Déirdre de Búrca (Green Party)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Devins, and the opportunity to discuss this Private Members' Bill. I congratulate Senator Mullen on bringing it forward. There is a need for comprehensive debate on stem cell research, especially the merits of embryonic stem cell research versus adult stem cell research. Unfortunately, due to the lack of debate, there has also been a lack of regulation in this area, which compares poorly to the United Kingdom where embryonic stem cell research has been legal since 2004. The research there is regulated extremely carefully under specific legislation and statutory regulation by an Act of the Westminster Parliament and is controlled tightly by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.

In Ireland, by comparison, while research on adult stem cells is legal and some of the research has been publicly funded, the legal position regarding embryonic stem cell research is not clear. We do not have legislation to deal with, for example, embryos left over after IVF treatment. The Medical Council produced guidelines in 2004 that forbid the "deliberate destruction of embryos in addition to the creation of embryos specifically for use in research, therapeutic cloning." However, those guidelines do not apply to scientists. The importation of embryonic stem cell lines created in other countries is not illegal in Ireland. We have a vacuum and, as legislators, we must respond to that. The start of the process is to have a comprehensive debate and this Private Members' Bill will facilitate that.

Stem cell research is an important area of research because stem cells are immature cells that have the potential to develop into any one of the 216 different cell types that make up the human body. In effect, they are a repair kit for the body and they are found in humans at all stages of life, from embryonic through to adulthood as well as in umbilical cords and placentas. Great strides have been made in this area.

Other speakers referred to the great day for medical science when there was a successful replacement of a damaged windpipe with a donor organ treated with adult stem cells. That line of scientific research shows immense potential for development in the fight against disease and in preventing the rejection of organ transplants. There are great hopes for its use, in particular with patients with Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

The issue that is particularly relevant to us as legislators is the use of public funding, namely, taxpayers' money, for stem cell research. Irish scientists and researchers deserve to be given the maximum financial and other support to play a leading role in this field. However, ethical issues intrude on any funding policy and they are ones which we as legislators must take seriously. The protection offered to the life of the unborn in the Constitution makes clear that Irish people have a deep sense of the value of human life and a particular understanding of when human life begins. Others may have different views but the matter will have to be clearly defined when it comes to embryonic stem cell research. For some, what they would see as the destruction of embryos would be completely unacceptable ethically.

We heard a geneticist speaking at a briefing session today for Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas who said that as far as he was concerned he does not regard an embryo in the first 14 days of its existence as early human life. It is only after that that he believes the cells develop the properties he would consider as the early stages of human life. As legislators, we have serious questions to debate and on which to seek greater clarity so the public can be informed also.

I do not speak on behalf of the Green Party per se because our party has had difficulties in the past with arriving at a party policy position on abortion. We deal with such issues by permitting them to be a matter of individual conscience. I could not enunciate a position on behalf of the party on embryonic stem cell research because one would find the same divisions among the party membership as one would find among the public.

Adult stem cell research provides much potential. The advantage of it is that it is uncontroversial. Adult stem cell research does not involve the destruction of embryos. Adult stem cells can be developed from umbilical cord blood and placenta, which are rich in adult stem cell potential. Cord blood banking has already been used to treat more than 80 known diseases and it appears to hold great promise for treating additional diseases and disorders. Cord blood stem cells are used primarily for hematopoietic, or blood forming reconstitution, for diseases such as leukemia and lymphoma. Because every cell in the human body has the same genetic information and approximately 200 programmes for using the genetic information, it is clear that it should be possible to make a stem cell from any cell in the body. As other speakers indicated, scientists have already figured out how to do that from skin cells and induced pluri-potent stem, IPS, cells. The advantage of such stem cells is that they can be made from any human being and thus have the potential to allow a human being to regenerate his or her own tissue. That is the best possible scenario given that our immune system rejects almost all cells and tissues from other humans.

From research carried out it appears that it is possible to reprogramme skin cells to become induced pluripotent stem cells, a state which is virtually identical to that of embryonic stem cells. There are some disadvantages attached — as there is a limited quantity of such cells, they can sometimes be difficult to obtain in large numbers and they may be more difficult to reprogramme to form other tissue types.

I welcome the fact that Senator Mullen has introduced this Bill and stimulated this debate. I hope we will carry it to a further stage and, in the process, clarify many of the ethical issues that arise for the Irish public.