Lisa and Jack Nash: Stem cells have potential to save lives

Lisa and Jack Nash

Lisa and Jack Nash are the parents of Molly Nash, who has chronic anemia. Doctors told the Nashes that Molly's best chance for survival was for them to have another child to provide a bone marrow transplant for Molly.

CNN's Darryn Kagan spoke to the Nashes Friday morning in Denver, Colorado.

KAGAN: First of all, give us an update on the kids. How are they doing?

LISA NASH: Molly is doing fabulous. She is almost 11 months post-transplant. She is getting ready to go to school. She is full of life, full of energy, and a handful that she's never been before.

(LAUGHTER)

KAGAN: Watch out what you wish for, huh?

LISA NASH: Yep.

KAGAN: And the baby? How's the baby?

LISA NASH: The baby is fabulous. He's almost ready to walk and he chances after Molly and he is -- we have two miracles.

KAGAN: Surprising that you even had time to come and sit down and talk with us this morning. Did you watch the president's discussion last night, and what did you think?

LISA NASH: We both watched it last night and I have to say that I am very happy with his decision. I am cautiously optimistic about his decision. I think this was the first step in what needs to be future progress of stem cell research. These 60 cell lines will give some beginning insight in what stem cells can do and what their potential is in saving lives, whether it's for Parkinson's or for diabetes or for any of the other of the myriad of diseases that might -- and not even diseases, spinal cord injuries -- that might benefit from stem cell research.

KAGAN: Jack, for those of us who are not as familiar with your story as others are, tell us about the decision you had to make with Molly and the decision to have another child, and really being on the front lines of embryonic research, and the ethical decision that you and Lisa had to make.

JACK NASH: For us, we knew that to have a stem cell transplant increased Molly's odds of survival after the transplant almost three times the chance for survival after the transplant.

KAGAN: So you used the in vitro and you had the embryos tested ahead of time to see who would be a good match for Molly, is that right?

JACK NASH: That is correct.

KAGAN: And did you and Lisa have to sit down ahead of time and decide, well, what happens if we make these embryos and none of them are a match?

JACK NASH: No, not for us, because we knew that even if they weren't a match, we were still going to use them, which we are going to use them afterwards.

KAGAN: So you would have had the baby anyway.

JACK NASH: Absolutely, we would have.

KAGAN: Even if it wasn't a match. Now, critics of stem cell research and embryonic research might say, Nashes, come on. If anybody could understand, you must understand, because look at that beautiful baby boy you have. He started as a clump of cells in a petri dish. How could you just look at that as a science experiment, some people might say?

LISA NASH: I beg to differ with them. Adam was a clump of cells in a petri dish that, beyond day five, could not have not lived had he not been put into me, into my womb to live. These embryos that are going to be are destroyed that are frozen for any length of time and then are eventually going to be destroyed are not life. They are not life until they are inside the mother's womb and they have developed. There's not a heartbeat until 21 days. There's not brain waves until even after the 21days.

So Adam, had he not been transferred into my womb, would not have lived. These embryos aren't living, they're not capable of living. They're not capable of taking care of themselves inside the petri dish. They need to be put into a womb, and after day five if they're not transferred or frozen, they die. And "die" isn't even a good word. They start degenerating, is a better word.

KAGAN: I just wonder, on a personal note, if just have to shake your head sometimes at the ethicists, at the political spinners, at all of us who are out here who have no idea what it's really like to look at this and say, wait until you walk in our shoes before you really have to make a decision and decide how you feel about this.

LISA NASH: If you're watching your child die for six years and know that any of the future children you could have could potentially have this disease and also walk the path of death, then after people have sat back and stood in our shoes and thought being faced with what we're faced with, is it ethical to bring another child in the world to suffer the way that Molly did suffer? And is it ethical, when this technology is available, not to use it?