August 27, 2007
A recent Gallup Poll rated the views of the American people on key moral issues. Here are the results regarding issues of concern here at SHS. The first number reflects “Morally Acceptable,” the second “Morally Wrong:” – Medical research using … Read More
August 23, 2007
Missouri’s battle over embryonic stem-cell research intensified Wednesday as a new group proposed a ballot measure seeking to outlaw a particular research method that voters narrowly endorsed just last year. The group Cures Without Cloning launched its campaign by filing … Read More
August 22, 2007
The Associated Press has, miracle of miracles, reported accurately about the planned anti-cloning amendment that Missouri’s own media generally botched. From the AP report (in the St. Louis Post Dispatch!) byline David A. Lieb: Without specifically repealing last year’s measure, … Read More
August 10, 2007
Well, it didn’t work out as the pro-cloners wanted. Missouri opponents of human cloning didn’t just roll over when Amendment 2 passed through one of the most deceptive campaigns I have ever seen, abetted by a totally biased and in … Read More
August 7, 2007
Human cloning is very hard to do, apparently. Indeed, despite the race to win a Nobel Prize by creating the first embryonic stem cells from cloned embryos, I only know of one experiment that seems to have resulted in the … Read More
August 7, 2007
SYDNEY could become the first city in the world to produce stem cells from cloned human embryos with a $500,000 grant being offered by Premier Morris Iemma to the first scientist to do it. (Daily Telegraph)
August 2, 2007
The final verdict is in, and Wu-suk Hwang definitely did not clone human embryos. What he appears to have done is create stem cell lines from parthenogenesis in which eggs are stimulated to divide to the point that stem cells … Read More
July 30, 2007
The big secret that the media rarely address is that many bioethicists and bioscientists actually support reproductive cloning. Yes, yes, I know: Most scientific organizations, such as the NAS, and big-name bioethicists currently oppose permitting a cloned embryo to be … Read More
July 9, 2007
Scientists from Cornell University’s Weill Medical College in the US have announced that they have created healthy adult mice from embryos fertilised using cloned sperm. The ‘pseudosperm’ cells were cloned using a similar method to that used to produce Dolly … Read More
July 6, 2007
An Australian researcher says demand for eggs for stem-cell research will put vulnerable women at increased pressure to sell their ova to unscrupulous dealers. (ABC News)
July 3, 2007
When it is politically expedient to pretend that it isn’t yet human life: There is long discussion happening at a previous post (click here to check it out), that has evolved into a discussion, among other matters, of whether a … Read More
July 3, 2007
Scientists have taken a controversial first step towards cloning sperm to help infertile men. Researchers created four mice after duplicating the genetic material of mouse sperm and using it to fertilise eggs. (Daily Mail)
July 2, 2007
A dearth in human eggs and the potential harm to women’s health sometimes caused in obtaining them through current means, has both stymied human cloning research and moved biotechnology toward exploiting poor women for their eggs in their zeal to … Read More
July 2, 2007
The KC Star is, in my view, the most biased newspaper in the country in its reporting on the ESCR/human cloning controversy. For example, when the political decision was made by promoters of human cloning research in MO to rename … Read More
July 2, 2007
Ain’t science and politics grand! Straight after Victoria and New South Wales vote to legalise cloning, the vote becomes irrelevant. Just in time for the International Society for Stem Cell Research to hold its grand cloning conference in Cairns, this … Read More
June 27, 2007
The passing of a bill overturning a ban on therapeutic cloning in NSW allows stem cell research to start, but the journey will be “long and arduous”, a leading scientist says. (Yahoo!7 News)
June 26, 2007
Parents make mistakes. They mess up, and if they do it badly enough, their children bear the marks of their misjudgments. So imagine a scenario in which a parent is given a second chance to raise an initially beloved child, … Read More
June 26, 2007
As Queensland MPs consider legalising cloning, they must take into account a new and entirely ethical method for obtaining the same “tailor-made” stem cells that cloning hopes to obtain. The journals Nature and Stem Cell on June 7 published three … Read More
June 21, 2007
Taxpayers would fund the destruction of human life. The Oregon state House will vote on legislation Wednesday that would allow tax dollars to go to researchers who want to clone human embryos, then kill them for their stem cells. The … Read More
June 20, 2007
Human therapeutic cloning has moved a step closer after U.S. researchers said they had successfully created embryonic stem cells from monkey embryos. (Reuters)
June 20, 2007
The global grandees of therapeutic cloning recently gathered in sun-soaked Cairns, the gateway to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, for their annual conference. They have serious strategic issues to deal with along with their scientific papers and posters: persuading governments to … Read More
June 19, 2007
U.S. scientists say they have for the first time extracted stem cells from cloned primate embryos, bringing human therapeutic cloning one step closer. (Cbc.ca)
June 19, 2007
NSW politicians seem to think that the thousands of eggs needed for human cloning will magically fall out the sky. That’s the impression you get reading through the speeches on the cloning Bill in the Lower House last week. You … Read More
June 18, 2007
Making human-animal embryos for scientific experiments should be allowed because of the benefits to science and medicine, British experts said in a report released for Sunday. (Reuters)
June 12, 2007
I grow weary: Science journalists should report science matters accurately, without spin and the usual hype seen in the ESCR/human cloning debates. Alas, we don’t see much of that in this report, byline Dave Mosher of LiveScience. The story is … Read More
