Andrew Kent was rock climbing with his son in the UK’s Langdale Pikes when a boulder fell on his leg, breaking it in five places. He was rushed to the hospital, but the fractures were so severe that three operations could not repair them. The wounds became badly infected, and doctors warned that his leg might have to be amputated – yet hope existed; they could attempt a new procedure to repair the bones using his own stem cells. When Kent consented, an orthopedic surgeon removed stem cells from bone marrow in his hip and mixed them with a collagen gel. The resulting paste was applied to the fractures, and the surgeon set his leg in a metal cage to squeeze the bones together. When the cage was removed six months later, the stem cells had formed healthy bone tissue and doctors predicted complete recovery within 18 months. Thanks to adult stem cells, he could hope to climb rocks once again.1

Though the media spotlight has often fallen on embryonic stem-cell research, Kent is among the growing number of patients to receive successful treatments from adult stem cells. Such cells have the ability to develop into other cells and tissues and can be harvested from bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, fat, and placentas. Their adaptability has resulted in treatments for scores of afflictions, including auto-immune diseases, cancer, and heart disease.2 And unlike embryonic stem cells, their harvest does not mean destruction of a tiny human being.

Jacki Rabon represents another instance of successful adult stem-cell treatment. As a teenager in 2003, she sustained major injuries in an automobile accident that left her paralyzed and hopeless. But then her pastor called with the news that a pioneering surgery known as “olfactory mucosa transplantation” might help. The procedure harvested cells from a patient’s nose and transplanted them to the site of a spinal cord break, where they became healthy spinal tissue and restored neurological functions. Because the surgery was not available in the United States, the Illinois teen and her mother travelled to Portugal for the operation, with funding from her church and community.3

The results proved remarkable. Within days of beginning rehabilitation in Detroit, Rabon was able to walk using braces. After two and a half weeks, she returned to her home and began learning to walk using parallel bars set up at her church. As a long-term goal, she hoped to be able to walk without aid at her wedding someday. “I’m still really against abortion, so I’m not for embryonic stem cell therapy. But anything else that doesn’t involve killing a baby is great,” she said.4

Adult stem cells were used to treat multiple sclerosis in Ben Leahy’s case. The 20-year-old Australian was diagnosed with auto-immune disease in 2008 and experienced rapid deterioration. His troubles included respiratory failure, vision loss, and confinement to a wheelchair. So doctors harvested stem cells from his bone marrow and then used chemicals to destroy all the existing immune cells in his body. Next they injected the harvested stem cells in hopes of forming healthy immune cells. The treatment worked so well that Leahy was walking within months. According to his neurologist, “At the moment there’s a good chance we may have arrested the disease.”5

In contrast to these medical wonders, embryonic stem-cell research has yet to cure a single disease. And with each new use of adult stem cells, scientists provide more evidence that God has supplied every necessary resource for medical advance without making the most defenseless humans victims. By emphasizing these cases, believers proclaim God’s grace and the absence of need for embryo-destructive research.
 
Footnotes:
 
1  “Pioneering Stem Cell Technique Stops Climber from Losing Leg,” Daily Mail Website, December 16, 2009, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1236169/Pioneering-stem-cell-technique-stops-climber-losing-leg.html# (accessed January 22, 2010); “New Stem Cell Glue Saves Leg from Amputation,” Sky News Website, December 16, 2009, http://www.skypressoffice.co.uk/SkyNews/Resources/showarticle.asp?id=2885 (accessed January 22, 2010).
 
2  See Kairos Journal article, “The Greatest Stem-Cell Story Never Told.”
 
3  Erin Roach, “Adult Stem Cell Surgery May Have Teen Walking Again Soon,” Baptist Press Website, April 10, 2006, http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=23011 (accessed January 22, 2010).
 
4  Ibid.
 
5  Steven Ertelt, “Pro-Life News: Virginia Infanticide, Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Australia, Abortion, ASCR,” LifeNews.com, December 17, 2009, http://www.lifenews.com/nb243.html (accessed January 22, 2010).
 
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article form Kairos Journal

First Baptist Church of Perryville is located across from Principio Health Center.