Teenage Leukemia Survivor Testifies Against Killing Embryos for Research, Points to Unobjectionable Alternatives

By Liz Townsend

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.

Nathan told the congressional panel that he was first given three days of total body radiation and three days of intense chemotherapy before the transplant "to completely kill my own leukemia-producing marrow."

The umbilical cord arrived from Spain and 60% of the cells were given to Nathan on June 29, 1999. "The remaining cells were sent to the lab to be expanded," Nathan testified.

"I was transfused with these cells 10 days later on July 9, 1999."

This procedure worked, and Nathan's leukemia is gone.

"He now has an infant's immune system that will build up over his life," Mrs. Salley said. The new immune system is free of leukemia, and the baby boy who donated the cells is alive and healthy in Spain.

Nathan was clear about his motivation for testifying to Congress: while research is needed to treat serious diseases, tiny human beings do not have to be killed.

"Speaking as one cancer survivor who benefited from cord cell treatment," Nathan said, "it does not seem right to me to terminate living human embryos based on mere speculation that they could lead to cures--when obvious alternatives are not yet exhausted."

The cord blood cell treatment holds promise for diseases other than leukemia, Mrs. Salley said.

"Leukemia is a disease that attacks the central nervous system," she explained. "So the cure for other diseases, like Parkinson's, could potentially be treated with cord blood research as well. The same cells that are in an embryo are in an umbilical cord."

Nathan has received a lot of attention - - from TV interviews, to articles in newspapers, to a blood drive sponsored by the Colorado Rapids major league soccer team - - but his mother said he doesn't really like to be in the spotlight.

"The Lord keeps pushing him out in front, though," Mrs. Salley said. "He feels that God may have spared his life for such a time as this to help speak for the little ones who don't have a voice."