Former President and current Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was suffering from a mineral deficiency in her bones arising from two corrective surgeries last September, wanted to seek alternative stem cell therapy abroad.
\nHowever, she was barred from leaving the country last November after Justice Secretary Leila de Lima refused to honor the temporary restraining order issued by the high court on the inclusion of Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel \u201cMike\u201d Arroyo in the immigration bureau\u2019s watch list.
\nIn the wake of Arroyo\u2019s supposed plan to try the radical technology at stem cell centers abroad to cure what her doctors here described as a rare bone disease, a province mate and a colleague of the former President filed a bill to put up a stem cell center in the country.
\nPampanga Rep. Carmelo F. Lazatin, a member of the minority bloc in Congress, has filed House Bill No. 5287 mandating the establishment of a research facility to explore the benefits of stem cell technology as a potential cure for incurable diseases.
\nBlank cells
\nStem cells, the foundation of every organ, tissue and cell within the human body, are like blank cells that do not yet have a specific physiological function, according to Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI).
\nBut when proper conditions in the body or in the laboratory occur, stem cells develop into specialized tissues and organs, HSCI explains in its website, adding that there are two sources of stem cells used in research: the adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells.
\nAdult stem cells are found in differentiated tissues and organs throughout the body while embryonic stem cells are obtained from the inner cell mass of a blastocyst, the ball of cells formed when the fertilized egg or zygote divides and forms two cells, then again to form four and so on, HSCI said.
\nIn 2008, the Vatican issued a sweeping document on bioethical issues titled \u201cDignitas Personae\u201d or \u201cThe Dignity of the Person,\u201d taking into account recent developments in biomedical technology and reinforcing the Church\u2019s opposition to embryonic stem cell research, in vitro fertilization, human cloning and genetic testing on embryos before implantation.
\nVatican\u2019s opposition
\nThe Vatican said these techniques violate the principles that every human life\u2014even an embryo\u2014is sacred, and that babies should be conceived only through intercourse by a married couple.
\nDespite the Vatican\u2019s opposition, US President Barack Obama in 2009 lifted an eight-year restriction on scientific research involving human embryonic stem cells.
\n\u201cFor the past eight years, the authority of the Department of Health and Human Services, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to fund and conduct human embryonic stem cell research has been limited by presidential actions,\u201d an executive order released by the White House in March 2009 stated.
\n\u201cThe purpose of this order is to remove these limitations on scientific inquiry, to expand NIH support for the exploration of human stem cell research, and in so doing to enhance the contribution of America\u2019s scientists to important new discoveries and new therapies for the benefit of humankind,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n