Posted on: Friday, August 10, 2001

Decision 'better than all-out ban'

• Illustration: Embryonic stem cell research

By Tanya Bricking
and Jessica Webster
Advertiser Staff Writers

When Nancy Reagan, wife of the former president struggling with Alzheimer's disease, made her support for stem-cell research known, Jody Mishan was encouraged. She thought President Bush might take the former first lady's words to heart.

Here in Hawai'i, far from research lobbyists, Mishan has felt helpless against the same disease that is killing her father.

When the Manoa woman listened to Bush's speech yesterday in which he said he would limit federal support for potentially lifesaving cell research to studies on 60 stem-cell lines created from embryos that have already been destroyed, Mishan, like most Americans, didn't know what to think.

Would that stall research? Would it allow for medical advancements? Would it mean more families would have to go through the excruciating experience of watching someone die slowly?

To Mishan, Bush's decision on stem-cell research should have been an obvious choice.

"I'm one of those people that feels this kind of research can save lives," she said. "I'm one of the people who is amazed there's even an argument about it."

In the compromise to keep federal dollars backing research on existing human embryos, Bush said he would prohibit subsidies of research that involved the creation or destruction of additional embryos.

His decision has brought praise from Hawai'i Republicans such as GOP chairwoman Linda Lingle, who called it a "commitment to both medical research and ethics," and anti-abortion crusader state Rep. Bob McDermott, R-32nd ('Aiea, Salt Lake, Aliamanu), who said he has strong views as a Catholic against using embryos for research but is glad about the restrictions Bush wants to impose.

But Bush's announcement drew criticism from conservatives, liberals, doctors and researchers alike.

"It sounds like he was lobbied right up until the last minute," said Dr. Patricia Lanoie Blanchette, professor and chairwoman of the Department of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Hawai'i's John A. Burns School of Medicine. "It's better than an all-out ban."

It's too soon to say whether the decision will stall research or prevent advancements, she said, but she said the thing to remember is that research is global.

"If something is not permitted in the United States, it doesn't mean it won't be done in other countries," said Blanchette, also board chairwoman of the Aloha Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, an organization that opposes any ban on federal financing for human stem-cell research.

Bush's decision is no shock for Ryuzo Yanagimachi, the University of Hawai'i professor who pioneered mouse-cloning research.

Yanagimachi, who is doing stem-cell research jointly with hemotologists and infertility specialists, said Bush's decision is "one step ahead" in a positive direction because researchers can work within the restrictions.

"We can do only basic research, but these cells cannot be used for anything," Yanagimachi said. "Someday, we may find some other way to avoid use of embryo. If we make embryo, we're in trouble again."

Everyone from the pope to former "Superman" actor Christopher Reeves — paralyzed after a spinal cord injury — has hit Bush with advice on the subject. Now that he has announced his decision, the little guys are weighing in.

"Sure, I would like to see Superman walk again," said Jay L. Pierce, an anti-abortion activist from Kailua. "But it's not going to happen, and I don't think this is the way to see if it can happen. We're trying to alter God's plan. We're infringing on what God's plan is for us. Maybe what we reap from this science won't be good for mankind or humans."

For Jody Mishan, whose 85-year-old father, John, is drifting away in an Alzheimer's fog, stem-cell research still represents a glimmer of hope.

In her poetry group, they call it "the thief," this disease that has taken away what she knew of her father.

If it was just Alzheimer's patients that would benefit from medical research, that would be amazing, she said, but it's also Parkinson's disease patients and people with spinal cord injuries and countless others who are hoping for cures.

"It's too late for my dad, I'm afraid," she said. But she's still hoping the president will keep researchers chasing the thief.

Reach Tanya Bricking at tbricking@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8026, and Jessica Webster at jwebster@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.