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As a physician and father of seven wonderful children who began their lives as embryonic individuals, I write to present my comments in opposition to the DRAFT National Institutes of Health Guidelines for Human Stem Cell Research presented over the April 17, 2009 name of Dr. Raynard S. Kington, Acting Director, NIH. Guidelines

Of course, as one who adheres to the Hippocratic Oath, my opposition to the proposed Guidelines is based primarily on their inherent and unwarranted devaluation of human life, which, in this context, is to be killed in the name of “science.” There are many more reasons to oppose these Guidelines.

Throughout the Guidelines, cells derived from the intentional killing of little human beings are described in terms of their “use.” When they are deemed, by their parent or donor owners, to no longer be useful to provide an implanted embryo, intrauterine fetus, and born child, they are relegated to be killed and used in the name of “research.” Echoes of the testimony provided at the Doctors Trials at Nuremberg in the late 1940’s (and of the Tuskegee Study) are now sounding loudly in America. Is anyone in Washington listening? One is reminded that the secret of Schindler’s List was that Oskar Schindler found ways to portray the usefulness of born human beings to bureaucrats of the Third Reich. In so doing, he saved many otherwise slated for death or lethal “research” at the hands of physicians and scientists. Pragmatic Utilitarianism is not only impractical but, neither then and there nor here and now, is it anything but barbarism.

In my second paragraph I noted that my unfailing objection is rooted in the immoral and unethical action of directly killing one human being for some reputed “higher purpose.”  When that “higher purpose” is based on smoke, mirrors, and fantasy, the entire enterprise becomes incredible and demeans its proponents. Human embryonic stem cell research has been carried on for over 10 years in the U.S., largely but not entirely funded by non-public dollars. At this time, before EO 13505, our country was spending more on this destructive research each year than the rest of the world combined!

In spite of this level of funding for this period, no human clinical trials have even begun, although one—very cautious and very small—has now been approved by the FDA. The scientific reasons are, no doubt, known to the author(s) of the Guidelines: human embryonic stem cells have not been controllable and are prone to form a variety of tumors; additionally, human embryonic stem cells always carry a genome distinct from any putative patient. Although this latter impediment may be addressed with immunosuppressive drugs, when balancing that regimen against the currently demonstrated effectiveness of cell therapies employing the patient’s own stem cells (without immunosuppression) or those employing donated but matched adult stem cells (with immunosuppression), the risks of using embryonic stem cells tips the scales against them.

It would appear, from my reading of the Guidelines, that Dr. Kington has made an unwarranted and unsupportable interpretation of the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, here presented as currently in force.

Dickey-Wicker Amendment

(enacted on March 11, 2009 as part of the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009,)

SEC. 509. (a) None of the funds made available in this Act may be used for–

(1) the creation of a human embryo or embryos for research purposes; or

(2) research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that allowed for research on fetuses in utero under 45 CFR 46.208(a)(2) and Section 498(b) of the Public Health Service Act [1](42 U.S.C. 289g(b)) (Title 42, Section 289g(b), United States Code).

(b) For purposes of this section, the term “human embryo or embryos” includes any organism, not protected as a human subject under 45 CFR 46 (the Human Subject Protection regulations) . . . that is derived by fertilization, parthenogenesis, cloning, or any other means from one or more human gametes (sperm or egg) or human diploid cells (cells that have two sets of chromosomes, such as somatic cells).

To present these Guidelines as approving funding of research using human embryonic stem cells that were “derived” i.e. obtained by killing an embryonic human being, is disingenuous at best if it is meant to be within the actions approved by Dickey-Wicker. To consider this further, these Guidelines are meant to divorce themselves from the actual killing—presumably not funded by NIH—how can the “Eligibility” provisions not be interpreted as a wink and a nod to those who, although, perhaps, not directly funded by tax dollars, must meet specific NIH requirements so that their unfunded killing actions are allowed to generate a funding stream by using the products of the killing? If the “eligibility” provisions are not a clear attempt to tacitly approve actions contrary to the language and intent of Dickey-Wicker what are they?

Penultimately, these Guidelines become patently incredible when they promote the immoral, unethical, and increasingly outdated and unworkable destruction of human beings by providing the accurate definition of human embryonic stem cells as “cells derived from human embryos (that) are capable of dividing without differentiating for a prolonged period in culture, and (that) are known to develop into cells and tissues of the three primary germ layers.”  Contrast that definition with the same Guidelines definition of human induced pluripotent stem cells: “cells that are capable of dividing without differentiating for a prolonged period in culture and (that) are known to develop into cells and tissues of the three primary germ layers.”  Since the defined characteristics, as presented in the Guidelines, are indistinguishable, and since one involves the killing of a human being without their foreknowledge or consent, the reasonable reader must ask why Executive Order 13505 was issued and why these Guidelines were drafted?

It is clear the answer to that question is that President Obama is enthralled by the notion that human embryos are human enough to be used but not human enough to be protected. It follows that President Obama is here engaged in fulfilling a campaign promise to require taxpayer funding of increasingly irrelevant “research” which requires the killing of little human beings. As such the Executive Order and these Guidelines are morally corrupt. They devalue human life and demean and degrade scientific inquiry.