By Paul Stark In 2013, researchers at Oregon Health & Science University announced a major scientific breakthrough. They had, for the first time, successfully derived stem cells from cloned human embryos. Today, the creation and destruction of cloned embryos takes place in several laboratories around the country. Few people are aware of this research, the …
Continue reading "The reality of human cloning"By Wesley J. Smith We live in very unethical times. The human cloning fraudster, Hwang Woo-suk, has hit it big with a new stem cell startup. From the AAAS story: The scientist who once fraudulently claimed to have created embryonic stem cells matched to human patients and the one who really did it plan …
Continue reading "Human Cloning Fraud Pays"By Wesley J. Smith Pro embryo-destructive research activists are often so irrational. They claim than an embryo isn’t an embryo but merely a “bunch of cells.” Well, for the reductionist minded, so are they. They claim that an embryo is no different than the cells you kill when you brush your teeth. But embryos …
Continue reading "Embryo Value Debated in Europe Too"By Michael Cook After a couple of years in hibernation, the notion of “therapeutic cloning” is once again in the headlines. The latest development comes from Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a Russian-educated researcher at Oregon Health and Science University. In a paper in Nature, his team reports that they have successfully created embryonic stem cells using …
Continue reading "“Therapeutic cloning” back on the boil"By Wesley J. Smith. I have long believed and argued that stem cell research is merely the opening stanza of a longer planned biotechnological symphony. What “the scientists” are really after is a reliable way to conduct human cloning. Without cloning, and you might get effective medical treatments from all kinds of stem cells–both …
Continue reading "Mouse cloning advance raises specter of human cloning"By Wesley J. Smith Buried deep in an encouraging story about another advance in turning skin cells into stem cells, we see more evidence of biotechnology’s ultimate human cloning goal. First, the good news. An acid bath may be able to replace viruses in transforming skin cells into stem cells that can become any …
Continue reading "The Human Cloning Goal Behind Stem Cell Cures"By Wesley J. Smith The embryonic stem cell and human cloning research debates are not “science” arguments, but rather, disputes over proper ethics in the pursuit of science. Supporters of ESCR think it isn’t wrong to destroy embryos for use in research. Opponents disagree and also suggest that it would be great if ways were …
Continue reading "Not Wrong to Fund Research Based on Ethics"By Wesley J. Smith The mainstream media–under the influence of spin from “the scientists”–has been playing a game of hide-the-ball about the recent first human cloning success. For example, the LA Times threw a lot of dirt in the air by calling the success merely an “incremental step” toward human cloning. No. It. Was. Human …
Continue reading "Human Cloning Obfuscation 7: No Spin in Science Journals"By Wesley J. Smith Thanks to Brendan P. Foht, over at The Corner, for showing that it was misleading to claim that SCNT [somatic cell nuclear transfer] human cloning could not lead to a human pregnancy because there have been no successful cloned monkey pregnancies. But there have been cloned monkey pregnancies, with one embryo …
Continue reading "Human Cloning Obfuscation 5: Monkey Cloned Pregnancy"By Wesley J. Smith The junk biology is flying in the media’s descriptions of the now accomplished human cloning. This next example comes from the Wall Street Journal’s Gautam Naik. From the ridiculously titled, “Experiment Brings Human Cloning One Step Closer:” Scientists have used cloning technology to transform human skin cells into embryonic stem cells, …
Continue reading "Cloning Obfuscation 2 [and 3 & 4]"By Paul Stark On Wednesday the journal Cell published research from a group of scientists (most of them from Oregon Health and Science University) indicating that they successfully derived stem cells from cloned human embryos. This breakthrough—after years of technical difficulties that stalled cloning efforts—should refresh the many ethical concerns regarding the enterprise of human …
Continue reading "New breakthrough in human cloning should recall ethical problems"By Dave Andrusko When last we visited the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the CIRM was under tremendous pressure to become more “accountable” and more “transparent,” especially when it came to what pro-life bioethicist Wesley Smith has called “institutional back scratching.” In case you’ve missed our many stories about CIRM, it was established after voters …
Continue reading "California Institute of Regenerative Medicine not reforming itself enough, or fast enough, panel says"