Drink One for Me!

If you're Catholic, opposed to embryonic stem cell research, and are worried that all the drinking you're doing is going to destroy your liver, rejoice! This might be the best news you'll hear all week.

The money quote:

Scientists from London's Imperial College report in The New Scientist that they have repaired patients' own damaged livers by using bone marrow adult stem cells collected from their own blood.

And just to keep the record straight:

There are two kinds of stem cells: adult stem cells, of which you have several billion coursing through your body as you read this, and embryonic stem cells, for which you need several million dollars and a frozen embryo to extract.

And there's nobody opposed to adult stem research. But then, how often do you hear the term "stem cell research opponents", without bothering to distinguish which kinds of stem cells the research of which is being opposed? All the freakin' time, that's how often. It'd be like if someone were referred to as "opposing firearm ownership" because he's against people owning fully automatic weapons, despite the fact that he's totally supportive of people owning handguns, shotguns, rifles, and semiautomatic weapons.

But then, if they bothered to make the distinction, this "stem cell" issue wouldn't be nearly as useful a stick with which to bludgeon those benighted Christian folk for their silly myths and folklore. Well, it's probably not a consipricy. Most people have probably never heard that there's two kinds of stem cells, and just assume this is some kind of Scopes Monkey Trial redux.

And they have a point in that, if there were no such thing as adult stem cells, the Catholics would still be opposed to using them for research.

However, there is such a thing as adult stem cells. The big knock on them, though, was that supposedly, they can only make one, or a few, kinds of other cells. Like blood stem cells can make blood, fat stem cells can make fat, and that's all they can do. Embryonic stem cells, however, can make any other kind of cell. At some point, everyone was just a collection of a few cells, and those few cells manage to become brains, bones, blood, liver, and a rounded tummy that someone needs to start going to the gym and working off.

As it turns out, though, that isn't the case. Well, that's the case with the embryonic stem cells. But the adult stem cells are proving more crafty than people had thought. As the above story points out, they used bone marrow stem cells to make liver tissue.

The whole issue comes down to whether or not an 8-cell mass constitutes a human being. If you think the answer is "yes", then doing medical research on him/her is creepy and wrong, and you're going to oppose embryonic stem cell research. If you think the answer is "no", well, you're probably wondering what all the fuss is about.

But even if you're in the "no" camp, you ought to at least be pragmatic. Embryonic stem cells are much trickier to work with than anticipated. As of right now, about the only thing they've been able to use them to grow is cancer. Adult stem cells are where all the results are happening. Maybe there's not one magic adult stem cell that can become any other kind of cell. But if some combination of five adult stem cells can make any other kind of cell, what does it matter?