Critics say a new service offered by a San Francisco-based in vitro fertilization clinic is making money on unproven science.
Calling its service “the first of its kind,” StemLifeLine Partners is offering couples who have “completed their family planning goals” the ability to collect stem cells from their remaining embryos – for a fee. The stem cells would be stored should there be treatments developed someday that could be used for a family member. But the process of collecting the stem cells destroys the human embryos.
Dr. Joseph Zanga, professor of pediatrics at the Brody School of Medicine, called it the stuff of “bizarre science fiction movies” and said the idea is steeped in utilitarianism.
“We should never be trying to or intending to take someone else’s life to make our own better,” he told Family News in Focus.
Samuel Lee, a pro-life lobbyist in Missouri, called the demand for such a service “astonishing.”
“It just shows how far gone we are in terms of our ethics and our relationships with our own children,” he said. “I looked at the StemLifeLine Web site and even they admit that the only stem-cell research which is offering any hope for individuals is adult stem-cell research.”
Noncontroversial adult stem cells do not require the destruction of human life.
Dawn Vargo, associate bioethics analyst for Focus on the Family Action, pointed out that while adult stem-cell research offers 70 treatments, life-destroying embryonic stem-cell research has produced none. She said the new service is just another way for StemLifeLine to shore up its bottom line.
“What’s being offered," she said, "is the promise of future stem-cell therapies from a source of stem cells that has not been shown to actually provide any therapeutic potential for patients.”
