Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Let the Cloning Obfuscation Begin

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Now that human cloning is upon us, look for many scientists and their camp followers (or ignorant reporters) to mislead about what the technology entails. Human SCNT creates human embryos through asexual means. It does not create stem cells. To obtain cloned stem cells, the embryos have to be nurtured and maintained in a dish […]

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Press Release: New Research Exploits Women and Commodifies Human Life

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SAN RAMON, Calif. (May 15, 2013) – The Center for Bioethics and Culture (CBC) strongly decries the practice of deriving human embryonic stem cells through cloning because it exploits women for their eggs, it commodifies human life, and it is unnecessary. In the June 6, 2013, issue of the scientific journal Cell, […]

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Adult Stem Cells Into Brain Cells

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Once again, so much for embryonic stem cells being the “only hope.” Scientists have turned bone marrow cells into brain cells. From the U.S.News and World Report story: Scientists have discovered an antibody that can turn stem cells from a patient’s bone marrow directly into brain cells, a potential breakthrough in the treatment of neurological […]

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Teaching Stem Cell Scientists How to Hype

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Never has so much hype been shoveled than the CURES! CURES! CURES! propaganda that sold embryonic stem cell research to the American public. That hasn’t worked out so well in actual practice, but the white elephant that is the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) — with a renewal election coming up next year — […]

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Ethical Stem Cells as Effective as Embryonic

Recent experiments with mice indicate that induced pluripotent stem cells — that is embryonic-like stem cells made from skin — are as effective as their unethically derived cousins. From the Nature News report: A paper published in Nature today could dispel a cloud over the hopes of turning a patient’s own cells into perfectly matched […]

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Cadaver Brain Tissues Used to Make Stem Cells

I reported the other day on Shinya Yamanaka’s well deserved Nobel Prize for inventing induced pluripotent stem cells. Now, scientists have used the process — using cadaver brain cells — that may be of great use in studying neurological and mental illnesses. From the Fox News story: Cells from corpses might play a key role […]

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Objections to Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Vetted

Recently, I was tagged on twitter about a blog post entitled “Pro-Life Objections to Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.” On a number of occasions, especially when I screen our documentary film Lines That Divide: The Great Stem Cell Debate, I am asked the questions this post raises. That’s when I turn to the various experts CBC […]

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First CA Instit for Regenerative Med FDA Approved Trial Adult Stem Cells!

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) was sold to a gullible public on the promise of developing embryonic stem cell and therapeutic cloning CURES! CURES! CURES! that the eeeevilll Bush was thwarting. But, when that didn’t work out — and desperate to show some progress for all the money CIRM has sucked up on […]

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UMass Stem Cell Bank Closes

Ah, the heady days of trying to overcome the evil BUSH!’s minor embryonic stem cell funding restrictions. You know, the ones that resulted in hundreds of millions spent in human embryonic stem cell research. Back in those days when hype and lies ruled the biotech discourse, states were tripping over each other in an Oklahoma […]

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No Patent Pending for Embryonic Stem Cell Research

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC The ruling from the European Court of Justice that prevents patenting embryonic stem cell-derived products is biting. The UK’s patenting authority has stated it will not approve patents of products that result from the destruction of human embryos. From the Out-law.com story: The Intellectual Property […]

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Don’t Nobody Bring Me No Bad Stem Cell News!

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Hype over embryonic stem cell research has been maddening. The media bias, extreme. And many in elected office, intent on using the sector as a special interest source of campaign funds — and believing the cures meme — have been decidedly uninterested in hearing any […]

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Early ESCR Success Reveals Possible Future Hard Choices

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Advanced Cell Technology is reporting that a very preliminary review of its ESCR-derived eye treatment shows safety and potential efficacy. From The Lancet: Schwartz and colleagues have realised the potential to use hESCs therapeutically in human beings. Their report is preliminary, in only two patients, […]

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Advanced Cell Technology Touted Again as the The Little Bioetech That Could

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Oh good grief. As I recounted in detail in Consumer’s Guide to a Brave New World, the human cloning/embryonic stem cell research company, Advanced Cell Technology, has been masterful at getting itself — and its chief scientist Robert Lanza — in the news. Here, for […]

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IVF Clinics Supply Embryos For Destructive Research Without Consent of Egg Donors

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC When a woman donates her eggs for one purpose — to help another woman have a child — is it right and ethical to instead use embryos made from her gametes for destructive research without her knowledge or consent? A survey of IVF clinics has […]

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Lead Into Gold: IPSCs Continue to Amaze

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Another breakthrough was announced by Stanford scientists using induced pluripotent stem cells. From the press release: Stanford University School of Medicine investigators have shown that iPS cells, viewed as a possible alternative to human embryonic stem cells, can mirror the defining defects of a genetic […]

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Keeping the Embryonic Stem Cell Hype Alive by Creating a False Impression

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC This is unbelievable — except it isn’t: A front page story in the SF Chronicle, headlined “Keeping Hope Alive,” purportedly concerns local young woman named Katie Sharify, who was the last patient to receive an injection (adult stem cells made from embryonic) in Geron’s now […]

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LA Times Circles the Wagons on ESCR

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Consider this an addendum to my Weekly Standard piece on media bias in reporting the collapse of Geron’s embryonic stem cell project that came out on Saturday. The LA Times finally got around to reporting the Geron collapse. Apparently, it had to figure out how […]

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The Only Stem Cell News Biased Media Sees Fit to Print

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Remember Ron Reagan’s nonsense speech about embryonic stem cell research (actually human cloning research) at the 2004 Democratic Convention? Media swooned at the garbage and the hype (e.g., Parkinson’s cures around 2014, “self repair kits” stored in hospitals). (Here’s my deconstruction in NRO.) Come to […]

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