Embryonic Stem Cells
5/13/2008 | Embryonic Stem Cells, Pro-Family
Genetically modified human embryo stirs criticism
My Way News
NEW YORK (AP) - News that scientists have for the first time genetically altered a human embryo is drawing fire from some watchdog groups that say it's a step toward creating "designer babies." But an author of the study says the work was focused on stem cells. He notes that the researchers used an abnormal embryo that could never have developed into a baby anyway. "None of us wants to make designer babies," said Dr. Zev Rosenwaks, director of the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The idea of designer babies is that someday, scientists may insert particular genes into embryos to produce babies with desired traits like intelligence or athletic ability. Some people find that notion repugnant, saying it turns children into designed objects, and would create an unequal society where some people are genetically enriched while others would be considered inferior.
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2/1/2008 | Abortion, Embryonic Stem Cells, Medical Ethics, Pro-Family
Pope says some science shatters human dignity
Reuters
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict said on Thursday that embryonic stem cell research, artificial insemination and the prospect of human cloning had "shattered" human dignity. In an address to members of the Vatican department on doctrinal matters, Benedict said the Church had a duty to defend the "great values at stake" in the field of bioethics. The speech was the latest in a series in which the conservative Pope has told his listeners that scientific progress should not be accepted uncritically. Benedict, who headed the same department for years before his election in 2005, said the Church was not against scientific progress but wanted it based on "ethical-moral principles". He said this included total respect for the human being as a person "from conception until natural death," and respect for the natural transmission of life through sexual intercourse. Practices like freezing embryos, suppression of embryos in multiple pregnancies, embryonic stem cell research, the prospect of human cloning and artificial insemination outside the body had "shattered the barriers meant to protect human dignity", he said. "When human beings in the weakest and most defenseless state of their existence are selected, abandoned, killed or used as pure 'biological material,' how can one deny that they are being treated not as 'someone' but as 'something,'" he said.
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1/18/2008 | Embryonic Stem Cells, Pro-Family, Medical Ethics
Animal-human embryo research is approved
Times Online
Experiments to create Britain’s first embryos that combine human and animal material will begin within months after a government watchdog gave its approval yesterday to two research teams to carry out the controversial work. Scientists at King’s College London, and the University of Newcastle will inject human DNA into empty eggs from cows to create embryos known as cytoplasmic hybrids, which are 99.9 per cent human in genetic terms. The experiments are intended to provide insights into diseases such as Parkinson’s and spinal muscular atrophy by producing stem cells containing genetic defects that contribute to these conditions. These will be used as cell models for investigating new approaches to treatment, and to improve the understanding of how embryonic stem cells develop. They will not be used in therapy, and it is illegal to implant them into the womb.
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12/17/2007 | Abortion, Embryonic Stem Cells
Designer baby fear over heart gene test
The Times Online
A British couple have won the right to test embryos for a gene that leads to high cholesterol levels and an increased risk of heart attacks, The Times has learnt. The decision by the fertility watchdog will reopen controversy over the ethics of designer babies, as it allows doctors to screen embryos for a condition that is treatable with drugs and can be influenced by lifestyle as well as genes. While the procedure is designed to detect a rare version of a disease called familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), which often kills children before puberty, it will also identify a milder form that can be controlled by drugs and diet. Critics argue that the test will allow couples to destroy embryos that would have had a good chance of becoming children with fulfilling and reasonably healthy lives.
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11/12/2007 | Abortion, Embryonic Stem Cells, Foreign Policy, Pro-Family
World should ban human cloning, except medical: U.N.
Reuters
OSLO (Reuters) - The world should quickly ban cloning of humans and only allow exceptions for strictly controlled research to help treat diseases such as diabetes or Alzheimer's, a U.N. study said on Sunday. Without a ban, experts at the U.N. University's Institute of Advanced Studies said that governments would have to prepare legal measures to protect clones from "potential abuse, prejudice and discrimination". "A legally-binding global ban on work to create a human clone, coupled with freedom for nations to permit strictly controlled therapeutic research, has the greatest political viability of options available," the study said. "Whichever path the international community chooses it will have to act soon -- either to prevent reproductive cloning or to defend the human rights of cloned individuals," said A.H. Zakri, head of the Institute, which is based in Yokohama,
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10/4/2007 | Embryonic Stem Cells
Clinton Would Fund Stem Cell Research
ABC News
If elected president, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton says she would sign an executive order rescinding President Bush's restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. She says she also would bar political appointees from altering or removing scientific conclusions from government research without a legitimate reason for doing so. The New York senator was to announce these and other proposals of her science agenda in a speech in Washington on Thursday. The address to the Carnegie Institution for Science was timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Sputnik satellite by the Soviet Union. The launch, which caught U.S. scientists by surprise, helped start the U.S.-Soviet space race and led to the creation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "For six and half years under this president, it's been open season on open inquiry," Clinton said in remarks prepared for delivery. "By ignoring or manipulating science, the Bush administration is letting our economic competitors get an edge in the global economy. I believe we have to change course, and I know America is ready."
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7/25/2007 | Embryonic Stem Cells
A Victory for Ethical Stem Cell Research
CR Daily
http://www.thecronline.com/news_article.php?nid=2816&ndate=25/07/2007
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7/24/2007 | Embryonic Stem Cells
China claims a first with cloned rabbit
Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSHKG23359420070724?feedType=RSS&rpc=22&sp=true
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6/28/2007 | Embryonic Stem Cells
Scientists: We Can Make Embryonic Stem Cells From Women's Eggs
FoxNews.com
NEW YORK — Scientists say they've created embryonic stem cells by stimulating unfertilized eggs, a significant step toward producing transplant tissue that's genetically matched to women. The advance suggests that someday, a woman who wants a transplant to treat a condition like diabetes or a spinal cord injury could provide eggs to a lab, which in turn could create tissue that her body wouldn't reject. Ethicists disagreed on whether the strategy would avoid the long-standing ethical objections to creating embryonic stem cells by other means. Such cells can develop into virtually any tissue of the body, and scientists hope to harness them for producing specialized tissues like nerve cells or pancreas cells to treat a range of illnesses. But the process of harvesting the stem cells destroys embryos, which many people oppose.
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6/21/2007 | Embryonic Stem Cells
N.J. research could gain from Bush's veto
North New Jersey
President Bush's veto Wednesday of a bill that would have eased restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research did little to blunt New Jersey's commitment to supporting the controversial science. Instead, it provided more encouragement to state officials. "To all the researchers out there that are frustrated by the president's inaction, I say: 'Welcome to New Jersey,' " said Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-Essex, a leading advocate on the issue.
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6/20/2007 | Embryonic Stem Cells
Bush Plans to Veto Embryonic Stem Cell Bill...
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush has chosen to use his veto pen three times - twice on the stem cell issue where politics, ethics and science collide. Pushing back against the Democratic-led Congress, Bush plans to veto a bill Wednesday that would have eased restraints on federally funded embryonic stem cell research, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. At the same time, Bush will issue an executive order directing the Health and Human Services Department to promote research into cells that, like human embryonic stem cells, also hold the potential of regenerating into different types of cells that might be used to battle disease. Democrats made the stem cell legislation Bush promised to veto a top priority when they took control of the House and Senate in January. They do not, however, have enough votes to override a veto.
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6/20/2007 | Embryonic Stem Cells, Equal Rights
Scientists move closer to human therapeutic cloning
Reuters
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Human therapeutic cloning has moved a step closer after U.S. researchers said they had successfully created embryonic stem cells from monkey embryos. In what would be a world-first breakthrough, scientists told a stem cell research conference in the Australian city of Cairns this week that they had successfully created two batches of embryonic stem cells from cloned rhesus monkey embryos.
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6/11/2007 | Embryonic Stem Cells
GOP lawmakers: 'Immoral' to make Americans pay for embryonic stem-cell research
One News Now
A pro-life congressman from Indiana accuses Democrats of wrongly framing the debate over federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research. At the same time, some of his Republican colleagues are touting what they believe are ethical alternatives to ESCR. Democrats have sent President Bush a bill that would expand federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research. The President is expected to veto the bill a second time, and House Republicans say they have the votes to uphold the veto.
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6/8/2007 | Embryonic Stem Cells
Congress Votes To Ease Embryonic Stem Cell Funding
CBS News
(CBS/AP) The Democratic-controlled Congress passed legislation Thursday to loosen restraints on federally funded embryonic stem cell research, but the bill's supporters lacked the votes needed to override President Bush's threatened veto. The 247-176 House vote marked the second time in recent weeks that Democratic leaders chose to confront Bush over an issue on which they command widespread public support, following a veto struggle over a proposed troop withdrawal timetable from Iraq.
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6/7/2007 | Embryonic Stem Cells
New Stem Cell Breakthrough Avoids Destroying Human Embryos
ABC News
Stem cell researchers may have taken the first steps toward conducting stem cell research without having to take the controversial step of destroying human embryos. If the results can be replicated in human cells, the development could one day silence the arguments of those opposed to embryonic stem cell research on the basis that it violates the sanctity of human life.
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5/31/2007 | Embryonic Stem Cells
Banking on Stem Cells
Time
A San Francisco company announced Tuesday that they would be the first to offer IVF patients the option of growing, freezing and banking their own embryonic stem cells. Until now, couples undergoing in vitro fertilization could not earmark stem cells derived from their embryos for their own future use; they could only donate them to the nationwide pool of embryos used for stem cell research.
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5/22/2007 | Embryonic Stem Cells
Stem cells used to treat incontinence
USA Today
Doctors on Monday described a new way to treat urinary incontinence, an increasingly common problem that afflicts up to half of older women. Instead of traditional surgery, scientists are exploring tissue engineering — using patients' own stem cells to grow cells or tissue that is transplanted back into their bodies. Experts say they've made impressive progress recently. Last year, doctors in The Lancet described engineering bladders for spina bifida patients.
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4/19/2007 | Embryonic Stem Cells
Stem Cells Set To Stamp-Out Infertility
ABC News
LONDON, Apr 18, 2007— The author of a new study on changing human bone marrow stem cells into immature sperm cells is optimistic that his work will eventually allow infertile men and lesbian couples to conceive by producing their own sperm. Dr Karim Nayernia of Newcastle University in England expressed his excitement to ABCNews.com, saying that "this represents a real breakthrough from a biological and medical point of view".
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4/12/2007 | Embryonic Stem Cells
Senate Passes Embryonic Stem Cell Research Bill
The Washington Post
For the second time in nine months, the Senate today passed a bill that would loosen President Bush's restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research, but once again falling short of the 67 votes needed to override a promised veto. The Senate voted 63 to 34 to pass the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which would allow federally funded studies of stem cells isolated from embryos slated for destruction at fertility clinics.
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4/11/2007 | Embryonic Stem Cells
Diabetics Cured by Stem-cell Treatment
Times On Line
Diabetics using stem-cell therapy have been able to stop taking insulin injections for the first time, after their bodies started to produce the hormone naturally again. In a breakthrough trial, 15 young patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes were given drugs to suppress their immune systems followed by transfusions of stem cells drawn from their own blood.
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