Teenage Leukemia Survivor Testifies Against Killing Embryos for Research, Points to Unobjectionable Alternatives.(Brief Article)

Proponents of stem cell research that would require the destruction of human embryos insist it is needed to treat otherwise incurable diseases. But 16-year-old Nathan Salley knows the truth: after receiving a transplant of stem cells from an umbilical cord--a procedure that does not require the death of another human being--he is cured.

Nathan testified before Congress in Washington, D.C., July 17 at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources. The Arvada, Colorado, teenager faced a panel of congressmen and women and calmly told them his story, urging them to vote against the killing of human embryos for medical research.

"Nathan is walking, living proof that you don't have to destroy a life to save a life," his mother Leslie told NRL News.

Nathan and his family - - mom, dad, and sister Megan - - found out he had acute myloid leukemia on March 4, 1997, when he was 11 years old. "It's the nastiest leukemia you can get," Mrs. Salley said. Nathan endured 18 months of chemotherapy and thought he had beaten the disease, only to suffer a relapse.

Since the intensive chemotherapy and radiation didn't cure his leukemia, doctors told the family that Nathan needed a bone marrow transplant to give him a new, leukemia-free blood system. No one in the family was a match, and a search of the bone marrow registry was also unsuccessful.

Doctors then suggested a cord blood transplant. A perfect match for Nathan was found in Spain, where a mother had donated her baby boy's umbilical cord after birth, Mrs. Salley explained.

But cord blood is usually used for small children because there is a limited amount of cells available in the cord. Nathan's doctors at Children's Hospital in Denver decided to use an experimental procedure where they would send some of the cells to a laboratory and treat them with vitamins and growth factors to substantially increase their number.