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Mice cloned from skin stem cells 13 February 2007 US researchers have cloned healthy mice from skin cells for the first time. Despite notorious difficulties in producing animals through cloning, nine of 19 mice who were born survived into adulthood. The scientists replaced the nucleus from an unfertilised egg with the nucleus from an adult skin stem cell. Embryos produced in this way may also be a useful source of stem cells, say the researchers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers have previously managed to clone mice using other kinds of adult cells, but it has...

Charmayne James and her horse, Scamper, won 10 world championships in barrel racing before James retired to focus on her horse-breeding business. In the pre-cloning days, James could not have bred the horse because he was castrated. But cloning gave her access to Scamper's otherwise off-limits, champion genes. For $150,000, the company ViaGen made Clayton, a horse genetically identical to Scamper but able to procreate. James is one of many satisfied customers whose stories ViaGen relates on its website. The company advertises its cloning services to breeders who want to preserve the superior genes of cattle, horses, and pigs. It...

Anti-cancer chicken eggs produced GM chickens could be a route to faster, cheaper drugs UK scientists have developed genetically modified chickens capable of laying eggs containing proteins needed to make cancer-fighting drugs. The breakthrough has been announced by the same research centre that created the cloned sheep, Dolly. The Roslin Institute, near Edinburgh, says it has produced five generations of birds that can produce useful levels of life-saving proteins in egg whites. The work could lead to a range of drugs that are cheaper and easier to make. Professor Harry Griffin, director of the institute, told the BBC: "One of...

Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) -- A black Massachusetts Institute of Technology stem cell researcher who doesn't support human cloning says he is planning a hunger strike for next February if the prestigious college doesn't reverse its decision to deny him tenure. Dr. James L. Sherley, an associate professor of biological engineering, says he is a victim of racism. Sherley has been an outspoken advocate against human cloning -- including the kind of therapeutic cloning his colleagues and other scientists want to use to create and destroy human embryos for their stem cells. He has been fighting for tenure at MIT for...

LOS ANGELES -- A long-awaited study by US scientists has concluded that meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring are safe to eat and drink and should be allowed to enter the food supply without any special labeling. The finding is a strong signal that the Food and Drug Administration will endorse the use of cloning technology for cattle, goats, and pigs when it publishes a key safety assessment intended to clear the way for formal approval of the products. That assessment is expected this week. "All of the studies indicate that the composition of meat and milk...

I posted this article because I happen to agree with Sherley's conclusions based upon my own research into actual and on-going Stem Cell research projects. I am not against all Stem Cell research or attempts to develop medical cures, because those projects showing the most promise involve either mature (adult) cells or stem cells rendered from the host organism. But the attempt to develop cures from any stem cells, say stem cell lines derived from a creature other than the original host creature is a canard. That is if you were sick, reverse development of your own cells to a...

“How can you side with those people?” In 2002, a paralyzed research advocate who actively supports embryonic-stem-cell and human-cloning research asked me this question. By “those” people she meant Christians, conservatives, and pro-life groups.  “It’s simple,” I said. “Why is it in our interest to sit in these wheelchairs for the rest of our lives so science can puzzle over safety problems linked to embryonic stem cells and human cloning, while ignoring the cells that nature designed for the treatments we need?” In the discussion that followed I explained why embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are inferior to adult stem...

The election news could not have appeared grimmer in the immediate aftermath. South Dakota's abortion ban went down. Parental notification lost in California and Oregon. Missourians approved the embryonic stem cell initiative. Kansans condoned child rape and illegal late-term abortions by ousting Attorney General Phill Kline. Add to that the loss of the GOP Senate majority, which means for starters no more conservative judges, and the loss of the GOP House majority, which means for starters a promised bill within the first 100 hours of the new session to federally fund embryonic stem cell research, and, well ... But as...

In the two weeks since I first wrote about the human-cloning amendment on the ballot in Missouri, the debate has really heated up.? Actor Michael J. Fox grabbed headlines by taping a TV ad asking voters there to approve Amendment 2. The amendment is designed ?to ensure that Missouri patients have access to [embryonic] stem cell therapies.? These therapies, we?re led to believe, will bring cures for terrible diseases such as the Parkinson?s that, sadly, has stricken Fox and many others.Then the ever-brave and straight-talking Rush Limbaugh spoke out against this ad, surmising that Fox had deliberately gone off the...

US Votes-Missouri : People face Billionaire +Blackmail$ on Human Embryo Genetic Manipulation=>Moral Majority shall win 2008 Election ! - Missouri simple and Honest People : we love you ! You represent the real Moral Majority, and YOU shall win at 2008 U.S. Presidential Election ! ---- - Politicians left you alone to struggle in front of a Bilionnaire paying 30 millions $ against your Christian and Moral Beliefs ; a dirty Blackmail by a BioTech lobby threatening to cancel investments if you didn't obey ; many corrupted Media, misleading Publicity even with a TV Actor used by a BioTech lobby...

KANSAS CITY, Missouri, November 6, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A massive biomedical research conglomerate has funded 97 percent of the campaign to raise voter support for the controversial Missouri bill Amendment 2, which would permit stem cell research and cloning using human embryos, according to a report by Fox News Nov. 3.Billionaire couple Jim and Virginia Stowers have directed $29 million to funding  promotion of the bill through “The Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures,” a campaign of television, radio, print and billboard ads attempting  to convince voters to support the measure at the polls November 7.   While the couple are...

My understanding of the stem cell controversy is, first of all, that there are five types of stem cells under study: 1. adult stem cells 2. cord-blood stem cells 3. embryonic stem cells from aborted fetuses 4. stem cells from laboratory embryos from harvested eggs 5. stem cells from laboratory cloned embryos. Large private investments have been made into research and application of disease cures from adult stem cells (taken from the adult to be treated) and from cord-blood stem cells (taken from the placental umbilical cord of newborns); some successful cures have been developed, and others seem close to...

A WESTERN Australian senator has written to federal MPs warning that medical advances from stem cell research are years away and consequences could include designer humans. Liberal Senator Alan Eggleston, a medical doctor who entered politics in 1996, said politicians were being rushed into enacting laws before there had been enough time to fully appreciate the implications. His warning comes ahead of next week's debate and conscience vote on private member's legislation that would allow therapeutic cloning of embryos for the purpose of creating embryonic stem cells. Scientists hope stem cell research will eventually lead to treatments or cures for...

To clone or not to clone? That’s the question. But it's not the question Missourians will be asked in November when they vote on Amendment 2. The question they will see in the voting booth is different from the actual language of the Constitutional Amendment. When you see Amendment 2 at your polling place, you will be asked to decide whether to "ban human cloning or attempted cloning." Sounds good so far, right? Who's in favor of human cloning anyway? But the 2,100-word Constitutional Amendment—which you won't see on election day—actually creates legal protection for human cloning. Hard to believe?...

I'm __________ __________ and I oppose proposition 2 for the following reasons. Stem cells are obtained from several sources, but the two in question here are umbilical cords from live births and from the remains of destroyed embryos. At this time, most umbilical cords are disposed of as medical waste. The supply of stem cells available for research and treatment can be increased 100 fold by very modest efforts of increasing the number of umbilical cords obtained for this purpose. At this time there are hundreds of successful treatments that have been accomplished with stem cells but 100% of these...

Below is an illustration from the Family Research Council to help explain the dizzying science behind embryonic stem cell research

I did search, and did not see this posted...so forgive me if it's a repost. This article explains with great clarity (even for the un-scientific among us) the issues with the upcoming vote in Missouri on Amendment 2. Forward it to MO voters you may know who need an explanation as to the issue at hand....the short 'excerpt' they will actually see on the ballot does not sound anything like the 5 page Amendment itself, and as such is misleading. Again, my apologies if this has been previously posted.

It's campaign season, which means there is plenty of mud being tossed back and forth between candidates, especially on campaign commercials. These commercials are notorious for taking complex political debates and boiling them down into misleading sound bites. This "dumbing down" of political debate is always unfortunate, but it becomes tragic when sound bites endanger the lives of vulnerable human beings. Case in point: a couple of candidates have released campaign commercials featuring Michael J. Fox. Mr. Fox, who starred in the Back to the Future movies, is suffering from Parkinson's disease, and after seeing him on TV, every decent...

ST. LOUIS, October 6, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – For the first time, a Catholic bishop in the US has come out with a strong statement clarifying the Church’s teaching on the practice of donating, or sometimes selling, human ova for medical research. Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis, a strong advocate for life and family, has published a pastoral letter in which he says unequivocally that the removal of ova for artificial reproduction, including cloning, is a grave moral evil. Referring to an upcoming ballot initiative to amend the state constitution, Archbishop Burke warned that the push to create cloned human...

Pro-life advocates in Missouri have prepared a response ad to one that actor Michael J. Fox has made in numerous states that contains misleading information about pro-life candidates and their views on stem cell research. The new ads feature St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jeff Suppan and stars Jim Caviezel of "The Passion of Christ." ... A new study by Steven Goldman and colleagues at the University of Rochester Medical Center finds embryonic stem cells cause tumors when inserted into rats that have Parkinson's. As a result, patients like Fox would likely be killed or face severe problems if treated with...