The Government has backed the wrong type of stem-cell research. It will cost us dearly

POLITICAL dynamite is not what you expect to find in the world's leading scientific journal.

But the recent news in Nature that US researchers have isolated the ultimate adult stem cell will prove explosive for Prime Minister John Howard.

The medical implication of the work of Catherine Verfaillie's team at the University of Minnesota is that the destruction of human embryos is unnecessary to obtain stem cells for "miracle cures".

A patient's own bone marrow contains all that is needed to repair damaged cells in the heart, brain, pancreas -- or any other organ.

The political upshot is that the Prime Minister has made a huge blunder.

He has given his enthusiastic support to the destruction of "spare" IVF embryos -- so enthusiastic that late in May he awarded $46.5 million to the Centre for Stem Cells and Tissue Repair at Monash University to do research which is illegal in Victoria and other jurisdictions.

This little glitch, he thinks, will soon be fixed, as soon as Parliament ratifies a deal he struck with the premiers in April to allow scientists to use 70,000 frozen IVF embryos for their experiments.

Problem is, this will be a conscience vote and the outcome is uncertain.

A number of Government MPs already have expressed their qualms about legalising research which uses human embryos as raw material for the lucrative biotech industry.

Apart from backbenchers such as Guy Barnett and Christopher Pyne, they include Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson and ministers such as Tony Abbott and Nick Minchin.

OTHER MPs are wondering why Mr Howard pre-empted Parliament by awarding the funds before it was possible to use them.

The moral questions dangling over embryo research failed to move Mr Howard because IVF scientists such as Professor Alan Trounson of Monash University mesmerised him with patter about an immense market for stem cell products.

Professor Trounson estimates the world market will be $71 billion by 2010.

But he and his team have to overcome two incredible hurdles. First, embryo stem cells can cause cancerous growths called teratomas, unless they can be tamed.

Second, patients' immune systems will reject them because embryo-based therapies do not have the same genes. These problems are so tough that not one human cure has so far been attributed to embryo stem cells.

HOWEVER, Verfaillie's research proves spectacularly that a morally non-controversial source of cures exists which does not cause cancer and which will not be rejected as foreign tissue.

So now it is time to ask why the Prime Minister handed over $46.5 million of taxpayers' money to scientists to work on a technology which is illegal, which may soon be obsolete, which is ethically contentious, which faces huge technical hurdles and which could help make a few entrepreneurial scientists very, very rich.

Professor Trounson may object that he could redirect his efforts towards adult stem cells, if necessary.

But he and his team have built their careers on human embryo research and it is hard for researchers to reinvent themselves.

The scandal of the $46.5 million leads to other questions. Why has Mr Howard's advice on the biotechnology industry been so misguided that Verfaillie's results were not foreseen?

And what will happen to this money if the legislation does not pass?

This latest good news on adult stem cells has dramatically altered the politics of the issue.

Although Mr Howard has dug his heels in, MPs who once backed embryo research can now change their minds gracefully.

WITHOUT alienating voters who want cures for juvenile diabetes and Parkinson's disease, they can please voters who oppose research on "spare" IVF embryos.

If the Opposition is searching for an issue to embarrass our teflon-skinned leader and expose the incompetence of the Government's attempt to pick industry winners, it ought to dig here.

The defeat of the embryo research Bill could prove one of the biggest humiliations of Mr Howard's tenure as Prime Minister.

MICHAEL COOK is editor of Australasian Bioethics Information. michael.cook@ australasianbioethics.org