June 26, 2009
New York has become the first state to allow taxpayer-funded researchers to pay women for giving their eggs for embryonic stem cell research, a move welcomed by many scientists but condemned by critics who fear it will lead to the … Read More
June 23, 2009
The story soft-pedals but makes its point, and then tells the tale it chooses to tell with grace and delicacy. Here’s a term for you: “savior sibling” ~ a baby genetically matched to provide life-saving cord blood that could be … Read More
June 8, 2009
Let’s start with stem cells. That may seem a strange place to begin thinking about torture, but many bioethical issues are at least as controversial and disputed as torture. Among the most controversial in recent years has been research that … Read More
June 5, 2009
On May 12, my colleagues on the ethics committee of New York’s Empire State Stem Cell Board voted overwhelmingly to recommend that state funds be awarded to researchers who have paid women for their “time and burden†in the retrieval … Read More
June 3, 2009
The state of New York is considering several proposals which would pay women who donate their eggs for research purposes, leading some Catholic ethicists to worry the move would induce poorer women to risk their health and become involved in … Read More
June 2, 2009
The University of Minnesota is proceeding with embryonic stem cell research, despite an anti-abortion group’s claim that it is illegal under a new ban on the use of state tax dollars for human cloning. (TwinCities.com)
May 19, 2009
The Senate voted without debate or dissent today to outlaw research designed to create animal-human hybrids, a practice that is apparently not occurring in the state but is cast by legislative critics as a potential violation of Louisiana’s ethics and … Read More
May 15, 2009
Researchers at disgraced gene scientist Hwang Woo-suk’s Sooam Biotech Research Center claimed they have for the first time created cloned pig embryos and used them to make embryonic stem-cell lines. Scientists have successfully extracted stem cells from cloned primate embryos, … Read More
May 15, 2009
The Oklahoma House has overwhelmingly passed legislation to prohibit human cloning. Lawmakers voted 83-0 for the measure Friday and sent it to the Senate for final passage. (The Edmond Sun)
April 29, 2009
South Korea on Wednesday conditionally lifted a ban on stem cell research using human eggs, three years after outlawing the practice because a scientist was found to have faked his work. (PhysOrg)
April 28, 2009
As the Obama administration prepares to greatly expand the government’s investments in embryonic stem cell research, the next big biomedical research debate in Congress is shaping up: whether to allow government funding of experiments using cloned human embryos. (CQ Politics)
April 28, 2009
Government legal and ethical experts are to discuss whether families can ‘bank’ embryos not just for procreation but also for use by doctors to create personalised treatments for parents and their children. (Daily Mail)
April 24, 2009
A cloned beagle named Ruppy – short for Ruby Puppy – is the world’s first transgenic dog. She and four other beagles all produce a fluorescent protein that glows red under ultraviolet light. (New Scientist)
April 23, 2009
South Korean scientists said they have cloned a piglet whose organs were genetically modified to make them more suitable for human transplants. Lead scientist Lim Gio-Bin said the cloned piglet, born on April 3, had been genetically altered to lack … Read More
April 23, 2009
Two bills aimed at banning human reproductive cloning in Texas came up for public hearing in a House committee Tuesday. The sticking point may be how human cloning is defined in the proposals. (AP)
April 22, 2009
Controversial doctor filmed creating embryos before injecting them into wombs of women wanting cloned babies. (The Independent)
April 22, 2009
The latest advances in stem-cell research mean someone could some day become a biological single parent, the source of both the egg and the sperm needed to make a baby. (Globe and Mail)
April 20, 2009
When President Barack Obama eased limits on taxpayer-funded embryonic stem cell research, the big question became how far scientists could go. Friday, the government answered: They must use cells culled from fertility clinic embryos that otherwise would be thrown away. … Read More
April 17, 2009
The Obama administration today is announcing guidelines for government-sponsored embryonic stem cell research but the draft regulations would limit federal funding of work on human embryos donated at fertility clinics. (Washington Post)
April 17, 2009
Neurobiologist Maureen L. Condic investigates 11 common arguments in favor of embryonic stem-cell research, and explains why science may not need the controversial technique, after all. (The Daily Beast)
April 6, 2009
A University of Pittsburgh stem cell researcher has renewed his efforts to win a patent on a process to clone human embryonic stem cells, despite lingering questions from his past efforts. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
March 26, 2009
Ten members of the President’s Council on Bioethics published a statement today at the Hastings Center Bioethics Forum expressing disappointment with President Obama’s remarks and policies on the funding of embryonic stem cell research. They take the president to task … Read More
March 25, 2009
In lifting restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research this month, did President Obama leave the door open to human cloning? To hear Obama say it, the answer is unequivocally no. “We will ensure that our government never opens … Read More
March 19, 2009
Rep. Mike Castle said he may take on the issue of human cloning as he and Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado consider their next legislative move on stem cell research. (News Journal)
March 18, 2009
Here’s the final installment of the E-mail debate between conservative Catholic legal scholars Robby George and Doug Kmiec over whether President Obama’s executive order on embryonic stem cell research authorizes federally funded human cloning. In the first E-mail in this post, Kmiec responds … Read More
