Reeve, who believes stem cell research could help him walk again, agreed. It would be a criminal waste not to use them. Specter hopes the Senate will debate his bill, the Stem Cell Research Act of 2000, before the Memorial Day break next month. It would permit the use of federal funds to use stem cells taken from embryos left over from fertility treatment for scientific research. Current law forbids the use of federal funds for science that would destroy a human embryo, although the National Institutes of Health has interpreted this law to mean its researchers can use the stem cells so long as they are extracted by privately funded researchers.
Stem cells are a kind of master cell for the body.
Depending on their source, they have the ability to produce many different kinds of cells. So far scientists cannot control this process but are learning to do so and they hope to use them to produce tissues for transplant and perhaps even entire organs. Adult stem cells have been found in the bone marrow, the blood, the brain, liver and other parts of the body and give rise to specific families of cells. Some research suggests that they, too, may be re-programmed to some degree so that blood stem cells could, for instance, produce nerve cells. Scientists say research needs to proceed on both kinds of cells.