NurseWeek

American Heart Association will fund stem cell research

Reuters Health
July 5, 2000


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New York. The American Heart Association has decided to allow research proposals involving stem cells to be eligible for funding as part of the association’s scientific research grant program. The AHA also announced its support for federal funding of stem cell research.

Such research has proven controversial because stem cells are taken from human embryos.

"Our mission is to reduce death and disability from cardiovascular disease and stroke, and by some estimates there are 58 million people who suffer from forms of cardiovascular disease that could be treated or cured through stem cell research," said AHA president Rose Marie Robertson, MD, of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

"As a physician who treats patients for heart disease every day, I see the importance of innovative research," Robertson said. There are patients who suffer the loss of heart muscle, and the potential to be able to replace that heart muscle would be an enormous treatment advantage, she said.

The AHA policy is aligned with the proposed National Institutes of Health guidelines and also with the recommendations of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, Robertson said.