(h/t to Wesley Smith for the title of this post – I couldn’t think of a better description) Though President Obama has overturned the Bush stem cell policy and the NIH has made 13 more stem cell lines available for federal funding, there remains in place legislative restrictions on using appropriated funds for the creation of human embryos for research … Read More
Pope Appoints ESCR/Cloning Supporter *Updated
This was not a welcome sight this morning: Pope Benedict XVI has appointed two prominent scientists to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences: Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Edward M. De Robertis, a chemical biology professor at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles. Collins was a leader … Read More
Oprah, Fox Seek Stem Cell Wisdom from the Great Oz
Ruler of the Emerald City he’s not, but on the Oprah Winfrey Show recently Dr. Mehmet Oz let Michael J. Fox know that his quest down the yellow brick road of embryonic stem cell research may lead to nowhere: Video is also available on Oprah’s website. My own thoughts: I am certainly certainly pleased to see the problems of ESCR … Read More
Obama Changes Stem Cell Policy, Talks Cloning
Yesterday President Obama did what we all knew he would do in office – overturn the Bush stem cell policy via executive order. Yuval Levin has an excellent commentary on this (h/t Paul). Cloning was also apparently on the mind of the president as he signed this new executive order as he said in his remarks yesterday morning: “we will … Read More
Why We Need to Ban Cloning – ASAP!
I’m with Rebecca on this one. I understand the importance of fighting the Freedom of Choice Act, but we’ve got to make sure we stay focused on the big picture here. Few people are really talking about (or even know) what is going on in science labs not just around the world, but right here in our own country. They … Read More
Bush Was a Stem Cell Leader
Reader (and now fellow blogger) Brian Gillin recently had an op-ed published in the Washington Times in which he thanks Pres. Bush for his help in advancing stem cell science – that’s right, advancing it: Thank you, President Bush, for not allowing science to be divorced from ethics. In 2001, you struck a balance on embryonic stem-cell research, limiting the … Read More
Obama May Not Use Executive Order on Stem Cell Funding
In a recent interview with CNN president Barack Obama indicated that he would rather rely on Congress to rescind Bush’s ESCR funding policy instead of doing it himself by presidential executive order: “Well, if we can do something legislative then I usually prefer a legislative process because those are the people’s representatives” This is good news and potentially bad news. … Read More
Ethical Stem Cell Success Stories
LIVING BANDAGES Scientists have grown what they call a “living bandage” for a common knee injury using the patient’s own stem cells and will soon begin testing it in human patients: Scientists at Bristol University have now managed to heal cartilage tissue in a laboratory with stem cells taken from a patient’s own bone marrow. They used the cells to … Read More
“Stem Cell Divide” Info
I just checked out the St. Louis International Film Festival website and saw that the blurb for “The Stem Cell Divide” (that I wrote about here) is now up: The Stem Cell Divide Barbara Shuman, Jill Mogil & Sharon Pollack, U.S., 2008, 90 min. Sunday, Nov. 16, 2 p.m., Tivoli 1 “The Stem Cell Divide” examines the controversy – in … Read More
The STL International Film Festival and “The Stem Cell Divide”
I just got word from the filmmakers that the documentary “The Stem Cell Divide,” which I was a part of, will premier at the St. Louis International Film Festival on Sunday Nov. 16th, 2 p.m., at the Tivoli 1 Theatre. The movie documents the great stem cell debate that has been raging in Missouri over the last few years. Triumph … Read More