Source of pluripotent cells
Cord blood, present in the umbilical cord which connects the baby to the
placenta, can be sampled after birth, without constraints either for the
baby or for the mother. More than hundred million babies are born every year
in the world, which represents a number of available stem cells, covering a
large variety of tissue types. Cord blood is generally incinerated after
birth whereas it represents an ethical source of pluripotent stem cells for
most of global population. Its storage, by freezing, is easy and its
availability higher than that of stem cells from bone marrow. Contrary to
the embryonic stem cells which require the destruction of the embryo,
collecting placenta blood is a totally ethical act and accessible to
everybody which opens large therapeutic perspectives.
Therapeutic perspectives
Cord blood contains a group of very rare and immature stem cells which have
the exceptional capacity to form several tissue types. Professor Colin
McGuckin, from the University of Newcastle was the first in the world to
show (in 2005) the existence of pluripotent cells in the cord blood, i.e.
which have the characteristic to transform into different tissues. This team
achieves to create liver, but also nerve tissue, pancreas tissue, blood
vessels, from these cells sampled from cord blood. Also, it used these cells
to regenerate human corneal tissue.
On 24th October 2006, Pr. McGuckin published others surprising results: for
the first time the creation of a mini-liver in 3 dimensions and a few weeks
ago, in June 2007, his team published in Cell Proliferation a paper
showing that it succeeded in creating insulin-producing human tissues.
Umbilical cord blood grafts are used for more than twenty years for blood
diseases like leukaemia or sickle-cell anaemia. But they are not only used
for diseases related to blood or immune system (bubble child): they are also
used for pathologies affecting bone marrow, nervous system or metabolism,
like type I diabetes or human cornea. Blood cord is thus used to treat more
than 85 diseases, recently including Krabbe’s disease, a genetic disease
affecting the development of the nervous system. Regarding the
reconstitution of liver cells, the applications are numerous, particularly
for pharmaceutical companies which want to test the consequences of their
drugs on the liver, without resorting to laboratory animals.
Yet, some researchers carry on denying the therapeutic efficacy of cord
blood cells, like Marc Peschanski, director of Inserm laboratory of Evry, co-financed
by the Association française contre les myopathies (AFM) (French Myopathy
Association), works on embryonic cells and states that “cord blood cells
did not prove their efficacy in the field of regenerative medicine”1.
Shortage, delay and prejudice
In accordance with the opinion from the National Consultative Ethics
Committee on 12th December 2002, French authorities reject the private banks
in the name of the principles of solidarity, gratuitousness and anonymity of
the donation but, today France counts only with 2 public banks of cord blood,
in Bordeaux and Besançon.
Between 1994 and 2005, hospitals have imported 63% of the grafts whereas
these are ten times more expensive (20,000 euros) than if they have been
preserved in France. In this context of shortage of donations, how to
justify that more than 2,000 umbilical cords are destroyed every day? France
only have 5,800 available units of placental blood, (which ranks it at the
16th position in the world, beyond Check Republic), ten more would be
necessary to meet the demand. The Agency of biomedicine has just decided to
allocate a budget of €575,000 to have, by 3 years, a stock of 10,000
placental units. This seems derisory compared to other countries: thus,
Sweden unfroze €2 million to exceed 250,000 units (for 9 millions of
inhabitants).
According to some jurists, one day this delay could be assimilated to a
prejudice by the patients who then could attack the doctors guilty of not
having permitted them to benefit from this technique.
Cord blood banks are an essential link for the advances of the regenerative
medicine. As concluded the journalist from La Vie, who has just written a
fascinating paper about this issue1, "the
generalisation of collecting cord blood can only come from a political will".
In USA, for instance, the Congress voted 265 million dollars to develop a
network of public banks throughout the country… In other country, like
England, interesting models of banks develop, like the Virgin Health Bank,
semi private-public (see Gènéthique No 90,
June 2007).
To be developed, this research requires a dialogue between the governments,
the medical profession, the industrials and the public.
1. L. Grzybowski, Sang de cordon : l’étrange omerta,
La Vie, 5 juillet 2007
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Child conceived: cause of divorce
The Court of Appeal of Nîmes1 has just pronounced a divorce for
reciprocal fault, retaining a fault of the wife to have conceived a child
without her husband’s knowledge, father of the child: “Based on the
current status of manners and existing means of contraception in the French
contemporaneous society, the conception of a child by a married couple must
be of mutual choice and common project… The conception of a child without
her husband’s knowledge in very specific circumstances is for the wife a
neglect of loyalty duty between the spouses, the husband moreover being
reduced to the simple role of
genitor”, act constituting “a
serious violation of duties and obligations of marriage and which makes
common life intolerable”. The wife could not ignore that her husband did
not want a baby anymore as the couple had already lost two children just
after their birth.
Child: prejudice for the father?
The Court of Appeal of Nîmes gives us the image of a child, conceived during
the marriage, who should not have existed to the prejudice of third, here
his father. “When’s the act of a child against her/his mother (or her
legal liability insurer) for having given birth thus causing, by her/his
fault, her divorce with her/his father and the prejudice of a destroyed
life? The perspective of a new kind of Perruche jurisprudence, applied to
parental conflicts, is it still a hypothesis?”2
Right of the husband on his wife’s
body?
The Court judged that it constitutes a fault to be pregnant without her
husband consent, father of the child. The right of the husband on his wife’s
body thus would extend to her obligation to have contraception, even without
being indicated that he asked her!
Abortion without father agreement
On the other hand, in France the father has no legal mean to oppose to the
mother’s abortive will who can decide alone to eliminate their child. If he
is married, he could maybe obtain a divorce for the fault of the wife who
had, against his opinion, interrupted her pregnancy, but no jurisdiction has
already pronounced about this issue…
1. CA Nîmes, 21 mars
2007, 2è ch.civ.
2. Bull. Dictionnaire permanent bioéthique et biotechnologies, juillet 2007 |
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Jérôme Lejeune Foundation opens, in
September 2007, a master in bioethics, in collaboration with the Institute
of Political Studies Léon Harmel, in order to “train consciousness and
prepare professionals” faced with the challenges of the modern medicine,
with a personalise perspective.
At whom?
This course aims at health professionals, students in biology, law, medicine,
philosophy, various actors of political and social life and at all people
who wish to have a course to take up the challenges of new bioethics stakes.
Why?
Because one day or another, these people will be faced with situations
accepting liability, this master gives them keys to:
- understand the philosophical and anthropological stakes on
health issues
- acquire thinking bases concerning medical ethics
- serve life and the suffering human being
Program:
Teachers:
Philosophy
Pr Bénédicte Mathonat
Law
Pr François Vallançon, Me Jean Paillot
Biology and Physiology
Dr Claire Diradourian
Anthropology
Pr Gérard-François Dumont, Dr Damien Le Guay
Epistemology (bioethics models)
Jean-Marie Le Méné, Pierre-Olivier Arduin
Religions
Isabelle Levy, Father de Malherbe, Father Biju-Duval
Practical Information
The master will take place in Paris, with 300 hours over two years, one day
and a half per month. Decentralised sites are planned for groups of at least
five students.
Information and enrolment: www.iplh.fr
- Contact: contact@iplh.fr – Phone: 06
25 37 62 83 |
