Stem Cell Facts vs. Myths: Do you know the difference?

Myth: Embryonic stem cell research is illegal in the United States

FACT: In the United States, stem cell research (including embryonic stem cell research) is legal. No federal law prevents researchers from experimenting on stem cells regardless of where those cells come from. The government of the United States even provides a sizeable amount of federal tax dollars for stem cell research, including research on embryonic stem cell lines created before August of 2001. Since 2003, the federal government has spent $122 million on human embryonic stem cell research, and they plan to spend an additional $37 million a year in both 2007 and 2008. The federal government has also spent millions on research using non-human embryonic stem cells, human adult stem cells, non-human adult stem cells and stem cells from umbilical cord blood. In total, the federal government spent $2.32 billion dollars on stem cell research from 2003-2006.

The goal of legislation vetoed by President Bush wasn't to make embryonic stem cell research legal but to expand the federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research.

Myth: Research into human cloning is strictly regulated in the United States.

FACT: On the federal level, there are also no restrictions on human cloning for research. Human cloning for research is often labeled "therapeutic cloning" by its proponents. These experiments entail attempting to create human embryos through a cloning process known as somatic cell nuclear transfer and then killing the cloned human embryos for their stem cells. No researcher has yet to obtain embryonic stem cells from a cloned human embryo despite numerous attempts. A South Korean researcher named Hwang Woo-Suk made headlines in 2004 and 2005 after claiming to have obtained embryonic stem cells from cloned human embryos in two separate scientific papers. It was eventually discovered in December of 2005 that Woo-Suk's papers were fraudulent and he was unable to create a human embryo by cloning even though he had more than 2,000 human eggs (an astronomical number of human eggs compared to most human cloning attempts) at his disposal.

Myth: Embryonic stem cell research is banned in Michigan.

FACT: This is simply not true. Research with human embryonic stem cells has been occurring at the University of Michigan with the support of federal tax dollars since 2003. The University of Michigan has also been raising money to conduct research on human embryonic stem cells which aren't approved for funding by the federal government.

Michigan law bans conducting research on human embryos which isn't beneficial to the human embryos. This means, among others things, that killing human embryos for their stem cells is illegal in Michigan. However, this law does not prevent researchers from obtaining embryonic stem cells from other states and experimenting on them in Michigan. Michigan's law also bans human cloning.

Myth: Nuclear transfer creates embryonic stem cells.

FACT: Somatic cell nuclear transfer (also known as cloning) doesn't create embryonic stem cells. It attempts to create embryos which would then need to be killed for their stem cells. Though tens of millions of dollars have been spent on human cloning for research, researchers have yet to extract embryonic stem cells from a cloned human embryo.

Myth: Embryonic stem cell research and human cloning will boost Michigan's economy.

FACT: Other states which are supposedly leading the way in embryonic stem cell research are providing millions upon millions of state tax dollars (which Michigan doesn't have with its current budget crisis). In other words, embryonic stem cell research doesn't bring in money; it typically asks taxpayers to foot the bill. For years, proponents of embryonic stem cell research have been promising cures to nearly every human ailment, and they've received more than $100 million dollars from our federal government to conduct their research. Yet no human disease is anywhere near being treated with embryonic stem cells. Now they're promising an economic "boost" without explaining how killing human embryos for research is going to benefit our state economically. Be wary of those who promise much but provide little.

Myth: There are 400,000 human embryos available to be killed for embryonic stem cell research.

FACT: In 2003, the RAND Institute published an article in the journal Fertility and Sterility. This study found there were approximately 400,000 human embryos frozen at in-vitro fertilization clinics across the country. The survey also found that 88.2% of these human embryos were being stored by their parents for future attempts at initiating a pregnancy. Only 2.8% (about 11,000) were slated for use in research. The study also gives what they say is "probably an overestimate" that 275 embryonic stem cell lines could be created from these 11,000 human embryos.

Myth: Therapeutic cloning has the potential to save millions of lives.

FACT: Cloning human embryos for research will never save millions of lives. In order for this research to cure millions of people, scientists who attempt to clone and kill human embryos would need to get their hands on hundreds of millions of human eggs which would require tens of millions of women to agree to go through the often dangerous process of donating eggs. Scientists have not even been able to remove embryonic stem cells from a cloned human embryo even though tens of millions of dollars have been spent on this research.

The process of creating cloned human embryos, killing them for their stem cells, and then using these cells to try to treat a patient would be incredibly inefficient and costly. Numerous experts in embryonic stem cell research have noted how unlikely it is this process could ever be used to treat disease.

Thomas Okarma, president of Geron, a leading biotech firm involved in cloning research, in Technology Review, June 2003, stated, "The efficiency of making a stem cell line from an embryo made by nuclear transfer [cloning] is vanishingly small, and you're going back to the case-by-case, individualized-therapy story again, with enormous costs. The whole idea is to make this therapy internationally available, broadly. Nuclear-transfer procedures just are never going to get us there."

Back to the Table of Contents