient's own cells there would also be no need to take drugs to stop the body rejecting it."
Father Murray asserted: "This development vindicates the consistently held position of the Church, of Catholic ethicists and many other experts in the field who have always maintained that the greatest potential for actual cures lay with adult rather than embryonic stem cells.
"Now that we have concrete results using adult stem cells and a time frame for their practical use in restoring health, let us leave behind once and for all the fruitless and destructive research on embryonic stem cells which is still years away from this exciting point."
The above article is reposted from Zenit.
____________________ Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand. - Augustine
