Major Breakthrough: Stem Cells Extracted from Amniotic Fluid
by Elizabeth Weise

   Researchers have been able to derive human stem cells from the amniotic fluid surrounding babies in the womb, potentially providing a source of stem cells that is easily available and uncontroversial.
   The amniotic stem cells grew readily into independent cell lines, or colonies, doubling in just 36 hours, the paper says. It was published in a recent edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology.
   The researchers at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., were able to get the amniotic cells to differentiate into fat, bone, muscle, blood, nerve and liver cells.
   Stem cells can develop into almost all cell types and serve as the repair system for the body.
   Such cells created from early-stage human embryos, called embryonic stem cells, have shown the greatest potential for turning into any cell needed. But they are controversial because making them requires destroying the embryo. President Bush cut all federal funding for research into new human embryonic cell lines in 2001.
   The amniotic cells are neither human embryonic stem cells nor adult stem cells, which are slightly less resilient, says lead researcher Anthony Atala, director of Wake Forest's Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering Institute. ''They're something in between," he says.

   One advantage is that these cells, unlike embryonic stem cells, don't form tumors when implanted into mice.
   Though much research into the safety and effectiveness of these potential embryonic stem cell substitutes still needs to be done, the huge advantage would be that they can be easily harvested from both amniotic fluid as well as placental, tissue after a baby is born.
   The scientists were also able to obtain similar stem cells from prenatal chorioni villius biopsies, commonly done on older women to test, for chromosomal abnormalities such as Down syndrome.
   If a family "banked" a baby's amniotic stem cells at birth by freezing them, they could provide a potential line of stem cells to treat diseases the child might develop later, Atala says.
   But even more important, because amniotic fluid is so easy to harvest, it would make it possible, to create thousands of cell lines.
   "If you banked 100,000 specimens, you'd be able to provide cells for 99% of the U.S. population with a perfect match for genetic transplantation," Atala says.
   Says Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology, a biotechnology firm working to commercialize human stem cell technology: "Just 100 lines will match half the U.S. population. It's an exciting breakthrough."

Source: USA TODAY, January 8, 2007

Christians for Life Newsletter

January 2007

Page 2

FATHERS IN CRISIS: Dads Are Key to Preventing Abortions
By Michael Leaser

  When you walk into a crisis pregnancy center, you’re usually met with a clean, attractive waiting room, appointed with some pleasant paintings, a few comfortable chairs, perhaps a sofa and a coffee table holding a variety of magazines. You see the usual titles, such as Today’s Christian Woman, Families, Celebrate Life, but more and more you can expect to find copies of New Man or Sports Spectrum. Why would magazines geared toward men be found in a crisis pregnancy center? To keep them occupied while their partner has a pregnancy test? Of course, but also because Christian men’s magazines are a small part of a growing movement among CPCs to include men in the services they offer.
  Since the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, all decisions regarding preborn children rest with the mother; but in reality, the father may carry the most influence over whether a baby is brought to term. The Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood’s own research organ, conducted several surveys of approximately 2,000 women who went to Planned Parenthood for abortions. In its May 4 release, the institute stated:
  On average, women give four reasons for choosing
abortion. Three-fourths of women cite concern or responsibility to ..other individuals; three-..fourths say they cannot ..afford a child; three-..fourths say that having a.baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for ..dependents; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.
  The fourth reason obviously points to the absence of a father who is willing to provide physical and/or emotional support, but so do the other three reasons.
  Women who “cite concern for other individuals” are often concerned with the reaction their partner might have to a pregnancy. They will often perceive anything other than an overwhelmingly positive reaction from their partner as a sign that their partner doesn’t want the baby. Again, sadly, after the Roe v. Wade decision, lower court decisions and follow-up legislation about abortion have stripped fathers of all rights regarding their preborn children. Therefore, many men have been conditioned to detach themselves from crisis pregnancies, allowing them to say, quite reasonably, that it’s “not my choice,” even though an expressed desire to keep a child may be all a mother needs to dissuade her from having an abortion.
  Women who say they can’t afford a child often lack the financial assistance that a father can provide in attending to the many costs involved with child rearing. Those women who assert that having  a   child   would    interfere   with   work  

may need to work full-time to support themselves because they don’t have a partner who can bear the primary breadwinning responsibilities while they give a child the near-constant care and attention he or she needs.
                 National CPC Responses
  Given the substantial role a father plays in a woman’s decision to carry a child to term, the two largest crisis pregnancy center networks in the country have begun incorporating men’s ministry programs in their national conferences. Heartbeat International, which oversees more than 950 CPCs nationwide, invited Roland Warren, director of the National Fatherhood Initiative, to deliver one of the keynote addresses at its annual conference in Orlando last May. The conference also offered workshops on “Getting Fathers Involved,” “Getting Clients to Choose Marriage,” and “Men’s Ministry in Pregnancy Centers.”
  Care Net, which supports over 900 CPCs in the United States and Canada, is offering sessions on “Ministering to Lost Fatherhood” and “Men and Women Working in Sync” at its national conference in Denver this September. NFI’s Warren will also address this conference.
  Despite this recognition of the need to address the role of men in resolving crisis pregnancy situations, much more remains to be done. Only four out of 63 sessions at Heartbeat International’s conference directly relate to this problem, while Warren’s address and the two other sessions listed at the Care Net conference are only three out of 153 programs.
                        In the Trenches
  Those crisis pregnancy centers that are actively reaching out to men employ a variety of means to involve them in crisis pregnancy resolutions. When a potential female client calls a CPC to schedule an appointment for a pregnancy test and counseling, the CPC staff and volunteers who answer the phone are trained to invite her to bring her partner to the center if she still has a relationship with him.
  Once at the center, a male client enters a waiting room with a neutral décor. Anything too feminine looking—though perhaps more appealing to female clients—may make men feel uncomfortable. (Try thinking from a man’s perspective; most men wouldn’t feel welcome in an overly pink environment.) Sometimes a CPC will even have a male volunteer serve as a receptionist, signaling not only to men but to women how much the center values the role of fathers in resolving crisis pregnancies.
               (Continued on Page 3)

Christians for Life Newsletter

January 2007

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