Ext. Ryans home Music 00:00
Michelle: Its time for school today 00:09
Michelle wakes children and administers insulin
BOWMAN: This is how every day begins for the Ryan family in Washington D.C. 00:12
Michelle: You get to put a sticker on your sticker chart today. Can I see your finger? You sleepy this morning? 00:18
BOWMAN: Duncan Ryan is four years old. He was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes when he could barely talk. 00:25
Michelle: Youre good, too. Youre 118 this morning. Thats a good way to start off. 00:32
BOWMAN: His sister Caitlin is 6. She is also a diabetic. 00:40
Caitlin: Ow! 00:51
BOWMAN: Every minute of the day is a struggle to control their seesawing blood sugar levels. 00:52
Michelle: Duncan still cries. Pretty much every morning he cries. He says I dont want it, I dont want it. There is just nothing worse; one of my fears when he was 00:28
Michelle Ryan diagnosed was I am going to be pricking and injecting, poking this little boy, he is going to grow up hating me. 01:06
Greg administers insulin to Duncan
Duncan: That didnt hurt. Tim: That didnt hurt at all 01:14
Greg: We know medical research takes a long time to provide results and thats why we need to start now we cant delay, because if we want results to come in five or 10 or 15 or 20 years weve got to start now. 01:19
Vest family
BOWMAN: In another part of the country, a family with a very different perspective. 01:34
Cara: You know I dont believe that any embryo should be destroyed for research. Thats my personal belief. I just -- because I believe that life begins at conception. 01:43
Home video. Cara with baby
BOWMAN: For years, this is what Greg and Cara Vest had been praying for. They now have two healthy children, but Jonah and Ellie Vest might never have made the journey from test tube to the real world. 01:55
Cara: Were against embryonic stem cell research I just dont believe you should take a life to save a life. That is just our belief. And a lot of it comes from the fact that I have two, two children that you know came from 02:16
Greg: We see the end result of embryos, frozen embryos. 02:26
Vest and Ryan children
BOWMAN: These two families illustrate the polarized views in a debate that is a complex mix of science, ethics and politics. A jumble of claims and counterclaims and high emotions. 02:30
Music 02:44
In vitro program footage
BOWMAN: There are an estimated 400,000 embryos left over from in-vitro fertilisation programs stored in liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees Celsius in laboratories across the US. Some will be discarded; a small number have been passed on to infertile couples; others will be donated for research. Many scientists believe stem cells derived from these embryos have the potential to provide cures for a range of chronic diseases, by replacing the bodys damaged cells. 02:52
Shamblott: The types of diseases that we really feel that we can someday have some impact on, for instance type-one diabetes. I think that embryonic stem cells and maybe even adult stem cells have a real role in a disease like that. Some of the other diseases would be Parkinsons disease and spinal cord injury, heart injury. 03:35
Shamblott in lab
BOWMAN: Dr Michael Shamblott at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is using embryonic stem cells to hunt for a cure for diabetes. He says these cells have characteristics not found in adult stem cells. 03:44
Shamblott: What adult cells seem to lack is the extreme flexibility that embryonic stem cells have and thats what makes embryonic stem cells special. That is, we know in the mouse and we know in humans that embryonic stem cells have this property of becoming many if not all of the different cells of the body and they do so readily. 04:04
David Prentice in office
BOWMAN: Thats just one of the claims disputed by critics of the research, like Dr David Prentice from the Christian lobbying organisation the Family Research Council.
Prentice: Embryonic stem cell research in a sense is a scientific fad, at this point. It is the current one, its caught the publics imagination as well, again, because of some misleading promises put out. 04:29
BOWMAN: David Prentice is described by his critics as the right wings most valuable anti-science scientist. 04:42
In vitro lab
He says embryonic stem cell research is wrong from a moral and scientific point of view.Prentice: In this debate you hear lots of claims and promises of hopes laid out. But when you look at the actual published science, the adult stem cells are the ones that are treating patients now, and really showing promise. The embryonic stem cells, the promise is tenuous at best. 05:09
Wisconsin festival
BOWMAN: Autumn has arrived in Wisconsin in Americas mid west. 05:22
Music 05:26
BOWMAN: Its the season of harvest festivals and street fairs. 05:36
Music 05:40
Uni of Wisconsin
BOWMAN: It was here in the university town of Madison that the stem cell revolution began. In 1998 scientists first isolated and grew human embryonic stem cells.Cezar: Stem cell research should not be a religious issue it should not be a political issue, stem cell research is an issue of human health and access to medicine and changing the way we think about medicine. 06:04
Cezar in lab
BOWMAN: Dr Gabriela Cezar is one of the 120 scientists on this campus conducting embryonic stem cell research. She has a ready response to the ethical issues driving this debate. 06:22
Cezar: A fertilized frozen egg as is cannot turn into a human life in the absence of being transferred into a woman, so while I certainly recognise the potential for life I also think that it is a higher and more sound moral decision to use these discarded fertilised eggs for research and perhaps benefit millions within the, within the future. 06:46
Doyle election campaign
BOWMAN: The debate has spilled from the laboratories onto the streets in campaigns across the United States in the lead-up to the November mid-term elections. Not surprisingly, its at the top of the agenda in Wisconsin. 07:11
Democrat Governor Jim Doyle is pressing the flesh with fans heading to the local college football game. Hes running hard in support of stem cell research. 07:29
Doyle. Super: Governor Jim Doyle Democrat, Wisconsin
Doyle: In Wisconsin its a particularly big issue because this is where it started and this is the home of the most extensive stem cell research going on anywhere in the United States. 07:41
BOWMAN: The governors Republican opponent Mark Green, is against the research. 07:50
Super: Congressman Mark Green Republican Candidate for Governor
Green: I dont support spending tax-payer dollars on research that destroys human living human embryos. 07:55
TV Debate
TV Host: present a state-wide debate between the leading candidates for Wisconsin governor. 08:03
BOWMAN: Today weve come along to watch the third televised debate between the two candidates. 08:07
TV Host: Lets talk about stem cell research now 08:12
BOWMAN: Once again, the controversial issue is raised. 08:14
Green: Youre right there are some honest differences between governor Doyle and I, I dont support human cloning, he does. Its an honest difference. 08:18
Doyle: My mother died recently after 30 years of Parkinsons. To me its unthinkable that we would shut down the research that might find the cure for that illness. 08:25
Congress building
BOWMAN: But those who support the research say thats exactly what the president is trying to do. Earlier this year, the US congress voted to increase federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Then George W Bush used the first veto of his presidency to block the legislation. 08:37
File footage. Super: July 30, 2006
President Bush: These boys and girls are not spare parts. They remind us 08:55
Snowflake children in audience
BOWMAN: To press his argument the president invited a special group of children to join his veto announcement. Dubbed snowflake children, each frozen and unique, they were once surplus embryos from IVF programs, donated to infertile couples. 09:01
President Bush: This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others. It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect, so I vetoed it. 09:18
Cara in audience
BOWMAN: Cara Vest was there with her two snowflake children. 09:35
Cara: I just want people to understand that these children deserve chances, these embryos deserve chances just like ours were given that chance by their genetic families. 09:43
Lab
BOWMAN: Down the track if scientists have come up with some sort of cure for a condition that might affect a loved one of yours -- that came through embryonic stem cell research, would you use that cure?
Cara: No I wouldnt. I just think thats playing God. I think the Lord above has given us all you know a wonderful time here on this earth and none of us know how long we are going to be here, and you know, I, you know just dont think it is our choice to take a life to save another life. 10:08
Zara plays
BOWMAN: 4 year old Zara Johnson is also a snowflake child. But her parents have more than just their daughter to consider in this debate. 10:28
Steve Johnson is a paraplegic. 10:40
Steve, you are in an interesting position here to see both sides of the debate in a sense, because if embryonic stem cell research comes up with some cures, you could benefit. 10:49
Steve: But ultimately you are destroying embryos, and one of those frozen embryos became my daughter and so is it okay for me to have an incremental benefit in my life, that were going to kill what could become someone elses son or daughter. 10:55
Michelle and Tim
Michelle: What could be wrong with letting those that arent going to be adopted, that are going to be discarded, let those be used for research? 11:17
Ryan family
BOWMAN: Tim and Michelle Ryan had just celebrated their first wedding anniversary when he was diagnosed with type one diabetes.
Tim: Theres a lot of really bad things that can happen to you from heart attacks, strokes, liver failure, types of cancers, blindness, losing a limb, these kinds of things . 11:40
Tim tests Duncans insulin
BOWMAN: The Ryans knew there was a chance their children might inherit the condition. But they didnt expect them to be diagnosed at the ages of two and four.
Michelle: We would so love to have a cure in their lifetime. I mean it is a hard thing when the three people you love the most in the world all have this disease and you would do just anything to bring them that much closer to a cure. 12:03
CU Microscope
BOWMAN: What do you say to the people opposed to the research?
Tim: Well I really wish they could put themselves in our, particularly Michelles shoes for a day and see that this would be an incredible pro-life gesture. 12:24
Steve and Wife
Steves Wife: We all want a cure. 12:29
Steve: We all want a cure, and we want a cure now, or at least soon. 12:32
Steves Wife: What we dont want to do is to spend our tax dollars that can be used for adult stem cell research now that is working -- to kill lives. 12:35
Cezar in lab
BOWMAN: The counter argument of course is that embryonic stem cells are more scientifically flexible than adult cells and thus have greater potential to produce a range of cures. 12:48
Music 12:59
BOWMAN: Scientists say the Bush ban on federal funding is limiting the research. But with so much at stake, the debate in the United States, as in Australia, is far from over. 13:03
Credits:
Reporter: Tracy Bowden
Camera: Tim Bates
Editor: Woody Landay
Research: Janet Silver 13:16
Michelle: Its time for school today 00:09
Michelle wakes children and administers insulin
BOWMAN: This is how every day begins for the Ryan family in Washington D.C. 00:12
Michelle: You get to put a sticker on your sticker chart today. Can I see your finger? You sleepy this morning? 00:18
BOWMAN: Duncan Ryan is four years old. He was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes when he could barely talk. 00:25
Michelle: Youre good, too. Youre 118 this morning. Thats a good way to start off. 00:32
BOWMAN: His sister Caitlin is 6. She is also a diabetic. 00:40
Caitlin: Ow! 00:51
BOWMAN: Every minute of the day is a struggle to control their seesawing blood sugar levels. 00:52
Michelle: Duncan still cries. Pretty much every morning he cries. He says I dont want it, I dont want it. There is just nothing worse; one of my fears when he was 00:28
Michelle Ryan diagnosed was I am going to be pricking and injecting, poking this little boy, he is going to grow up hating me. 01:06
Greg administers insulin to Duncan
Duncan: That didnt hurt. Tim: That didnt hurt at all 01:14
Greg: We know medical research takes a long time to provide results and thats why we need to start now we cant delay, because if we want results to come in five or 10 or 15 or 20 years weve got to start now. 01:19
Vest family
BOWMAN: In another part of the country, a family with a very different perspective. 01:34
Cara: You know I dont believe that any embryo should be destroyed for research. Thats my personal belief. I just -- because I believe that life begins at conception. 01:43
Home video. Cara with baby
BOWMAN: For years, this is what Greg and Cara Vest had been praying for. They now have two healthy children, but Jonah and Ellie Vest might never have made the journey from test tube to the real world. 01:55
Cara: Were against embryonic stem cell research I just dont believe you should take a life to save a life. That is just our belief. And a lot of it comes from the fact that I have two, two children that you know came from 02:16
Greg: We see the end result of embryos, frozen embryos. 02:26
Vest and Ryan children
BOWMAN: These two families illustrate the polarized views in a debate that is a complex mix of science, ethics and politics. A jumble of claims and counterclaims and high emotions. 02:30
Music 02:44
In vitro program footage
BOWMAN: There are an estimated 400,000 embryos left over from in-vitro fertilisation programs stored in liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees Celsius in laboratories across the US. Some will be discarded; a small number have been passed on to infertile couples; others will be donated for research. Many scientists believe stem cells derived from these embryos have the potential to provide cures for a range of chronic diseases, by replacing the bodys damaged cells. 02:52
Shamblott: The types of diseases that we really feel that we can someday have some impact on, for instance type-one diabetes. I think that embryonic stem cells and maybe even adult stem cells have a real role in a disease like that. Some of the other diseases would be Parkinsons disease and spinal cord injury, heart injury. 03:35
Shamblott in lab
BOWMAN: Dr Michael Shamblott at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is using embryonic stem cells to hunt for a cure for diabetes. He says these cells have characteristics not found in adult stem cells. 03:44
Shamblott: What adult cells seem to lack is the extreme flexibility that embryonic stem cells have and thats what makes embryonic stem cells special. That is, we know in the mouse and we know in humans that embryonic stem cells have this property of becoming many if not all of the different cells of the body and they do so readily. 04:04
David Prentice in office
BOWMAN: Thats just one of the claims disputed by critics of the research, like Dr David Prentice from the Christian lobbying organisation the Family Research Council.
Prentice: Embryonic stem cell research in a sense is a scientific fad, at this point. It is the current one, its caught the publics imagination as well, again, because of some misleading promises put out. 04:29
BOWMAN: David Prentice is described by his critics as the right wings most valuable anti-science scientist. 04:42
In vitro lab
He says embryonic stem cell research is wrong from a moral and scientific point of view.Prentice: In this debate you hear lots of claims and promises of hopes laid out. But when you look at the actual published science, the adult stem cells are the ones that are treating patients now, and really showing promise. The embryonic stem cells, the promise is tenuous at best. 05:09
Wisconsin festival
BOWMAN: Autumn has arrived in Wisconsin in Americas mid west. 05:22
Music 05:26
BOWMAN: Its the season of harvest festivals and street fairs. 05:36
Music 05:40
Uni of Wisconsin
BOWMAN: It was here in the university town of Madison that the stem cell revolution began. In 1998 scientists first isolated and grew human embryonic stem cells.Cezar: Stem cell research should not be a religious issue it should not be a political issue, stem cell research is an issue of human health and access to medicine and changing the way we think about medicine. 06:04
Cezar in lab
BOWMAN: Dr Gabriela Cezar is one of the 120 scientists on this campus conducting embryonic stem cell research. She has a ready response to the ethical issues driving this debate. 06:22
Cezar: A fertilized frozen egg as is cannot turn into a human life in the absence of being transferred into a woman, so while I certainly recognise the potential for life I also think that it is a higher and more sound moral decision to use these discarded fertilised eggs for research and perhaps benefit millions within the, within the future. 06:46
Doyle election campaign
BOWMAN: The debate has spilled from the laboratories onto the streets in campaigns across the United States in the lead-up to the November mid-term elections. Not surprisingly, its at the top of the agenda in Wisconsin. 07:11
Democrat Governor Jim Doyle is pressing the flesh with fans heading to the local college football game. Hes running hard in support of stem cell research. 07:29
Doyle. Super: Governor Jim Doyle Democrat, Wisconsin
Doyle: In Wisconsin its a particularly big issue because this is where it started and this is the home of the most extensive stem cell research going on anywhere in the United States. 07:41
BOWMAN: The governors Republican opponent Mark Green, is against the research. 07:50
Super: Congressman Mark Green Republican Candidate for Governor
Green: I dont support spending tax-payer dollars on research that destroys human living human embryos. 07:55
TV Debate
TV Host: present a state-wide debate between the leading candidates for Wisconsin governor. 08:03
BOWMAN: Today weve come along to watch the third televised debate between the two candidates. 08:07
TV Host: Lets talk about stem cell research now 08:12
BOWMAN: Once again, the controversial issue is raised. 08:14
Green: Youre right there are some honest differences between governor Doyle and I, I dont support human cloning, he does. Its an honest difference. 08:18
Doyle: My mother died recently after 30 years of Parkinsons. To me its unthinkable that we would shut down the research that might find the cure for that illness. 08:25
Congress building
BOWMAN: But those who support the research say thats exactly what the president is trying to do. Earlier this year, the US congress voted to increase federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Then George W Bush used the first veto of his presidency to block the legislation. 08:37
File footage. Super: July 30, 2006
President Bush: These boys and girls are not spare parts. They remind us 08:55
Snowflake children in audience
BOWMAN: To press his argument the president invited a special group of children to join his veto announcement. Dubbed snowflake children, each frozen and unique, they were once surplus embryos from IVF programs, donated to infertile couples. 09:01
President Bush: This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others. It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect, so I vetoed it. 09:18
Cara in audience
BOWMAN: Cara Vest was there with her two snowflake children. 09:35
Cara: I just want people to understand that these children deserve chances, these embryos deserve chances just like ours were given that chance by their genetic families. 09:43
Lab
BOWMAN: Down the track if scientists have come up with some sort of cure for a condition that might affect a loved one of yours -- that came through embryonic stem cell research, would you use that cure?
Cara: No I wouldnt. I just think thats playing God. I think the Lord above has given us all you know a wonderful time here on this earth and none of us know how long we are going to be here, and you know, I, you know just dont think it is our choice to take a life to save another life. 10:08
Zara plays
BOWMAN: 4 year old Zara Johnson is also a snowflake child. But her parents have more than just their daughter to consider in this debate. 10:28
Steve Johnson is a paraplegic. 10:40
Steve, you are in an interesting position here to see both sides of the debate in a sense, because if embryonic stem cell research comes up with some cures, you could benefit. 10:49
Steve: But ultimately you are destroying embryos, and one of those frozen embryos became my daughter and so is it okay for me to have an incremental benefit in my life, that were going to kill what could become someone elses son or daughter. 10:55
Michelle and Tim
Michelle: What could be wrong with letting those that arent going to be adopted, that are going to be discarded, let those be used for research? 11:17
Ryan family
BOWMAN: Tim and Michelle Ryan had just celebrated their first wedding anniversary when he was diagnosed with type one diabetes.
Tim: Theres a lot of really bad things that can happen to you from heart attacks, strokes, liver failure, types of cancers, blindness, losing a limb, these kinds of things . 11:40
Tim tests Duncans insulin
BOWMAN: The Ryans knew there was a chance their children might inherit the condition. But they didnt expect them to be diagnosed at the ages of two and four.
Michelle: We would so love to have a cure in their lifetime. I mean it is a hard thing when the three people you love the most in the world all have this disease and you would do just anything to bring them that much closer to a cure. 12:03
CU Microscope
BOWMAN: What do you say to the people opposed to the research?
Tim: Well I really wish they could put themselves in our, particularly Michelles shoes for a day and see that this would be an incredible pro-life gesture. 12:24
Steve and Wife
Steves Wife: We all want a cure. 12:29
Steve: We all want a cure, and we want a cure now, or at least soon. 12:32
Steves Wife: What we dont want to do is to spend our tax dollars that can be used for adult stem cell research now that is working -- to kill lives. 12:35
Cezar in lab
BOWMAN: The counter argument of course is that embryonic stem cells are more scientifically flexible than adult cells and thus have greater potential to produce a range of cures. 12:48
Music 12:59
BOWMAN: Scientists say the Bush ban on federal funding is limiting the research. But with so much at stake, the debate in the United States, as in Australia, is far from over. 13:03
Credits:
Reporter: Tracy Bowden
Camera: Tim Bates
Editor: Woody Landay
Research: Janet Silver 13:16