I note that Federal District Judge Royce Lamberth’s ruling stopping all federal funding of embryonic-stem-cell research as against federal law (the Dickey-Wicker Amendment) has been reversed in a 2–1 appeals-court verdict. Given the extreme political correctness of federal funding — and the courts’ general tendency to follow the views of the liberal establishment in these matters — it is both surprising and Read More ›
An enduring liberal myth, that of the Republican “war on science,” got a subtle rebuke this week when the first and only patient to receive FDA-approved embryonic-stem-cell therapy publicly revealed his identity. Timothy J. Atchison, a 21-year-old nursing student, had been partially paralyzed in a car crash. Six months ago, scientists at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta sought to test on Read More ›
Hubris: No better word describes the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine’s plan to persuade Californians to borrow another $3 billion to keep it in business funding stem cell research. The CIRM was created in 2004 in the wake of President George W. Bush’s order restricting federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Knowing that many Californians perceived themselves as “the Read More ›
I am not sure why the media so clearly cares more about embryonic-stem-cell research than the ethically uncontentious kinds, such as adult-stem-cell research and the advances with induced pluripotent stem cells. But the headlines usually attached to ESCR advances — as opposed to more notable successes with adult stem cells, which often get no headlines at all — prove the Read More ›
From the moment President George W. Bush imposed federal funding restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, Big Biotech, patient advocacy groups, celebrities and the media have been obsessed with eviscerating the policy. Indeed, although the Bush administration funded about $175 million in grants for human embryonic stem cell research, and despite the literally billions poured into the field from public Read More ›
President Obama has often claimed that his administration will pursue policies designed to breach the cultural and political divides that rend our country. He has also promised to bring “transparency” to the principal actions of his administration. Unfortunately, the president violated both of these assurances in his recent executive order on embryonic stem-cell funding. The mainstream media—still obsessed with discrediting Read More ›
Seattle – Scientists have announced that they successfully reprogrammed adult cells back to an embryonic-like state, opening the possibility of patient-specific medical treatments and research without the need to clone human life. Wesley J. Smith, the Discovery Institute’s Senior Fellow in Bioethics and author of Consumer’s Guide to a Brave New World, hailed the breakthrough as demonstrating that ethical science Read More ›
Senators Dianne Feinstein and Orin Hatch have just introduced Senate Bill 812, which explicitly legalizes human cloning and—since a shortage of human eggs is currently impeding human cloning research (one egg is needed for each attempt at cloning)—the bill also authorizes researchers to pay women to undergo egg procurement. And if the purpose of the legislation wasn’t bad enough, there’s Read More ›
This article, published by Investor’s Business Daily, quotes Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Wesley J. Smith: “A story that doesn’t validate the stem cell mantra that embryonic stem cells offer the ‘best hope’ for future cures isn’t worth much attention,” writes leading bioethics critic Wesley Smith in the Weekly Standard. The rest of the article can be found here.
DID YOU SEE THE SIZE OF THOSE HEADLINES? “Stem Cells Used to Create Artificial Liver,” the New York Times screamed on its front page. “Breakthrough! Stem Cells to One Day Create Organ for Liver Transplant,” was how the Washington Post put it. “Stem Cell Breakthrough Demonstrates Viability of New Science,” yelled the Los Angeles Times. “Stem Cell Hope for People Read More ›