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US doctors have for the first time successfully treated a skin cancer patient with cells cloned from his own immune system, a study released Wednesday showed. The ground-breaking treatment for advanced melanoma, or skin cancer, led to a long remission for the patient and used his own cloned infection-fighting T-cells, said doctor Cassian Yee, the lead author of the study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Yee and his associates from the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle removed CD4+ T-cells, a type of white blood cell, from a 52-year-old man whose melanoma had...

AUSTRALIA'S first licences to clone human embryos could be granted as early as this week. A National Health and Medical Research Council panel met in Canberra on Friday to consider applications from two separate research groups. The green light for the controversial science could lead to a cure for such afflictions as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases and type 1 diabetes in less than 10 years. A Monash University team and another based at the Melbourne lab of the Australian Stem Cell Centre have each partnered with Sydney IVF to submit licence requests. The teams want permission to create cloned...

The news out of England is discouraging. Single women and lesbian partners will soon stand in the legal same place as fathers with the deletion of four words from British legislation called “The Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill”. The Bill had language in it which had been applied at fertility clinics to encourage two- parent, opposite sex families. Putting aside all of the vitally important moral issues of anyone ever even using a “fertility” clinic, and the horrid truth of the killing of the “spare” “embryos” which are “manufactured” in the IVF process, I write this commentary to address just...

London, May 20, 2008 / 05:26 pm (CNA).- Despite criticism that the research techniques involved are unethical and overhyped, British lawmakers on Monday defeated a proposal to ban the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos for medical research. The House of Commons is considering amendments to the Human Embryology and Fertilization Bill, which will affect regulations of embryonic research and artificial reproduction. The proposed amendment to outlaw the creation of hybrid embryos was defeated by 336 to 176 votes, according to Agence France Presse. Human-animal hybrid embryos are created by inserting the nucleus of a human cell into an animal egg....

In what could signal a further shift in the global stem cell debate, lawmakers in an Australia state have rejected legislation allow the cloning of human embryos for research purposes. This week's vote in the Western Australia capital, Perth, is believed to be one of the first times the embryonic cloning issue has been considered by a legislature anywhere in the world since reports of a major research breakthrough last November prompted new questions about the need to use embryos at all. The issue will be under discussion on Capitol Hill again on Thursday, when a health subcommittee of the...

Jefferson City, MO (LifeNews.com) -- A measure that responds to the 2006 Amendment 2 proposal Missouri voters narrowly approved will not make the ballot this November. The measure would prohibit somatic cell nuclear transfer, a type of human cloning practice used by scientists to create and kill human beings for research purposes. It is designed to close a pro-cloning loophole in Amendment 2 that opponents hard warned would lead to human cloning. On Friday, the Missouri Court of Appeals ruled that part of Secretary of State Robin Carnahan’s ballot summary was “insufficient and unfair.” Carnahan released the ballot summary in...

Researchers at Memorial-Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) have announced a very promising development in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. They’ve used a process called somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) in laboratory mice, which led to neurological improvement deemed successful in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. The research team expressed hope for further studies that might lead to similar cures in humans and in other diseases that affect other organ systems. SCNT works in mice with Parkinson’s diseaseSCNT, also known as therapeutic cloning, involves a process of manipulating the nucleus of a cell and transplanting it back into the subject, thereby bypassing the...

SIOUX CITY -- It's a safe bet the passengers flying out of Sioux Gateway Airport this weekend didn't realize they were in the presence of what scientists hope will be the world's first commercially cloned dog. That's probably because the future canine -- set to be cloned from a pit bull named Booger -- was only four vials of skin cells carefully packaged inside an innocuous looking beige canister. The canister should be in Korea by now, but the journey started Friday in Siouxland when Jin Han Hong, Ph.D., of RNL Biostar Inc., picked up the vials from storage at...

A Minnesota House panel approved a measure on Thursday that concerns pro-life advocates because it would approve and fund human cloning and the killing of human embryos at the University of Minnesota. The panel voted 11-8 for the Kahn–Cohen Cloning Bill that would force taxpayers to fund destructive research. A leading pro-life group told LifeNews.com that the bill promotes the destruction of human life on a scale never before seen in Minnesota, and also requires university scientists to kill all cloned human beings or face felony charges. “This is the most shocking and dangerous threat to human life in years,”...

How UK scientists could make men redundant in creating babies by turning WOMEN'S bone marrow into spermBy FIONA MACRAE - More by this author » Last updated at 00:52am on 31st January 2008 CommentsBye bye baby: The new science means the biological role of the father is under threat British scientists are ready to turn female bone marrow into sperm, cutting men out of the process of creating life.  The breakthrough paves the way for lesbian couples to have children that are biologically their own.  Gay men could follow suit by using the technique to make eggs from male...

FDA confirms milk, meat from clones safe to eat Moratorium on clones in food supply to continue as market adjusts By Heidi Clausen Regional Editor The Food and Drug Administration on Jan. 15 issued its final risk assessment on clones, confirming its earlier findings that milk and meat from cloned livestock is safe for human consumption. Several years of studies have concluded that food from clones does not differ from from food from conventionally bred animals. However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's moratorium on milk and meat from cloned animals in the food supply will continue for an unspecified period...

(WASHINGTON) - Some U.S. meat and dairy producers are finding new reasons to be nervous about their export prospects after federal regulators gave backing this week to food from cloned animals. The final ruling on Tuesday from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which found that food from cloned animals and their offspring poses no special health risks, capped years of debate over the technology. Proponents say animal cloning, replicating prized livestock that can breed highly productive offspring, is a windfall for consumers. But critics say greater testing is needed and want closer examination of the technology's ethical implications. Even...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican on Friday condemned the cloning of human embryos, calling it the "worst type of exploitation of the human being." "This ranks among the most morally illicit acts, ethically speaking," said Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, the Vatican department that helps oversee the Church's position on bioethics issues,. A U.S. company said on Thursday it used cloning technology to make five human embryos, with the eventual hope of making matched stem cells for patients. If verified, the team at Stemagen Corp., would be the first to prove they have cloned...

"Scientists at a California company reported yesterday that they had created the first mature cloned human embryos from single skin cells ....Creation of the embryos -- grown from cells taken from the company's chief executive and one of its investors -- also offered sobering evidence that few, if any, technical barriers may remain to the creation of cloned babies." -snip- Five of the new embryos grew in laboratory dishes to the stage that fertility doctors consider ready for transfer to a woman's womb... ----snip---- "The closely held company hopes to make embryos that are clones, or genetic twins, of patients,...

A scientist has achieved a world first... by cloning himself. In a breakthrough certain to provoke an ethical furore, Samuel Wood created embryo copies of himself by placing his skin cells in a woman's egg. The embryos were the first to be made from cells taken from adult humans. Although they survived for only five days and were smaller than a pinhead, they are seen as a milestone in the quest for treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. But critics fear the technology could be exploited by mavericks to clone babies and accused the scientists of reducing the...

The Vatican on Friday condemned the cloning of human embryos, calling it the "worst type of exploitation of the human being.""This ranks among the most morally illicit acts, ethically speaking," said Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, the Vatican department that helps oversee the Church's position on bioethics issues,.A U.S. company said on Thursday it used cloning technology to make five human embryos, with the eventual hope of making matched stem cells for patients.If verified, the team at Stemagen Corp., would be the first to prove they have cloned human beings as a source of stem...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Scientists in California say they have produced embryos that are clones of two men, a potential step toward developing scientifically valuable stem cells. The new report documents embryos made with ordinary skin cells. But it's not the first time human cloned embryos have been made. In 2005, for example, scientists in Britain reported using embryonic stem cells to produce a cloned embryo. It matured enough to produce stem cells, but none were extracted. Stem cells weren't produced by the new embryos either, and because of that, experts reacted coolly to the research. "I found it difficult...

On August 9, 2001, President Bush announced a compromise decision on the contentious question of whether the federal government should provide financial support for research into the curative properties of human stem cells extracted from embryos. Bush’s compromise allowed funding for research into embryonic stem cells that had already been harvested. At the same time, he disallowed funding for procedures that would collect stem cells from frozen (but still living) embryos, since doing so would require their destruction. In the case of those already collected, he said, “The life-or-death decision has already been made.” But that life-or-death decision would not...

South Korean scientists have cloned cats by manipulating a fluorescent protein gene, a procedure which could help develop treatments for human genetic diseases, officials said Wednesday. In a side-effect, the cloned cats glow in the dark when exposed to ultraviolet beams. A team of scientists led by Kong Il-keun, a cloning expert at Gyeongsang National University, produced three cats possessing altered fluorescence protein (RFP) genes, the Ministry of Science and Technology said. "It marked the first time in the world that cats with RFP genes have been cloned," the ministry said in a statement.

By Cho Jin-seo Staff Reporter Researchers found a way to clone pet cats five years ago. Now they can play a trick on their genes to change their color. A Gyeongsang National University team said they have succeeded in cloning cats after modifying a gene to change their skin color. Because of the red fluorescence protein in their skin cells, the three Turkish Angola kittens look reddish under ultraviolet light, the researchers said. The red cloned cat research is expected to be utilized in dealing with certain genetic diseases in animals and humans. It will also help reproduce rare animals,...

Now that biologists in Oregon have reported using cloning to produce a monkey embryo and extract stem cells, it looks more plausible than before that a human embryo will be cloned and that a cloned human will be born some day. But not necessarily in the Americas or Europe. While some critics have been fretting about the morality of stem cell research and genetic engineering, prominent Western scientists have been going to Asia, like the geneticists Nancy Jenkins and Neal Copeland, who left the National Cancer Institute in the United States and moved last year to Singapore. Asia offers researchers...

In Russia as well in the West, research has been under way for for many years in biological syntheses-that is, artificial life forms; and according to high intelligence, a stunning break-through as a "providential discovery", something they learned almost by accident. They discovered the key to creating what are known as "organic robotoids". An organic robotoid is an artificial robot-like creature; it looks and acts exactly like a human being and yet it is not human. A robotoid is alive in the biological sense but it is an artificial life form. Robotoids respond to conventional routine medical tests in the...

It’s called “reprogramming.” Another technical term for it is “somatic cell dedifferentiation.” Just get those terms into your vocabulary because they’ll be around for the foreseeable future. As reported in two scientific papers published today, reprogramming is now the future of stem cell research and renders ethically controversial therapeutic cloning obsolete. Ever since the debate of embryo-destructive stem-cell research began in earnest in 1998 when researchers at the University of Wisconsin first isolated human embryonic stem cells, we’ve known that the best overall answer to the ethical impasse would be a solution that both allows the search for stem-cell related...

McLean, VA - Senator Fred Thompson issued the following statement regarding today's scientific breakthrough in adult cell research: "There is exciting news for patients today. In yet another breakthrough for adult cell research, scientists have made normal human skin cells take on the relevant properties of embryonic stem cells. That is in addition to 73 breakthroughs for adult and cord blood research to date. There are still no embryonic stem cell breakthroughs. "For all who are concerned for patients and their families, the effective, ethical, and compassionate answer is to put our money where the breakthroughs are happening -- in...

The scientist who created Dolly the sheep, a breakthrough that provoked headlines around the world a decade ago, is to abandon the cloning technique he pioneered to create her. Prof Ian Wilmut's decision to turn his back on "therapeutic cloning", just days after US researchers announced a breakthrough in the cloning of primates, will send shockwaves through the scientific establishment. Ian Wilmut, the creator of Dolly the Sheep He and his team made headlines around the world in 1997 when they unveiled Dolly, born July of the year before. Prof Wilmut, who works at Edinburgh University, believes a rival method...

As the creator of Dolly, the world’s first cloned sheep, announced he had abandoned cloning to pursue more promising ways of tapping the potential of stem cells, Democrats in Congress will introduce legislation this week to fund research “to find other good reasons to create and destroy embryos.” Prof. Ian Wilmut’s choice to turn his back on the highly-inefficient and ethically-controversial “therapeutic cloning,” in favor of procedures that would use a patient’s own cells to spawn stem cells, may send shock waves through the scientific world, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it doesn’t discourage Democrats. “There’s no reason to...

November 15, 2007, 0:30 a.m. Monkey BusinessA cloning milestone. By Father Thomas Berg The world of stem-cell science was rocked Wednesday by news that researchers at Oregon Health & Science University, led by Dr. Shoukhrat Mitalipov, had cloned embryos from rhesus monkeys and derived embryonic stem cells from the clones. Their work was published online in the journal Nature. For those opposed to embryo-destructive research, some might be thinking of yesterday as a kind of “black Wednesday.� I am inclined to disagree. In fact, history may well show us that November 14, 2007, marked a turning point in the...

Researchers in Oregon are reporting that they used cloning to produce monkey embryos and then extracted stem cells from the embryos. Not only is this the first time such cells have been produced in any animal other than a mouse, but the method, the researchers say, should also work in humans. In 2004, South Korean researchers reported making stem cells from cloned human embryos, but the claim turned out fraudulent. “We hope the technology will be useful for other labs that are working on human eggs and human cells,” the lead researcher of the group, Shoukhrat Mitalipov at Oregon Health...

They have been building 129 military bases day and night, unceasingly, since the early 1940's. Some of them were built even earlier than that. These bases are basically large cities underground connected by high-speed magneto-leviton trains that have speeds up to Mach 2. Several books have been written about this activity...

Human cloning was developed at the University of Utah at Salt Lake City in 1977. They first aired this on TV as part of a series. They had an alleged human clone on TV that they were interviewing. It didn´t talk very well. They showed the original human and the clone...

Philadelphia, Oct 15, 2007 / 02:43 pm (CNA).- While gaffes by the secular press covering religion are somewhat common and often humorous, they usually aren’t as bad as the Associated Press’ latest error. On Friday, AP reporter Nicole Winfield incorrectly wrote that Pope Benedict XVI supports therapeutic cloning. The article accurately states that Pope Benedict XVI has asked the South Koreans not to resume embryonic stem cell research, now that the scandal caused by Hwang Woo-suk is receding from their collective memory. Hwang claimed to have cloned human embryos and was lauded as a national hero until his work was...

Michigan Bishops Launch Massive Statewide Stem Cell Education Program - Video Online 12 minute DVD and other material being sent to over 500,000 Catholic homes and nearly 800 parishes LANSING, October 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an effort to communicate the Catholic Church's teaching on human life as it relates to adult and embryonic stem cell research, the Michigan Catholic Conference on Monday announced the state's seven diocesan bishops have launched a monumental internal education program that includes over 500,000 Catholic homes and nearly 800 parishes. As part of the internal education program, which has the theme "The Science of...

Catholic group to campaign for study of adult stem cells

In H. G. Wells’s novel The Island of Dr. Moreau, the survivor of a shipwreck lands on an island in the South Pacific. There he discovers that the island’s owner has been creating human-animal hybrids. Wells’s novel grew out of his revulsion at what people were doing to animals. Today, the real source of horror is what man is doing to himself. Wells’s villain used surgery to create his monsters and had to flee civilization to pursue his inhuman goals. Today’s would-be Dr. Moreaus not only have a much more powerful tool—genetic engineering—but they also have their government’s official blessing....

Archbishop Burke: Bishops Must Discipline Pro-Abortion Catholic Politicians Calls his brother bishops to task - “To remain silent is to permit serious confusion regarding a fundamental truth of the moral law" By Hilary White ST. LOUIS, September 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Writing in the latest edition of the Canon Law journal, Periodica De Re Canonica, Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, bishop of St. Louis, Missouri, has called his brother bishops to task for their silence on the problem of Catholic politicians who support abortion, euthanasia, cloning, embryo research, the homosexual political agenda or other legislation “contrary to the natural moral law.” Burke’s lengthy...

Michael Cook | Saturday, 8 September 2007 A new challenge for human dignity Britain's fertility regulator has just approved the creation of human-animal embryos for research. What's next? The creation of hybrid human-animal embryos for medical research, which has just been approved by the British government's fertility watchdog, pushes the needle on the "yuck factor" meter far into the red. But even more "yuck" is the deception and manipulation used to justify the decision. In the United Kingdom, experiments with embryos are closely regulated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. So when scientists began to lobby for the...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorSeptember 5, 2007London, England (LifeNews.com) -- The British government has opened a Pandora's box that worries pro-life advocates because scientists will be allowed to create clones consisting of human and animal parts. The decision is the first step in the approval process and now a licensing committee will review two applications to engage in the research.The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority considered the proposals from scientists at King's College London and Newcastle University. It said there was "no fundamental reason" to prevent the research."However, public opinion is very finely divided, with people generally opposed to this research...

Britain Set to Approve Human/Animal Hybrid Clones By Hilary White LONDON, September 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the government cloning and stem cell research regulator, published its public consultation on the creation of human/animal hybrid clones, in which it claimed the majority of people were "at ease" with the idea. It is expected to rule tomorrow on the proposal to create cytoplasmic hybrid cloned embryos from animal ova and human DNA. The HFEA had its consultation period open for a year, during which time it was subject to intense lobbying by research organisations...

Leon R. Kass | Friday, 31 August 2007 How brave a new world? There is nothing "brave" or beautiful about the biotechnised world we are entering, says one of America's best-known bioethicists. This is a commencement speech made by Dr Leon Kass at St John's College, in Annapolis, Maryland, earlier this year. Dr Kass, a physician and philosopher, was the chairman of the President's Council for Bioethics from 2002 to 2005. He teaches at the University of Chicago. Surveying the world you graduates are about to enter, I am reminded of the ancient Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorAugust 29, 2007Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday signed a bill that would force taxpayers there to spend money on embryonic stem cell research. His signing the measure is the latest action going against the views of pro-life advocates on whether unborn children should be sacrificed to advance scientific research.The measure would set up an institute under the Illinois Department of Public Health to award grants for the research, which has never helped any patients.It also makes embryonic stem cell research legal and establishes procedures for couples to donate their "unwanted" human embryos for...

August 24, 2007, 6:00 a.m. Third Clone WarMissouri measure would repeal “right to clone.” By David Freddoso The battle in Missouri over cloning did not end when Amendment 2 — the ballot measure that guaranteed scientists’ right to clone for the purpose of doing embryonic stem-cell research — won a contentious fight last November. Leaders of the newly formed coalition Missouri Cures Without Cloning (MCWC) appeared yesterday at a Jefferson City press conference to announce the filing of a state constitutional amendment for the 2008 ballot, which would ban all human cloning in the state, including the cloning of...

Clone a Human, Get $500,000 says Aussie State Premier By Hilary White SYDNEY, August 20, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Premier Morris Iemma, Premier of the state of New South Wales, has offered a grant of $500,000 to the first researchers to successfully create Australia’s first cloned human beings.  This June, the state parliament of New South Wales voted to overturn the previous ban on creating cloned humans for research. The lower house voted 65-26 to reinstate cloning with the strict “ethical” proviso that the embryos would be killed and harvested for stem cells thus never allowed to come to term.  Iemma also...

Homosexual advocacy groups are objecting strongly to President Bush's nominee for surgeon general, but Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr. also faces questions from conservative groups about his views on human cloning and embryonic-stem-cell research. Tom McCluskey, vice president for government affairs at the Family Research Council, said that Dr. Holsinger spoke to a Kentucky state legislature committee in 2002 and "testified in support of loosening regulations around cloning and embryonic-stem-cell research." "We're not supportive of his nomination right now," Mr. McCluskey said, adding that "we've been told he's come around on the issue, but the surgeon general is such a...

Orlando, FL (LifeNews.com) -- A national group for Christian doctors and dentists will hold its annual meeting in Orlando this week and there they will discuss a number of key pro-life issues. The Christian Medical & Dental Associations feature 16,000 members from across the country who take solid pro-life positions when it comes to abortion and bioethics topics.Ruth Graham, daughter of Ruth and Billy Graham, British minister Rev. Rico Tice, and top doctors and scholars will address the participants. The conference features workshops on such issues as conscience rights for medical professions to opt out of doing abortions or participating...

SYDNEY, June 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Catholic Parliamentarians in New South Wales lined up for Communion on Sunday despite warnings from the Sydney Archbishop, Cardinal Pell, that they would face consequences for their pro-cloning votes, reports the Brisbane Times. Deputy Premier John Watkins and National party MP Adrian Piccoli were among the Catholic politicians who dismissed Pell’s warning of consequences for voting for embryonic stem cell research as mere bluster and received Communion at Sunday Mass. Watkins said he went to Mass with his family and received Communion as usual. The parish priest told him he was happy to give...

Cardinal Pell referes to "today's fashionable notion of the primacy of conscience, which is, of course secular relativism with a religious face." By Peter J. Smith SYDNEY, June 8, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Parliamentarians in the New South Wales (NSW) lower house voted 65-26 to lift a ban on human cloning that would allow researchers to clone and destroy human embryos for stem-cell research.Yesterday’s conscience-vote saw NSW MPs reject appeals from a coalition of Christian leaders led by John Taylor, president of the Baptist Union of NSW, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen, and the Catholic Archbishop George Cardinal Pell. Cardinal...

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 7, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday rejected a bill, deceptively labeled as a ban on human cloning, that actually would have allowed large-scale cloning of human embryos solely for purposes of research.The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) condemned the measure as "a clone-and-kill bill," and strongly opposed it. After the vote, NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson commented, "The House Democratic leadership tried to ram through a bill to pave the way for cloned human embryo farms, but their scam failed." The White House issued a statement before the vote that said in...

Cardinal Rigali Slams Bills on Stem Cell Use WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 6, 2007 (Zenit.org).- U.S. bishops are urging Congress to reject legislation that would promote the destruction of human embryos.Two bills, S.5 on embryonic stem cell research and H.R. 2560 on human cloning, are set for debate and vote.Regarding the stem cell bill, Cardinal Justin Rigali encouraged representatives "to reject this misguided and unethical legislation, which would force taxpayers for the first time to encourage deliberate attacks on innocent human life in the name of medical progress."Cardinal Rigali, the chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee for Pro-Life Activities, mentioned only...

Sydney, Jun 7, 2007 (CNA).- Catholic lawmakers in Australia said yesterday they will vote in favor of therapeutic cloning regardless of the directives or warnings issued by the archbishop of Sydney. Tony Stewart of the ruling Labor Party in the New South Wales state parliament, said he would rather go to hell than take orders on how to vote from Cardinal George Pell. "Maybe I'll go to hell, but if I go to hell I'm going to do so by saving a lot of lives, because that's what this bill is about," Tony Stewart said in a radio interview. Cardinal...

A STATE parliamentary committee will investigate Perth Archbishop Barry Hickey's remarks that Catholic politicians supporting stem cell research could be refused holy communion and may face excommunication from the church. Archbishop Hickey came under fire yesterday after he reportedly said Catholics who did not condemn the cloning of human embryos for medical research were acting against the teachings of the Catholic faith. Archbishop Hickey said such people should not go to communion and he may consider excommunication, but he would rather the issue be resolved voluntarily by the politicians themselves. His threat mirrored that of Cardinal George Pell in Sydney,...