Film, Panel Aimed At Stem Cell Research

Political, scientific, moral, and religious issues continue to fuel the evolving climate of the controversial debate over stem cell research.

Students and members of the Virginia Tech and Blacksburg community recently attended a screening of “Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognito,”,\ a documentary made by award winning filmmaker Maria Finitzo. The screening of the film was held at the Lyric Theatre in downtown Blacksburg. The documentary was followed by discussion by a panel of Virginia Tech faculty members and the filmmaker Finitzo.

The documentary followed Dr. Jack Kessler, a neurologist who has devoted his life to stem cell research in hopes to find a cure for a spinal cord injury that has left his daughter paralyzed. The film chronicles Dr. Kessler’s’ research and also provides background on the issue of stem cell research.

The film looks at the issue from the advocate’s side although it also addresses the opposition. “Stem cell research was such a great and controversial topic at the time that I started this film and even still is now,” filmmaker Finitzo said. “I thought it would be a great vehicle for looking at a lot of these different issues.”

Following the film, moderator Dr. Kelly Belanger introduced the panel that was assembled to discuss and answer questions from the audience regarding stem cell research. The panel included Virginia Tech faculty members William FitzPatrick, associate professor of philosophy; Bernice Hausman, English professor; Thomas Sitz, associate professor of biochemistry; Doris Zallen, professor of science and technology studies; and the filmmaker Finitzo. All offered insight and expertise from their area research and studies.

“This film definitely frames debate,” said Belanger.

The panel agreed that the film was helpful in bringing up important issues and shedding light on the topic. The main topics discussed by the panel were the science behind stem cell research, the language used by opponents and adversaries, the ethics related to the research, and where stem cell public funding falls on the political agenda. Overall the panel remained objective, looking at the issue with out taking a specific stance.

The science and technological nature of stem cell research was highlighted in the film as well as the discussion. “I think [the film] is very realistic,” associate professor of biochemistry Thomas Sitz said. “I think a lot of times science is three steps forward, one step back, sometimes one step forward two steps back.

When the topic of the use of certain language and the defining of terms came to the table, FitzPatrick chose to focus on ethics. “The language can unhelpful because there are a lot of people double talking the expression when human life begins,” said FitzPatrick. “Talking about human life starting at conception is distinctly unhelpful. It’s just a way of describing what we already know. It doesn’t help us to answer the real questions, which is about moral status the moral standing. The fact that it has the full potential to become a human being.”

The documentary noted that President Bush’s vetoing of the bill to provide federal funding to stem cell research. This was later revisited by the panel when filmmaker Finitzo reminded the audience that stem cell research is now restricted to just private funding. She emphasized how beneficial public funding and government support would be to advance the research.

At the conclusion of the discussion, panel members offered some insight into the where they felt the future of stem cell research was headed. They all seemed to agree that the road ahead is bound to be long, difficult and uncertain.

“The nature of the ethical debate looks like it may change rapidly,” said FitzPatrick referring to the recent development that uses skin cells instead of embryonic cells.

“[The film] is useful to show that this is a long hard slug,” said Zallen. “It will take a lot to convince the scientific world of its merit, let alone the medical world.”

“It’s a rapidly changing filed, the issues will come up and up and up,” said Sitz. We’ll here a lot about it in the political campaign.”

“There’s a lot of Utopian discourse,” said Hausman. “All of that is completely speculative. Right now it’s completely speculative that any of this stuff is going to work.”

There is no question this debate will continue to generate attention and discussion in all areas of society. Monday’s screening provided an incremental step in exposing the community to the issues regarding stem cell research.