Sixteen-year-old Dimitri Bonnville had already been accidentally
shot in the heart with a nail gun while doing home repair, undergone open-heart
surgery and suffered a massive heart attack, when doctors told his parents he
needed a heart transplant. The doctors did offer an alternative: Bonnville could
become the first human to receive experimental stem-cell therapy to revive his
damaged heart tissue. They went ahead with the procedure, the results of which
could turn the stem-cell debate on its head.
…However, the Beaumont procedure doesn’t require embryonic
stem cells at all, because the necessary cells were taken from Bonnville’s own
blood. The experimental therapy also eliminates the need for another intensely
debated technique: therapeutic cloning. Audio Hear Dr. Cindy Grines describe
the stem-cell procedure. The assumption that therapeutic cloning is key to the
success of embryonic stem-cell therapies (none of which has yet been shown to
work) has permeated both the stem-cell and cloning debates.
…Since Bonnville’s own cells were used in the procedure,
rejection isn’t a concern, O’Neill said. “They’re his own cells, highly concentrated,
and we put them into the damaged area,” he said. “We wouldn’t anticipate anything
different than we would normally.”
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