Stem cells on trial

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Jessica Chang. Photo: Matt Lankes

The 2007 Stem Cell Symposium, which is being held at The University of Texas at Austin on April 13, was conceived in the aftermath of a high school debate gone wrong.

“The topic was stem cell research,” says Jessica Chang, now a senior biology major. “My team had done a lot of research. The other team hadn’t done any. We got up and made all of our detailed arguments, and the other team just said, ‘You’re killing babies!’ We lost unanimously.” 

For most high school students, that would have been that. Chang, however, saw a need to educate the public, and she waited for the right opportunity.

During her sophomore year at The University of Texas at Austin, she began chatting with a few of her friends about putting together an event on embryonic stem cell research. The idea grew, and over the next few semesters Chang and her friends formed a committee to plan a symposium. It wouldn’t be just about the science of the issue, they decided, but about its ethical and political ramifications as well. Most importantly, all sides of the issue would be presented, so that students would be educated rather than propagandized. 

The symposium, which is part of this year’s Dean’s Scholars Distinguished Lecture Series, will feature three debates—one on the science of stem cell research, one on the ethics, and one on the policy—and each debate will feature opposing experts and a moderator. The point, says Chang, is not victory but clarity. “We’re not trying to tell people what to think,” she says, “we just want them to be educated, to know why they’re on one side or the other.”