Vatican agency meets to discuss gene therapy in cancer research

Published: 2003-11-11

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- At an annual symposium, scientists and other members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences held a closed-door discussion of the ethical application of gene therapy in cancer patients. A main issue was whether adult stem cells are as effective as those taken from human embryos in the treatment of disease, participants in the Nov. 7-11 meeting said. The academy's meeting came at a critical time when gene therapy applied to terminal cancer research was sparking wide debate in parliaments and ethical research centers around the globe. It is precisely the medical term "therapy" that the Vatican finds hard to accept if it involves use and destruction of embryonic tissue. At the academy's symposium, experts were called to explain the facts and draw distinctions in therapeutic application of both adult and embryonic stem cells in repairing damaged genes that lead to malignant tumors.

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