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A bill to further restrict abortion in Oklahoma and another to make embryonic stem cell research illegal both cleared a House committee on Wednesday, despite concerns from a doctor on the panel. While activists gathered at the Capitol for the annual anti-abortion Rose Day rally, the House Public Health Committee voted mostly along party lines to approve both bills. An exception was Rep. Doug Cox, a Grove Republican and an emergency room physician who opposed both measures. One bill would increase from 24 to 72 hours the amount of time a woman must wait before receiving an abortion after receiving...

CHATOM, Ala. — Every now and then, Timothy J. Atchison thinks he feels a little something when rubbing his legs. But he knows to temper any feelings of excitement or optimism. Left paralyzed from the chest down after a car crash last fall, the baby-faced 21-year-old reminds himself that it could be simply phantom feelings. A lot rides on his immobile legs — they carry the hopes and dreams of tens of thousands of severely injured people. Atchison is Patient A, the formerly anonymous person who volunteered to have embryonic stem cells injected into his spine. It was the first...

NIH Director Francis Collins has added two more lines of human embryonic stem cells to its Registry, bringing the current total to 93 lines approved for federal funding. Approval for listing in the NIH registry allows federal taxpayer funds to be used for experiments with these cells, creating an incentive for investigators to destroy more embryos and bring their own embryonic stem cell lines to the federal feeding trough. The two hESC lines are from BioTime, Inc., which designates them ESI-014 and ESI-017. According to the listing, the embryonic stem cells cannot be used for diagnostic or therapeutic uses. Collins...

Obama's Forcing Taxpayers to Fund Embryonic Research Gets Hearing Washington, DC -- A federal appeals court held a hearing on Monday in a lawsuit filed seeking to overturn the executive order President Barack Obama issued forcing taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research. http://LifeNews.com/bio-3227

Latest on Embryonic Stem Cell Research Battles Court to Hear Lawsuit on Obama's Embryonic Stem Cell Funds http://LifeNews.com/bio-3223 Bill to Expand Obama's Embryonic Stem Cell Funds Appears Dead http://LifeNews.com/bio-3222

Firm Claims First Patient Treated With Embryonic Stem Cells, Not The Case Washington, DC -- Geron Corporation, a California-based firm that conducts embryonic stem cell research and has a history of making dubious announcements to see a boost in its stock price and reputation, is apparently at it again. The firm has announced it has treated the first patient with embryonic stem cells, but that's not actually the case. http://LifeNews.com/bio3194.html

Firm Claims First Patient Treated With Embryonic Stem Cells, Not The Case Washington, DC -- Geron Corporation, a California-based firm that conducts embryonic stem cell research and has a history of making dubious announcements to see a boost in its stock price and reputation, is apparently at it again. The firm has announced it has treated the first patient with embryonic stem cells, but that's not actually the case. http://LifeNews.com/bio3194.html

In a continuing tradition begun in 1972, the Roman Catholic Bishops of the United States have celebrated each October as Respect Life Month, commencing with a sermon on respect for human life, from conception to natural death, on the first Sunday of October. So it was this Sunday, in Catholic parishes all over America, one of the rare times in which not only the liturgy but the sermon as well enjoy thematic unity across the country. Now, this is a political site, not a theological one – and I’m a political writer, not a theologian – so don’t be afraid;...

Appeals Court Allows Obama to Fund Embryonic Stem Cell Research Washington, DC -- A federal appeals court has lifted the injunction a federal judge put in place stopping President Barack Obama from forcing taxpayers to finance unproven embryonic stem cell research while scientists continue with their lawsuit against the funding. http://LifeNews.com/bio3185.html

... Human embryonic stem cell research is the $10,000 toilet seat of the 21st century. Years ago, science created a cell that appears to be, in the words of an MIT study published last month, "virtually identical" to an embryonic stem cell but is cheaper, promises better compatibility to patients and kills no embryos. These new induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) "do all the things embryonic stem cells do," explains the father of human embryonic stem cells James Thomson. Harvard's David Scadden agrees that iPSC technology "is absolutely changing the field." IPSCs "perhaps even eliminate the need for human embryos...

A U.S. Appeals court on Thursday temporarily lifted a judge's ban on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research until it rules on the merits of the Obama administration's argument against the ban. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled last month that embryonic stem cell research violated federal law because it involved destroying human embryos. The Obama administration claimed that the ban would set back key research and cost more than a thousand jobs -- an argument that Lamberth rejected on Tuesday -- but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed Tuesday to lift...

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge has turned down the Justice Department's request to temporarily delay his order that could shut down federal funding for some stem cell research. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth on Tuesday turned down federal officials' request for a stay. Lamberth blocked federal dollars from going to certain stem cell research on grounds the research could violate a law prohibiting use of taxpayer dollars in work that destroys a human embryo. ...

Thursday September 2, 2010 Obama Justice Dept Seeks Stay of Order Nixing NIH Embryonic Stem Cell Funding By Peter J. Smith   WASHINGTON, D.C., September 2, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The U.S. Justice Department is requesting a federal judge stay his order stopping the National Institute of Health’s embryo-destroying stem-cell research pending an appeal, saying that cutting off the money to scientists would harm their research efforts.   Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled last week that embryonic stem cell research projects funded by the NIH violate the Dickey-Wicker amendment, which prohibits...

Monday August 30, 2010 Congressmen Seek to Undermine Embryonic Stem Cell Ruling by Changing Law Senate aide: codifying Obama order "wouldn't do the trick" By Kathleen GilbertWASHINGTON, D.C., August 30, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Members in both chambers of U.S. Congress are angling to alter federal law in order to undermine a district court judge's temporary injunction that effectively puts a stop to the onset of taxpayer-funded embryonic stem-cell research.U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ruled last Monday that Obama's March 2009 Executive Order, which permitted public funds for the research involving the destruction of embryonic human beings, directly conflicted with...

A federal judge on Monday issued a temporary ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, sidetracking President Barack Obama’s executive order which had expanded federal funding for human stem cell research last year. U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled that the order, which Obama signed in March 2009, violated a federal law that prohibits the use of federal funds for research practices that result in the destruction of a human embryo. According to the ruling, the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, which Congress passed in 1996, clearly prohibits the use of federal funds for stem cell research, regardless of...

A federal judge temporarily blocked the Obama administration Monday from using federal dollars to fund expanded human embryonic stem cell research, saying the research involves the destruction of embryos. The ruling comes after the National Institutes of Health last year issued new guidelines permitting federal funding for research on certain stem cell lines that had already been created. ... U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that despite attempts to separate the derivation of human embryonic stem cells from the research process, "the two cannot be separated" because culling those stem cells destroys an embryo. ...

Tuesday August 3, 2010 Mainstream Media Recognizes Adult Stem Cell Research Far Ahead Of Embryonic By Thaddeus M. BaklinskiWASHINGTON, DC, August 3, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Following an announcement on Friday by U.S. biotech firm Geron Corp. that it received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration to carry out clinical trials using stem cells derived from human embryos, the mainstream media has been awash in stories that acknowledge the success of adult stem cell treatments, and the absence of any positive results from embryonic stem cell research.AP reported the fact that adult stem cells have the ability not only...

FDA OKs First Embryonic Stem Cell Research Trial on Humans, Despite Concerns Washington, DC -- The Obama administration has approved the bid by cloning company Geron to undertake the first trial involving the use of embryonic stem cells in humans. They have never been used before in people because the cells cause tumors and have immune system rejection issues when tried in animals. http://LifeNews.com/bio3137.html

by John F. Di Leo How do you best judge the strength of a challenger, when the race isn't "important" enough to have national interest and national polling? Sometimes a single negative flyer can reveal all. In the quiet, Republican northwest suburbs of Chicago recently represented by Rep. Philip M. Crane and the late Bernie "No New Taxes" Pedersen - roughly Palatine, Inverness, and South Barrington, Illinois - the Republican state representative for the past decade or so has been Suzie Bassi, a moderate who moved up to the general assembly from a school board. Like hundreds - or perhaps...

The Obama administration on Wednesday approved the first human embryonic stem cells for experiments by federally funded scientists under a new policy designed to dramatically expand government support for one of the most promising but also most contentious fields of biomedical research. The National Institutes of Health authorized 11 lines of cells produced by scientists at the Children's Hospital in Boston and two lines created by researchers at the Rockefeller University in New York. All were obtained from embryos left over by couples seeking treatment for infertility.