The Washington Post has a good news story on the possibility of “ethically acceptable” stem cell research that helps clarify the confusion created by an over-hyped story in Nature, involving business interests, a misleading press release, and a erroneous reporting of the story by Nature. But the over-hyping may be the least important aspect of this situtation for proponents of stem cell research. Firt, here is an excerpt from the Post story:

Two senators who strongly support human embryonic stem cell research lashed out yesterday at the scientist who recently reported the creation of those cells by a method that does not require the destruction of embryos, saying the scientist and his company have harmed the struggling field by overstating their results.

“It’s a big black eye if scientists are making false and inaccurate representations,” a combative Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said during a hearing of the Senate Appropriations labor, health and human services subcommittee, which he chairs. . .

Specter and [Senator Tom] Harkin [D-IA] focused on what they said was the main reason for the confusion: the company’s [ACT] news release, which said the team had derived stem cells “using an approach that does not harm embryos.”

The approach — removing single cells — may be harmless when only one cell is removed, the senators agreed. But in this case, it did harm embryos because the scientists, wanting to make the most of the few embryos donated for the work, took many cells from each.

Similarly, the release quoted [ACT scientist Robert] Lanza as saying: “We have demonstrated, for the first time, that human embryonic stem cells can be generated without interfering with the embryo’s potential for life.” . . .

Harkin said: “ACT should have made it more clear from the beginning that none of the embryos survived.” He added that he suspected the wording was intentionally misleading to raise the company’s long-suffering stock price. The stem cell field, he said, has “been hyped too much. We need to come back to Earth.”

But Ronald M. Green, a Dartmouth University ethicist who was among several who approved the experimental protocol, told the senators they were wrong to belittle the findings or the way they were reported.

“We’re speaking here of an enormous breakthrough in American medicine,” said Green, who said his only financial link to the company was the approximately $200 per day he was paid — more than a year ago — for attending a handful of meetings to review the research.

Not addressed by the senators was a plainly incorrect announcement sent to science reporters by the journal Nature itself.

“By plucking single cells from human embryos, Robert Lanza and his colleagues have been able to generate new lines of cultured human embryonic stem (ES) cells while leaving the embryos intact,” the release said.

That erroneous description — written not by scientists at Nature but by the journal’s lay staff — was corrected after news stories were published.

Nature later apologized to reporters, blaming the mistake on “internal communication problems.”

Over-hyped science? Financial ties to industry? Misrepresentation in a peer-reviewed journal? Where is the War-on-Science crowd when you need them? Oh yeah, this doesn’t involve the Bush Administration . . .

Less tongue-in-cheek, and more significantly, what has been completely overlooked here is the complete tactical blunder by ACT, Nature, and the general media in suggesting that in order to be “ethical” stem cell research should not destroy embryos. The acceptance of this point basically legitimizes the central objection to such research advanced by stem cell research opponents. It consequently takes off the table the argument that the benefits of possible medical advances might be balanced against the offense to certain groups in society. Over the long run, it may be that waging the debate over stem cells from the turf occupied by its opponents does more to limit its proponents than their ham-handed efforts to over-hype the science.

As the American Journal of Bioethics writes of this debacle on its blog:

Can’t we just be honest and say that we favor embryonic stem cell research, at least for now, since that’s what happens at ACT (and since it is true), even though the research destroys embryos?