Public display tells about stem cells
A kiosk at Union Station uses charts and video to explain issue that “science can’t resolve.”

By KIT WAGAR
The Star’s Jefferson City correspondent
Posted on Mon, Sep. 25, 2006

http://tinyurl.com/n5766

JIM BARCUS | THE KANSAS CITY STAR
This stem-cell exhibit at Union Station is also shown in St. Louis and Springfield. It is the first joint project of the state’s three largest science museums.

A new four-sided kiosk stands in the lobby of Union Station, offering charts, graphics and a five-minute video explaining the science behind research on early stem cells.

The kiosk sticks to the scientific view of such research and its potential for curing a wide range of diseases.

Some people oppose such research, the video tells viewers, because they consider the ball of cells from which stem cells are taken to be a human life. Others say that ball of cells is not a human life until it is implanted in a woman’s uterus.

That is an issue “science can’t resolve,” according to the video. “Each person must make up his or her mind.”

With that caveat, Union Station’s Science City has waded into a contentious debate just weeks before Missourians will vote on whether to protect stem-cell research from political interference. Ray Shubinski, director of Science City and attractions at Union Station, said the exhibit was designed to clarify stem-cell research.

“We had the feeling that there is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about stem-cell research,” Shubinski said. “We hope to get information to people so they can be better informed about what the issues are.”

Identical exhibits are on display at the St. Louis Science Center and the Discovery Center in Springfield. The exhibit is the first joint project of the state’s three largest science museums, Shubinski said. No one connected to the Nov. 7 ballot issue contributed to the exhibit, he said.

State voters will decide in November whether to adopt a constitutional amendment that would guarantee that Missouri scientists could conduct any stem-cell research allowed by federal law. The free exhibit will remain in the Union Station lobby for eight to 10 weeks, Shubinski said, after which it will become a permanent exhibit in Science City.

The exhibit refers to early — also called embryonic — stem-cell research as the new frontier in medicine. The video includes a public television report showing a rat whose hindquarters were paralyzed. After human early stem cells were coaxed into becoming nerve cells and injected into the rat, the rat regained control of its bladder and much of the use of its legs.

The video said research on the body’s regenerative cells — often called adult stem cells — had produced treatments for leukemia and lymphoma. But most scientists endorse research on both early and adult stem cells because both types of cells have different potential for treating disease, the video said.

Shubinski acknowledged that the exhibit looks at stem-cell research and its potential in a positive light. It’s simply the scientific point of view, he said.

“We’re saying, ‘This is what stem cells are all about,’ ” Shubinski said. “We’re not looking at the political, religious or cultural issues. All we’re saying is, ‘If this is available, what are the benefits?’ ”

Jaci Winship, executive director of Missourians Against Human Cloning, the ballot measure’s main opponents, said she welcomed exhibits that draw attention to the issue. But the exhibit appears to match the agenda of the proposal’s supporters, she said.

The exhibit emphasizes the potential benefits of research on early stem cells and minimizes setbacks, such as the tendency of early stem cells to grow uncontrollably and form tumors, Winship said.

The rat video is misleading, she said, because the control group of rats that did not receive stem-cell injections also regained some function. And she took issue with the exhibit’s depiction of when a human being is created.

“Science has determined when life begins — at conception,” Winship said. “The conscious decision we have to make is whether that life has value.”