8mm
Posted on 08/14/2007 3:57:25 PM PDT by wagglebee
San Francisco, CA (LifeNews.com) -- A California company is generating controversy for a new plan to work with fertility clinics that has it killing a couple's "leftover" human embryos for "personalized" stem cell cures. The plan is drawing criticism from an unlikely source -- embryonic stem cell research backers who say it is misleading clients.
StemLifeLine has entered new partnership agreements with three fertility clinics in Colorado, Nevada and Idaho.
According to a press release LifeNews.com obtained, StemLifeLine "will now offer individuals who have undergone in vitro fertilization the opportunity to use StemLifeLine’s service to develop personal stem cell lines from their unused, stored embryos."
The company claims to be the first to offer to destroy a couple's unborn children to provide them with potential cures for their diseases or conditions.
“We formed StemLifeLine in response to requests from IVF patients to apply their remaining stored embryos toward therapeutic applications that could one day help their children and family members,” Ana Krtolica, the company's CEO, said in the statement.
Each clinic will provide eligible patients, faced with the decision of what to do with their remaining embryos, with information about StemLifeLine’s service. The company claims the personalized stem cell lines can help the clients cure "diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or diabetes."
But Arthur Caplan, professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania and a leading embryonic stem cell research promoter, called the company's plan a "gimmick."
He told ABC News the company's claims "rest on hot air" and questioned whether the company is misleading customers by promising miracle cures that may never materialize.
"In fact any clinic can do it, just like any clinic can freeze embryos. The problem is no one has made anything useful out of stem cells," he said.
Caplan also questioned claims that the stem cells obtained from the couple's unborn children will help them any more than stem cells obtained from the destruction of other human embryos.
"It is still unclear if it matters where the embryos come from. Part of the promise of stem cells is that they can be taken from any embryo," he told ABC News.
The company claims that no human embryos will be created specifically with the intent of destroying them and that only "leftover" ones will be used.
And the NEXT step will be to bypass the IVF altogether and just create embryos to use for spare parts.
Pro-Life Ping
Freepmail wagglebee or little jeremiah to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
“The plan is drawing criticism from an unlikely source — embryonic stem cell research backers who say it is misleading clients.”
LOL!
Since when do those murdering little human beings, embryonic stem cells that are FERTILIZED, have ANY scruples.
GEESH!
Nice to see Caplan drawing the line somewhere. Or at least being mildly critical.
Mrs VS
I think that is already happening in some clinics. How disgusting for a couple to create these unborn children, decide they don’t want them, and then proceed to put them into storage so they can kill them to possibly one day save themselves. If a parent were to abandon their born child, or freeze their born child to possibly one day save themselves, they would be a arrested for child abuse. Sadly, America allows unborn children to be killed for conveinence, abandoned in freezers, and killed to save born people/relatives.
.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.