Cardinal urges federal funds for umbilical cord stem-cell research

Published: 2005-07-13

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The head of the U.S. bishops' pro-life committee has urged the Senate to support a bill funding research using stem cells from umbilical cord blood and to reject legislation that would fund embryonic stem-cell research, which destroys human embryos. "Umbilical cord blood stem cells have successfully treated thousands of patients with dozens of diseases," said Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore in a July 11 letter to senators in support of a bill sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. The cardinal, chairman of the Committee for Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said stem cells obtained from umbilical cord blood have similar properties to embryonic ones. "They grow rapidly in culture, producing enough cells to be clinically useful in both children and adults; they can treat patients who are not an exact genetic match, without being rejected as foreign tissue; and they seem able to produce a wide array of different type cells," he said.

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