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Articles of Interest

Commentaries:

Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) advances

  • The Bioethics Defense Fund provides answers to some common claims about induced pluripotent stem cells from proponents of embryonic stem cell research.
  • Father Thomas Berg has an article discussing the importance of studies which show adult cells can be reprogrammed to have the properties of embryonic stem cells.

Adult stem cell advances

  • Investor's Business Daily has an editorial focusing on how tax dollars in California orginally slated for embryonic stem cell research is now being used on adult stem cell research because adult stem cells are more likely to be used to treat patients.
  • Michael Fumento discusses how breakthroughs in adult stem cell research are too often ignored by the American media.

Challenges with using embryonic stem cells in human patients

  • James Sherley, a MIT adult stem cell researcher, shares some of the problems with human cloning and embryonic stem cell research. 
  • Dr. David Prentice discusses some of the problems with embryonic stem cells and some of the uses of adult stem cells in the Journal of Investigative Medicine.

Human Cloning

Legislation

Ethical problems with embryonic stem cells

  • Robert George discusses embryo ethics and human embryos are "undeniably whole living members of the species Homo Sapiens."
  • Father Thomas Berg writes about a company called StemLifeLine which is offering parents of frozen embryos the opportunity to create "personal stem cell lines."
  • Mark Blocher discusses some problems with arguments made in favor of embryonic stem cell research.

News Story Archive:

  • Aug. 18, 2009 - The Food and Drug Administration has ordered a delay in Geron Corporation's first-ever trial using human embryonic stem cells. The delay is the latest in a long series of false starts for the planned trial.
  • June 26, 2009 - The Empire State Stem Cell Board has decided to allow researchers to use New York state tax dollars to entice women into “donating” their eggs.
  • Feb. 17, 2009 - The AP reported that an Israeli boy who traveled to Russia for a “highly experimental” treatment with neural stem cells was diagnosed with tumors on his brain stem and spinal cord. The neural stem cells were taken from several aborted human fetuses.
  • Feb. 2, 2009 - Experiments mixing human and animal DNA to create hybrid creatures have all failed, said Dr. Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology in Massachusetts. Scientists hoped to create human-animal hybrids to harvest stem cells for patients, but none of the creatures survived long enough to extract stem cells.
  • Nov. 27, 2008 - The European Patent Office rejected a patent in Europe for a method of obtaining embryonic stem cells. The EPO's appeals board said “it is not possible to grant a patent for an invention which necessarily involves the use and destruction of human embryos." The decision is based on European Union and European Patent Convention provisions.
  • Sept. 21, 2008 - The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports from the 2008 World Stem Cell Summit that the two companies co-founded by stem cell pioneer Dr. James Thomson have merged and shifted away from embryonic stem cells to iPS cells.
  • Aug. 18, 2008 - U.S. News & World Report has a story on a Stanford study showing that using human embryonic stem cells in mice triggered immune system responses. It could be a big roadblock in using embryonic stem cells in humans.
  • Nov. 16, 2007 - The Telegraph features an article about how Ian Wilmut is quitting his attempts to create a cloned human embryo.  Wilmut is the scientist whose research team created Dolly, a cloned sheep, using the cloning technique somatic cell nuclear transfer. In the article Wilmut notes he quit his attempts at human cloning because the process of reprogramming adult cells to have the same capacities as embryonic stem cells shows more potential.


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