stem cells

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Liquid Nitrogen bank containing suspension of stem cells. Cell culture for the biomedical diagnostic
Liquid Nitrogen bank containing suspension of stem cells. Cell culture for the biomedical diagnostic

Stop Human ‘Fetal Farming’ Before it Starts

The news rocked the scientific world. Mouse embryos were successfully developed half-way through the normal gestation period using artificial wombs. Scientists were ecstatic. The New York Times reported: “The mouse embryos looked perfectly normal. All their organs were developing as expected, along with their limbs and circulatory and nervous systems. Their tiny hearts were beating at a normal 170 beats per minute.” Read More ›

Why it is Crucial to have Proper Ethical Parameters Regarding Stem Cell Research

Scientists at Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) had indeed issued a press release claiming they could obtain stem cells by taking only one cell from an early 8-10 cell embryo, which, the release claimed, permitted the embryos to remain viable. (Conventional ESCR is conducted upon later-stage embryos at the 100-200 cell stage, which destroys the embryo.)  But upon closer investigation, it Read More ›

Bioethicist Blasts Media for Overhyping Embryonic Stem Cell

OAKLAND – Alleged breakthrough research on embryonic stem cell lines is being oversold by the media to fit their ideological agenda, according to an article slated for next week’s Weekly Standard by prominent bioethicist Wesley J. Smith. “The American media too often act as advocates in the embryonic stem cell debate, rather than journalists,” says Smith. “As a result, they Read More ›

Human Guinea Pigs?

IAN WILMUT, the creator of Dolly the sheep and newly appointed director of Edinburgh University’s Centre for Regenerative Medicine, wants to experiment on dying people with embryonic stem cells—even though he admits that such potential treatments “have not been properly tested.” Wilmut’s plan, which in essence would use people with terminal neurological conditions as lab rats, is the latest example Read More ›

Another Cloning “Breakthrough”

In February 2004, Woo—Suk Hwang made world headlines when he claimed to have cloned human embryos using a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer, and then to have derived a line of stem cells from the embryos that could be used for medical research. Enthusiasm for this first “successful” experiment in human cloning, published in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Science, Read More ›

Umbilical Accord

FOUR MILLION BABIES ARE BORN in this country every year, bearing gifts of inestimable value. Foremost among these, of course, is the love they bring into the world and elicit from it. More practically, however, these infants bring with them something that we are learning has great potential to alleviate human suffering: the stem cells contained in the blood of Read More ›

A Stem Cell Tale

IT NEVER FAILS. If an embryonic stem cell researcher issues a press release touting a purported research advance, the media trip over each other to give the story full dramatic fanfare. But if an even better adult or umbilical cord blood stem cell advance comes to light—even when the experiments involve humans—you can usually hear the crickets chirping.  The latest examples Read More ›

Of Stem Cells and Fairy Tales

“PEOPLE NEED A FAIRY TALE,” Ronald D.G. McKay, a stem cell researcher at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, told Washington Post reporter Rick Weiss, explaining why scientists have allowed society to believe wrongly that stem cells are likely to effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease. “Maybe that’s unfair, but they need a story line that’s relatively simple to understand.” Read More ›

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Stem cell research for the treatment of cancer
Licensed from Adobe Stock

Michael Kinsley Out on a Limb

The Clinton Administration recently issued a new set of rules permitting federally funded research on embryonic stem cells. The guidelines were hailed in many quarters as a victory for “science.” But what kind of science? Astonishingly, some supporters are offering arguments that echo the ideas of the racist scientists who paved the way for the Third Reich. The medical value Read More ›