Apology in a Stem Cell Feud

Stanford University this week issued an apology and corrected a written statement after the chairman of President Bush’s bioethics council said the school had mischaracterized the council’s views on human cloning.

Stanford has said its new cancer institute may try to produce human embryonic stem cells using nuclear transfer techniques -- work that many consider to be a type of human cloning. But Stanford said characterizing the method as cloning is wrong because its goal would be to produce stem cells, not cloned children.

In a statement posted on the university’s Web site last week, Stanford said the President’s Council on Bioethics supported its view -- and its research strategy.

But the council demanded a correction, saying it does not endorse cloning for biomedical research and that Stanford had tried to “obfuscate” the nature of its potential experiments. Stanford changed its statement Wednesday, deleting all references to the council.

Dr. Irving Weissman, the Stanford institute’s director, was out of the country and couldn’t be reached for comment, a university spokeswoman said.

Stem cells are created in the first days of pregnancy and give rise to the human body. Scientists hope to someday direct stem cells to grow into replacement organs and tissues to treat a wide range of diseases.

But to harvest stem cells, researchers must destroy days-old embryos -- a procedure condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, Bush and some antiabortion activists and women’s rights organizations.

The chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics, Dr. Leon Kass of the University of Chicago, said it is unfortunate that Stanford and Weissman have clouded the ongoing debate over stem cells by disputing that their work could result in cloned human embryos.

Bush has banned federal funding of new embryonic stem cell programs. Stanford’s research will be privately funded.

Most stem cell researchers get unwanted embryos donated by fertility clinics. Some researchers see a big scientific benefit in developing new sources of genetically identical stem cells using nuclear transfer.