While running his mouth at a rally today Democrat vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden questioned how those who oppose embryonic stem cell research could possibly be committed to caring for the disabled: “I hear all this talk about how the Republicans are going to work in dealing with parents who have both the joy…and the difficulty of raising a child who … Read More
The Real Future of Embryonic Stem Cell Research
For the last 10 years at least we have been consistently told that embryonic stem cells are the greatest and even the only hope for cell based therapies and cures. This is what voters were promised when they approved spending billions of State dollars on cloning/ESC research in California and amended the Constitution in Missouri to protect the right of … Read More
Cloning Used to Treat Mice With Parkinsons
You might have heard that scientists in New York have used embryonic stem cells derived from cloned mouse embryos to treat mice with Parkinson’s Disease. Some things should be considered in this supposed “breakthrough” (from Wesley Smith – my commentary added): – The mice did show improvement. They were only allowed to live 11 weeks after transplant. – They note … Read More
President Bush Leads on Stem Cell Research
In his last State of the Union Address, President Bush made time to applaud advancements in ethical stem cell research and call on Congress to ban human cloning On matters of life and science, we must trust in the innovative spirit of medical researchers and empower them to discover new treatments while respecting moral boundaries. In November, we witnessed a … Read More
More Thoughts on Human Cloning News
Something caught my attention (thanks to Mary Meets Dolly) in the news about the first cloned human embryos since it ran yesterday. From the Washington Post article I linked to yesterday: Cloning involves fusing an ordinary body cell with a female’s egg cell whose DNA has been removed. Chemical factors inside the egg reprogram the body cell’s DNA so that … Read More
The Year of the Stem Cell
Yes, this year will surely go down in history as probably the most significant year for stem cell research (so far) – and it had nothing to do with creating or destroying human embryos. From Discovery News: Dec. 26, 2007 — It was the kind of breakthrough scientists had dreamed of for decades and its promise to help cure disease … Read More
Cloning Goes Bananas
Scientists have allegedly been able to clone a number of monkey embryos and even extract embryonic stem cells from some of them. What I find particularly interesting upon browsing through various news articles is that there is no shortage of the words “cloning” or “embryo” – words typically avoided when talking about the same process using human cells. I’m not … Read More
MO Cloning Ban Update
I haven’t heard much about the cloning ban lately until I got a few news alerts in my email today and yesterday. All of them come from the Pathway from the Missouri Baptist Convention: Article one: JEFFERSON CITY—The case of Cures Without Cloning (CWC) v. Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan and Missouri State Auditor Susan Montee is likely to … Read More
ESC Research and the Presidential Candidates
One of the best things I think President Bush has done during his presidency (notice I said “one of”) was to take a stand and twice veto a bill to expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Of course it doesn’t exactly excuse the fact that he was the first president to actually provide federal funding for ESC research, … Read More
Stem Cell Trials for Multiple Sclerosis Patients
Smith also found this news from the UK abut a new clinical trial in humans testing the ability of bone marrow stem cells to help treat multiple sclerosis: The procedure involves patients being injected with stem cells taken from their own bone marrow, in the hope that they will travel to damaged parts of the brain and repair them. The … Read More