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In that regard, we call for a major expansion of support for the stem-cell research that now shows amazing promise and offers the greatest hope for scores of diseases – with adult stem cells, umbilical cord blood, and cells reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells – without the destruction of embryonic human life. We call for a ban on human cloning and for a ban on the creation of or experimentation on human embryos for research purposes

An ad has run quite a few times on the radio over the past few days, and it goes something like this. A mother’s voice says, “Eight times a day I have to test my daughter’s blood sugar, because she’s diabetic, and eight times a day I pray [her voice deepens] I pray for a cure. Obama supports stem cell research, but McCain is opposed to the stem cell research that could cure my little girl.” Wow, so many subliminal messages in one ad! Where do I begin? ... Continue Reading

Deal Hudson points out this Wired article published yesterday claiming that McCain has taken a "Sharp Right Turn on Stem Cells". Hudson credits McCain's "shift" to the tireless work of Senator Sam Brownback. I directly asked Sen. Brownback about these ongoing efforts earlier this year, and wrote-up his answer here. I think the jury is still out on this one, but judging by the reaction of pro-embryonic stem cell research scientists, I think there are more encouraging signs than before. Therefore when someone from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute says that he reads McCain's statement as a "bad omen,"...

The governing board of California's stem cell agency awarded a total of $59 million Wednesday to support the budgets of 23 young scientists and physicians throughout the state who have proposed new stem cell research projects. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, created with a $3 billion bond issue approved by voters in 2004, announced the five-year grants, bringing the total awarded by the Institute to more than $614 million. More than a third has gone to individuals and teams of scientists at 27 California universities and research institutes, ... The institute is governed by the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee,...

As one of the supposed anti-science conservatives liberals are always yammering on about, I was glad when President Bush vetoed the increase in federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. I wrote about the adult stem cell success stories, and since June of last year, there have been even more exciting treatments.

State Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, lambasted Gov. Tim Pawlenty for vetoing her stem-cell research bill (commentary, June 2). Kahn's misleading rhetoric disguises a radical and inhumane commitment to taking young human life regardless of advances in ethical research. Her bill would allow taxpayer dollars to fund University of Minnesota research that requires killing human embryos. Further, the bill legalizes human cloning in order to supply more embryos for such research. Kahn says her legislation "outlawed human cloning," but the bill explicitly authorizes "somatic cell nuclear transplantation" (SCNT), which is the technique by which cloning occurs. The National Institutes of Health...

California's stem cell institute has granted nearly $271 million to 12 universities and research centers to build new research laboratories. In 2004, Californians approved Proposition 71, a measure that created the California Institute for Regernerative Medicine, a $3 billion stem cell research agency. The institute says the new labs are needed to house the glut of researchers who flocked to the state to study stem cells. The largest grant announced Wednesday for a single campus will be $43.6 million for Stanford University. Nearly $137 million in funding will be divided between eight University of California campuses, with UC San Francisco...

Republicans find a use for stem cell research, but it gives them fear. Click the link to find out why. It's hilarious!

SHANGHAI -- Sheng Huizhen's life story is typical of immigrants who succeeded in America. After getting her PhD in biochemistry, she landed a job as a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institutes of Health. She got a green card, bought a house in Maryland and worked her way up to...the prestigious position of staff scientist. But then she moved back to China. A federal law prohibiting the use of public money for research on human embryos prevented her from doing the kind of work she wanted to do. The Chinese government enticed her to return with $875,000 for a new...

"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,...

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...

U.K., February 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "'Female sperm', 'male eggs' and 'same-sex reproduction' - whether these terms fill you with hope or disgust, a reproductive revolution is already in progress," begins a recent New Scientist report on some of the most bizarre and disturbing scientific research being conducted by stem cell scientists. "In a handful of labs across the world, biologists are trying to make genetically male cells develop into eggs, and female cells into sperm. If successful, their efforts might one day allow lesbian and gay couples to have children that are genetically their own," the report continues. Scientists...

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 bone marrow. [snip] But critics warn that it sidelines men and raises the prospect of babies being born through entirely artificial means. The research centres around stem cells - the body's 'mother' cells which can turn into any other type of cell. According to New Scientist magazine, the scientists...

DENVER (CNA) - John McCain has set his sights on Florida as the state’s primary draws closer. In a conversation with Catholics in Florida and CNA this afternoon, McCain maintained his support for embryonic stem cell research while emphasizing his hope that it will become an academic issue given the latest scientific advances. When he was asked how he reconciled his otherwise solid pro-life voting record with his support for experimentation on “surplus” embryos, Sen. McCain called his decision to back the research “a very agonizing and tough decision”. He continued, saying, “All I can say to you is that...

-- snip -- The verdict is clear: Rarely has a president -- so vilified for a moral stance -- been so thoroughly vindicated...

California Controller John Chiang on Tuesday joined a consumer group in requesting an investigation of a board member of the state's $3 billion stem-cell institute and said he will audit the institute to ensure it is spending its money appropriately. Chiang said he has asked the Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate John Reed, chief executive of the Burnham Institute of La Jolla and a board member with the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. A similar complaint was lodged against Reed last week by the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. "I want a full review," Chiang said during a...

Tuesday's announcement that scientists had found a noncontroversial way to make cells equivalent to human embryonic stem cells did not just change the scientific and ethical landscape. It generated economic and geopolitical tremors through California, New York and about half a dozen other states that have invested -- in some cases heavily -- in embryonic stem cell programs and research centers.

The scientist who helped ignite cultural and political controversy with the use of embryos in stem-cell research believes his new discovery – using ordinary adult skin cells – means the war is virtually over. "A decade from now, this will be just a funny historical footnote," James A. Thomson told the New York Times in an interview. Thomson's laboratory at the University of Wisconsin was one of two that announced Tuesday a new way to turn ordinary human skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells without using a human embryo. The technique involves adding four genes to...

A prominent member of the governing board for California's stem cell agency may have violated state conflict-of-interest rules last summer when he tried to reverse a decision rejecting a grant proposal by a scientist who works for him at the Burnham Institute of Medical Research in La Jolla (San Diego County). The miscue has prompted calls for Burnham Institute chief executive Dr. John Reed to resign from the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, the board that governs the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. "If indeed Dr. Reed has violated the law, then I think he ought to consider resigning," said Jeff...

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...

Everything about Shinya Yamanaka's discovery was right—except for the timing. The 44-year-old Kyoto University stem-cell researcher had found a way to genetically reprogram an ordinary mouse skin cell to revert to the virtual equivalent of its embryonic state, in which it has the potential to grow into any kind of tissue. The finding was a promising first step toward the creation of stem-cell lines for near-miraculous medical treatments—and because Yamanaka did not use human embryos, his technique offered researchers everywhere a way to sidestep the ethical controversies that have dogged the field since its birth. But it was March 2006,...

An Australian scientist who had worked closely with Alan Trounson, the newly named chief of California's $3 billion stem cell program, has been cited for "research misconduct" in an Australian university probe of a scuttled government-funded study. According to Australian press accounts, Trounson was never a target of the Monash University investigation, which began when data for internal progress reports by senior research fellow Yuben Moodley could not be verified with his laboratory notebooks. Moodley resigned from the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories in February, after the Australian government refused to renew funding of the experiment studying repair of...

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...

Voters say ‘no’ to more borrowing, but Dems just won’t stop Less than 24 hours after the last ballot was cast Tuesday, Trenton Democrats sent a strong message to New Jersey voters: your vote doesn’t count. One day after voters rejected plans for the state to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to support stem cell research grants, Democrats returned to the State House intent on pushing through millions in bonding for stem cell research facilities. Only after Republicans objected did the Democrats decide to cancel a hearing they had scheduled for Thursday to approve that borrowing. But despite the...

Researchers at the University of Warwick have uncovered a crucial signal that switches on eye development. This discovery will greatly assist researchers looking at stem cells connected to eye development and opens up an avenue of research that could eventually lead to an “eye in a dish”. The University of Warwick research team led by Professor Nick Dale and Professor Elizabeth Jones from the University of Warwick’s Biological Sciences Department have published their work today, 25th October 2007, in Nature in a paper entitled Purine-mediated signaling triggers eye development. The researchers were exploring whether release of ATP (an important signaling...

University of Manchester researchers have transformed fat tissue stem cells into nerve cells — and now plan to develop an artificial nerve that will bring damaged limbs and organs back to life. In a study published in October's Experimental Neurology, Dr Paul Kingham and his team at the UK Centre for Tissue Regeneration (UKCTR) isolated the stem cells from the fat tissue of adult animals and differentiated them into nerve cells to be used for repair and regeneration of injured nerves. They are now about to start a trial extracting stem cells from fat tissue of volunteer adult patients, in...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorOctober 8, 2007Stockholm, Sweden (LifeNews.com) -- Three researchers who work with controversial embryonic stem cells shared the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for their role in looking at mouse genes and using their studies to determine the human genes that cause diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Pro-life advocates oppose embryonic stem cell research on human beings because days-old unborn children must be killed to obtain their cells. They support the use of animal and adult stem cells.Americans Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies and British scientist Sir Martin Evans split the prestigious award and its prize of...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorOctober 2, 2007Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Rudy Giuliani has tried every trick in the book in order to persuade pro-life voters to consider him for the Republican nomination for president. Now a congressman with a long record of opposing abortion has labeled the former mayor pro-life and said he would have voted mostly pro-life if he had been a congressman as well.Rep. Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, says that if Giuliani were a member of Congress today, he'd be considered pro-life."In a hypothetical comparison of congressional votes, Mayor Giuliani's voting record would mirror the voting record of...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorOctober 4, 2007Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Thursday that one of her first actions if she wins the 2008 election will be reversing President Bush's protections on embryonic stem cell research. Bush has twice vetoed bills that would force taxpayers to fund the research, which requires the destruction of human life.Bush also put in place a policy in August 2001 that prevents federal funding of any new embryonic stem cell research and, instead, concentrates most federal money in the area of adult stem cells.Those are the cells that have shown the most...

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...

Stem cells that normally make sperm can be taught to make other tissues as well, perhaps offering men a medical repair kit, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday. They found a way to easily pick the cells out from other tissue in the testicles and to grow them into batches big enough to use medically. This provides a new source of stem cells, the body's master cells, which experts hope can be used to treat injuries, replace diseased tissue and perhaps even regenerate organs. Dr. Shahin Rafii of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute...

Had I not been listening to Beyond Belief one afternoon last week – ... I would never have known that some Islamic scholars believe an embryo to be a human being only after the 40th day. I almost dropped my Scotch pancake when a guest pronounced that it would be permissible, under Islam, to let a pregnancy progress to 40 days, then abort the foetus and harvest its tissue to treat a sick sibling. Neither was it dull to hear the same speaker suggest that embryologists should regard Muslim countries as liberal havens for research on the unborn. Shaykh Ibrahim...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorSeptember 6, 2007Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- While his Republican counterparts debate in New Hampshire, former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson made an appearance on a late-night television program to announce his presidential bid. After several months of waiting, Thompson told talk show host Jay Leno "I'm running for president of the United States."Following the announcements, Thompson appeared in an online video on Thursday to make the bid official and he plans to follow it up with whistle stops in early primary states starting on Tuesday in Iowa."I'm going to give this campaign all that I have to give,"...

Embryonic Stem-Cell Breakthrough Overhyped A recent announcement by biotechnology company Geron that it has repaired heart-attack damage in rats with human embryonic stem cells may have given its stock a big boost, but some people aren’t buying it. Aside from the obvious ethical issue of destroying human life to improve the health of rodents, some are calling the announcement intentionally misleading. More than two dozen studies in professional publications, some as long as four years ago, have demonstrated the promise of adult stem cells – which do not involve the destruction of a human life – in treating heart disease....

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorAugust 31, 2007Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Rudy Giuliani may be the only pro-abortion candidate on the Republican side of the presidential contest, but that doesn't mean he has the support of the nation's most prominent abortion business. A Planned Parenthood official says she doesn't necessary support the former New York City mayor.Giuliani's pro-abortion position is a stark contrast to the rest of the Republican field, which may be split on embryonic stem cell research but pretty solidly opposes abortion.Sarah Stoesz, President of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, told the pro-abortion Reality Check web site that she is...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorAugust 30, 2007Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Actor and attorney Fred Thompson announced Thursday that he will make the formal declaration next week that he is officially a candidate for the Republican nomination for president. The former Tennessee senator has said repeatedly in recent months that he opposes abortion and embryonic stem cell research.In a statement he released today, Thompson said, "I believe that there are millions of Americans who know that our security and prosperity are at risk if we don't address the challenges of our time."The official announcement will come in a video broadcast on his...

It's been a rocky start for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and now the departure of its top scientist illustrates the difficulty it has had coming to terms with issues of politics, compensation and governance. Voters approved Proposition 71 in 2004, creating the institute and authorizing it to pump nearly $300 million a year in bond money into the state's research laboratories. The institute first had to break free of two years of lawsuits challenging its constitutionality. Then in April, President Zach Hall abruptly announced his resignation after a stormy meeting with the group that oversees the agency, the...

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...

Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Blasted for Support of Embryonic Stem Cell Research WASHINGTON, D.C., August 29, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "It is ludicrous." That was the reaction of Douglas R. Scott, Jr., president of Life Decisions International (LDI), to a statement by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (L&LS) in defense of its support for embryonic stem cell experimentation. LDI, which publishes a list of corporations that fund the abortion-committing group Planned Parenthood, recently updated the "Dishonorable Mention" section of The Boycott List. The section identifies nonprofit organizations that "are linked to Planned Parenthood and/or its agenda." Like Planned Parenthood, L&LS actively...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorAugust 28, 2007Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is getting heat from a pro-life organization because it backs embryonic stem cell research that requires the destruction of human life. The crux of the debate between the groups revolves around a letter LLS signed in favor of a bill to require taxpayer funding of the research.After learning that the Planned Parenthood watchdog group Life Decisions International had LLS to a group of charities pro-life advocates should boycott, a pro-life advocate wrote the organization.LLS spokesman Doug Lubbers wrote to the pro-life person, saying "This is a...

Canadian Diabetes Association Supports Embryonic Stem Cell Research By John-Henry Westen TORONTO, August 23, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An official response from the Canadian Diabetes Association indicates the funding organization is in complete support of using human embryos in destructive research. The Canadian Diabetes Association is the country's foremost organization disseminating information to Canadians on the disease. Its mission is to "promote the health of Canadians through diabetes research, education, service and advocacy." The Association distributes government funding to researchers A reply to a query by LifeSiteNews.com elicited an emailed response from "Susan" at the Canadian Diabetes Association Contact Centre who...

California Company: We'll Turn Your Child's Sibling Embryos Into Extra Body Parts No evidence to support claims that stem cells from these embryos can offer any treatment By Hilary White A California-based biotechnology company, StemLifeLine, is making a special offer to parents of children conceived through in vitro fertilisation techniques: "We'll turn your spare embryos into embryonic stem cell lines tailored to your child's potential future medical needs." StemCellLifeLine's website calls it "a novel service for individuals who have undergone in vitro fertilization, fulfilled their childbearing needs and now have to decide what to do with their remaining stored embryos....

Michigan Pro-Abortion Governor Removes Pro-Embryonic Stem Cell Research Petition After Pro-Life Lawsuit ANN ARBOR, MI, August 20, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Michigan Governor Jenifer Granholm's office confirmed that it has removed their petition supporting embryonic stem cell research from the Governor's publicly funded website. The Governor's action came less than a week after the Thomas More Law Center filed a federal lawsuit asking the court to either ban the petition or allow pro-life groups to place their own petition supporting the ban on embryonic stem cell research on the website as well. Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law...

Despite his “pro-life” campaign pitch, former Gov. Mitt Romney owns stock in two companies involved in embryonic stem cell research, a controversial field of study he previously cited as the reason for his rightward shift on abortion. Romney holds stock in the biomedical firms Novo Nordisk and Millipore Corp., both of which use human embryos to research cures for chronic diseases, records show. Many conservatives fiercely oppose the research because it destroys the embryos in the process. “I believe (pulling the investments) is a step he should take,” said Mildred Jefferson, president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life. “I do believe...

Knights of Columbus Pass Resolution to Prohibit Pro-Abortion Politicians from Knights-Sponsored Events By Elizabeth O'BrienNASHVILLE, August 13, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At the Knights of Columbus 125th annual convention this week, the Order officially resolved to forbid pro-abortion politicians from attending their events. The Order also renewed its support for the traditional definition of marriage and called for the protection of conscience for people in the medical field. During the final session of the Knights of Columbus convention at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel on August 9, delegates passed the pro-life resolution, stating, "we reaffirm our long-standing policy of not inviting to...

Michigan Governor Sued For Discrimination Against Citizens Who Oppose Embryonic Research ANN ARBOR, MI, August 10, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced this week that it has filed a federal lawsuit against Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm for discrimination against citizens who oppose embryonic stem research. The Governor currently allows private citizens to use the Office of the Governor website to submit a petition posted on the website addressed to Michigan's legislature leaders to lift Michigan's legal restrictions on stem cell research. The lawsuit was brought on...

(SHANGHAI)--The parents of a teenage boy who died after major heart surgery are suing Shanghai East Hospital, accusing it of working with a German partner to test new medical treatments. Shanghai Xuhui District People's Court held the first hearings into the matter this week. Zhang Shengfu, the attorney representing the parents, told China Daily that the Shanghai East Hospital implanted the 13-year-old Zhou Yiqing with an artificial heart not approved by the country's food and drug administration. It is alleged hospital surgeons conducted a heart transplant using a donor heart that was not compatible, and did stem cell and muscle...

Seoul, South Korea (LifeNews.com) -- About 18 months ago, the world discovered that the amazing progress South Korean embryonic stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-suk supposedly made was entirely bogus. However, scientists reviewing his work say that he did have some achievements despite faking much of his research. Hwang's team claimed to have been the first to clone a human embryo and to create patient specific embryonic stem cells. The claims were big news because they could have represented an advance that would have combated one of the key problems of embryonic stem cell research -- that a person's immune system...

Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) -- It's Ames or bust for former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson. The former Bush administration official, who opposes abortion but backs embryonic stem cell research funding, says that a poor showing in the August straw poll could cause him to drop out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination.‘‘It’s the ballgame for me,’’ Thompson said at a weekend meeting with the Johnson County Republican Party. "I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think I could win." Thompson said that if he doesn't place first or second in the Ames vote, which polls make it...

Brussels, Belgium (LifeNews.com) -- A group of scientists is calling on European Union member nations -- specifically Germany and Italy -- to stop threatening researchers with prison sentences if they conduct embryonic stem cell research. Both nations have bans on any scientific studies that involve the destruction of human life. Scientists from the two major European-funded stem cell research consortia EuroStemCell and ESTOOLS sent a letter to members of the European Parliament on Friday. They are complaining that research projects that are legal in Sweden and the UK can result in a three year prison sentence in Germany. "This incongruency...